Baumhaus’ Phil Dickens divulges the trade secrets used by the majority of successful retailers in the UK, continuing with a look at the importance of in-store displays.
So where are we? You have a superb window display. You have designed the floor layout of your shop to maximise the time the customer spends there. So, now we need to design some displays to die for – what the experts call ‘elements of effective visual merchandising’, by the way!
Work your eye-level displays
Here I want you to look at supermarkets. Why? Because supermarkets make everyone else look like amateurs when it comes to using the psychology of shopping to increase sales. And their key weapon of choice? Eye-level displays – that is, eye-level and just below eye-level.
Experiments have shown that when we walk down an aisle, we often look only at the shelves that are level with our eyes. As a furniture retailer, this makes your life a little tricky because furniture sits on the floor. But if you sell accessories, you could be quids-in!
Walk round your shop and make a note of all the opportunities you have to create eye-level displays – this could mean adding wall-shelves or simply getting taller display stands. Then position your most profitable items at eye-level. It’s that simple!
One other thing – next time you visit Tesco, have a walk down the food aisle and you will see that every eye-level shelf is bursting with the Finest range, while the cheap stuff – the value beans at tuppence a tin - go on the floor! You will find the tuppence beans if you are looking for them, but they will never be an impulse buy!
Understand triangular balance
This is really clever – but first here’s the psychology bit. Triangular balance is used everywhere by some of the largest and most successful retailers, and it’s very effective. It works on the psychological principle that your eye will always go to the centre of a picture and work outwards to the right.
But what does this mean to you as a retailer? Well, the same psychological principle applies to your displays. Your customer will always look at the centre of your display first. So put your biggest, tallest item with the highest profit margin right in the centre – at eye-level, of course!
This will be the focal point of your display. Put the second most profitable item to its right, and the third most profitable to its left. Then work outwards, positioning your lowest profit-margin items on the top and bottom shelves.
A quick word of caution, however – don’t put items next to each other simply because of their profit margins. They have to look attractive next to each other too – because if they don’t, triangular balance won’t work!
Use asymmetrical displays
Did you know that the majority of people find asymmetrical displays far more attractive than ones that are symmetrical? Have a look at architecture (I know it seems a bit removed from retailing, but bear with me).
An architect will never build a square house with four windows – just have a look at these new housing estates. Instead, they will create an asymmetrical house by adding bay windows, different roof levels, varying window sizes, and sometimes an L-shape. This is because people like asymmetry – it adds character and interest.
The same applies to your displays. So make sure you cluster items of different shapes and sizes – it encourages your customer to explore!
Roomsets, roomsets and more roomsets!
Roomsets are a neat trick because they appeal to both men’s and women’s shopping habits – men like finding everything they need in one place, and women like to envisage something in their home. If you look at Marks & Spencer, they are great at this technique. Let’s take one of their dining room sets – the dining furniture they are selling is beautifully dressed. Then, in the displays surrounding the dining table, are all the accessories used in the roomset.
The double whammy of roomsets is that they can really increase your cross-selling opportunities. For example, if one of your customers is redecorating her dining room, and visits you to buy some new plates, but also sees the plates sitting on a lovely set of table mats, she is going to be tempted. Bingo.
Co-ordinate your colours
Have you been into Homebase lately? They recently overhauled the way they display their accessories, and it has been a staggering success. You would hope so, because they spend millions trying to understand their buyers’ shopping habits!
But you can replicate the secret of their success, and it’s quite a simple principle. They have stopped displaying items by type – lights in one area, cushions in another and so on. Instead, they now group items by colour scheme.
Let’s step back a bit and understand why this is so successful. Your customer is most likely buying furniture and accessories because they are redecorating. They visit you to buy a coffee table, and are confronted with a whole range of co-ordinated furniture, in one display, which matches the coffee table and would finish off their room perfectly.
They go in for a coffee table, and decide to buy a matching lamp table as well. An absolute killer strategy! If they had just gone to the section containing coffee tables, the likelihood is that they would have only left with a coffee table. As far as cross-selling goes, you would be struggling to beat this one! Another bonus is that you can use this strategy in conjunction with your roomsets.
Ditch the clutter
I know the temptation is to put everything you have on display, but this can actually put off customers. The old adage ‘less is more’ demonstrates this perfectly. There is a fine balance between getting rid of clutter and leaving your displays too bare. As a rule of thumb, if you can see everything in the display, it has been decluttered enough.
Revamp your point-of-sale
Keep the area by your tills clear so that you have ample room to work, but also use the point-of-sale as another opportunity to sell! While you process your customers’ purchases, they are pinned down and will use the time to peruse what is around them. A simple but effective measure is to surround them with items that are likely to be impulse buys, and these are usually your cheaper products.
