Understanding how to merchandise effectively is a challenge for most retailers. What seems simple to customers is not so simple for retailers, especially when you are the one who plans and executes each product on shelves, to look enticing. Do you know how long it takes for a shopper to figure out if they want to make purchases or not? Five minutes. It takes the shopper that long to receive the first impression of your store to make decisions on shopping. To entice shoppers, you need to visually approach store shelves to the maximum with planogram software. Planograms are visual merchandising tools that help retailers plan and execute product shelves effectively to boost retail sales. So, the following are some visual merchandising rules every retailer should follow in their stores to entice shoppers:
- The golden triangle and right traffic rule: The merchandising law of the ‘golden triangle’ indicates placing the most popular, best-selling, and enticing products in the farthest corner of your store. For example, most supermarkets always place consumer goods like eggs, bread, and butter towards the end of the store to force shoppers to walk through the whole store to get there. This increases the shopper’s chances of grabbing other items on the way. Likewise, checkout counters are considered the most profitable, hotspot areas of the store. Products like snacks, candies, toys, magazines, or gift cards can be placed to increase impulse buying.
- Keep displays focused: A strategic visual merchandising display is the one that focuses on one product or a group of similar products. Putting too many diverse items on the same product display can result in confusing the customer. For example, if you want to put the newest clothing on display to boost sales, consider also displaying matching accessories such as jewelry and footwear. This helps to improve the store’s performance and boost retail sales.
- Change the displays monthly: The one common mistake every retailer makes is leaving their displays for entire seasons or months. Even if a particular product display has performed well beyond the expectations of retailers, it will eventually fall off due to the lack of engagement among customers. Your customers will grow tired of seeing the same product displays every day and result in thinking that you have no recent products on store shelves. So, changing the displays at least monthly can entice your customers to visit your store and make purchases.
- Group in threes: Retailers can prompt customers to purchase items by using the rule of three to maximize sales. Displaying three items that are symmetrical gives the shoppers a sense of balance, causing the item to stand out from others. For example, most stores use a larger item in the center of the store to draw attention. The rule of three also allows for comparison between products, as well as provide a way to display product groupings that can be purchased together. For instance, apparel stores display a variety of sizes of clothing to create awareness of the different size’s available in the store.
- Use color blocking: Retailers can use enticing color blocking on the shelves to attract shoppers. It is proven method to create emotion and mood, both positive and negative for the customer. For example, most stores use warm and bright colors such as white, orange, yellow, and blue during summer to highlight their products and store layout. This will help improve your store’s performance and boost sales.
Therefore, retailers can successfully merchandise their product shelves with the help of visual merchandising. This allows shoppers to get the right products on store shelves and creates an enjoyable shopping experience.
