Enticing your customers to part with their money and buy the items you’re selling is probably the most important part of retailing. Appealing to your customers is the hard part though, it depends on what you’re selling, the price and also where and how you sell it to customers. Product placement in retail is much more than just putting items in places that look right or fitting items into slots in the store.
There’s certainly a definite science behind where products should be placed in-store. It goes without saying that an engaging and eye-catching display will not only attract customers, but it will help them part with their pennies and make that all-important purchase. Without a high-quality display, your items simply won’t sell, no matter how hard you try. Where and how you position a product in-store can either send your sales through the roof or do the complete opposite.
If you’re lucky enough to have a big shop window then your job is almost done, with the use of creative visual merchandising and mannequins even the most simple of items can be made to jump out at the consumer if they’re displayed in a way that tells a story. If you’re lacking a window display, then it’s down to how you present, build and design your items in-store to create an attractive setting for your story.
Understanding the Customer Journey
To do this you need to understand your customer’s behaviour. Where certain types of items should be placed within a store comes down to how your customers think and act when in your store, how do they move when they’re in your store, is there a set path or a certain display they have to walk past to get through your store? If so, by placing a display right in your customer’s pathway is a great way to attract their attention. Put yourself in the shoes of your customers and walk through the in-store customer journey, what focal points stand out when they walk through the door, find one focal point and you’ve found a place to display your money-making products. If you don’t have a focal point, you need to think about creating a focal point to your store.
Product Placement is Everything
Holding a sale, but not getting anywhere? Product placement is the key! If your focal point has been taken up with your money-making money products, then you need to look at your original displays to determine where best to place your sale items. Where else grabs your customers attention, what’s the first display they see when they walk in-store? The first thing they see tends to be the thing they’re most likely to remember – this is the place to set up your sale rack. Use the word sale to grab the attention of your customers, everyone loves a sale, so by displaying a sign that clearly shows that you’re holding a sale will make passers-by want to come in-store. Make sure your sale sign is clear, in-keeping with your shop and forms part of your product display. As we said before, everyone loves a sale or getting money off a product so don’t be afraid to go bold and make it stand out.
Go back to the customer journey, the shopping experience doesn’t end when you leave the store. So, think about the till line, by placing smaller items around the till and queuing area gives customers something to look at whilst their queuing. If they pick it up and like it, the chances are if they’re already spending money with you they won’t mind parting with a few extra pounds. We’ve all ended up purchasing things like socks, hair bands, sweets, make-up, stationery, chewing gum and travel-size toiletries at the checkout, even when we didn’t need them.
Here at Valentino’s Displays, we have a range of retail fitting and display equipment, for more information about our range email info@valentinosdisplays.com.