So where are we? You have a superb window display. You have designed the floor layout of your shop to maximise the time the customer spends there. So, now we need to design some displays to die for – what the experts call ‘elements of effective visual merchandising’, by the way!
Work your eye-level displays
Here I want you to look at supermarkets. Why? Because supermarkets make everyone else look like amateurs when it comes to using the psychology of shopping to increase sales. And their key weapon of choice? Eye-level displays – that is, eye-level and just below eye-level.
Experiments have shown that when we walk down an aisle, we often look only at the shelves that are level with our eyes. As a furniture retailer, this makes your life a little tricky because furniture sits on the floor. But if you sell accessories, you could be quids-in!
Walk round your shop and make a note of all the opportunities you have to create eye-level displays – this could mean adding wall-shelves or simply getting taller display stands. Then position your most profitable items at eye-level. It’s that simple!
One other thing – next time you visit Tesco, have a walk down the food aisle and you will see that every eye-level shelf is bursting with the Finest range, while the cheap stuff – the value beans at tuppence a tin - go on the floor! You will find the tuppence beans if you are looking for them, but they will never be an impulse buy!
Understand triangular balance
This is really clever – but first here’s the psychology bit. Triangular balance is used everywhere by some of the largest and most successful retailers, and it’s very effective. It works on the psychological principle that your eye will always go to the centre of a picture and work outwards to the right.
But what does this mean to you as a retailer? Well, the same psychological principle applies to your displays. Your customer will always look at the centre of your display first. So put your biggest, tallest item with the highest profit margin right in the centre – at eye-level, of course!
This will be the focal point of your display. Put the second most profitable item to its right, and the third most profitable to its left. Then work outwards, positioning your lowest profit-margin items on the top and bottom shelves.
A quick word of caution, however – don’t put items next to each other simply because of their profit margins. They have to look attractive next to each other too – because if they don’t, triangular balance won’t work!
Use asymmetrical displays
Did you know that the majority of people find asymmetrical displays far more attractive than ones that are symmetrical? Have a look at architecture (I know it seems a bit removed from retailing, but bear with me).
An architect will never build a square house with four windows – just have a look at these new housing estates. Instead, they will create an asymmetrical house by adding bay windows, different roof levels, varying window sizes, and sometimes an L-shape. This is because people like asymmetry – it adds character and interest.
The same applies to your displays. So make sure you cluster items of different shapes and sizes – it encourages your customer to explore!
Roomsets, roomsets and more roomsets!
Roomsets are a neat trick because they appeal to both men’s and women’s shopping habits – men like finding everything they need in one place, and women like to envisage something in their home. If you look at Marks & Spencer, they are great at this technique. Let’s take one of their dining room sets – the dining furniture they are selling is beautifully dressed. Then, in the displays surrounding the dining table, are all the accessories used in the roomset.
The double whammy of roomsets is that they can really increase your cross-selling opportunities. For example, if one of your customers is redecorating her dining room, and visits you to buy some new plates, but also sees the plates sitting on a lovely set of table mats, she is going to be tempted. Bingo.
Co-ordinate your colours
Have you been into Homebase lately? They recently overhauled the way they display their accessories, and it has been a staggering success. You would hope so, because they spend millions trying to understand their buyers’ shopping habits!
But you can replicate the secret of their success, and it’s quite a simple principle. They have stopped displaying items by type – lights in one area, cushions in another and so on. Instead, they now group items by colour scheme.
Let’s step back a bit and understand why this is so successful. Your customer is most likely buying furniture and accessories because they are redecorating. They visit you to buy a coffee table, and are confronted with a whole range of co-ordinated furniture, in one display, which matches the coffee table and would finish off their room perfectly.
They go in for a coffee table, and decide to buy a matching lamp table as well. An absolute killer strategy! If they had just gone to the section containing coffee tables, the likelihood is that they would have only left with a coffee table. As far as cross-selling goes, you would be struggling to beat this one! Another bonus is that you can use this strategy in conjunction with your roomsets.
Ditch the clutter
I know the temptation is to put everything you have on display, but this can actually put off customers. The old adage ‘less is more’ demonstrates this perfectly. There is a fine balance between getting rid of clutter and leaving your displays too bare. As a rule of thumb, if you can see everything in the display, it has been decluttered enough.
Revamp your point-of-sale
Keep the area by your tills clear so that you have ample room to work, but also use the point-of-sale as another opportunity to sell! While you process your customers’ purchases, they are pinned down and will use the time to peruse what is around them. A simple but effective measure is to surround them with items that are likely to be impulse buys, and these are usually your cheaper products.
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