Visual Merchandising in Retail: Boost Your Sales

In retail stores and supermarkets, there are several strategies employed to capture customers’ attention and make them purchase an item. These processes involve arranging and setting the display windows, lighting and design, music, and product displays exciting.

Besides compelling consumers to buy products, visual merchandising display techniques also present numerous advantages, such as improving the shopper experience, increasing the aesthetic appeal of stores, and enhancing brand image.

This blog post discusses everything you need to know about fascinating consumers with retail merchandising display techniques. 

What is Visual Merchandising in Retail?

Visual merchandising refers to the marketing practice employed by retailers to attract and keep shoppers’ attention. It involves arranging, displaying, and promoting items in such a way that raises the chance of consumers purchasing them. 

Visual merchandising became popular in the 19th century when window displays were used to lure customers into department stores. In modern times, visual merchandising encompasses techniques that not only attract people to the store but also enable brands to sell more products in-store.

In retail visual merchandising, several factors, such as space, focal point, and design colors, are carefully considered to select the best option that increases sales and provides a stimulating, interactive experience for consumers.

Key Elements and Principles of Effective Visual Merchandising

It is important to learn the basic elements and principles before looking at different types of displays.

Focal Points: Clear focal points in your store guide customers to the main products or promotions. You can do this by choosing where to place products, how to light the scene, or by using special props.

Lighting: Proper lighting is not limited to providing light. It involves myriad types of lighting, such as ambient (general), task (functional, like highlighting details), and accent (mood-set lighting), with the intent of enhancing products and the feel of the entire store.

Color Strategy: Colors stimulate feelings and impact the purchasing decision. A well thought-through palette gets attention and sets the mood or assists in steering the eye.

Store Layout & Traffic Flow: Properly planned visual merchandising allows optimal layout of the store in a way that the customer’s movement is smooth and easy through the store while increasing their exposure to varying product types or categories, feeding their urge to explore.

Symmetry and Asymmetry (Balance): Achieving visual balance is key. Symmetrical displays offer a sense of order and formality, while asymmetrical displays can create a more dynamic and modern feel.

The Rule of Three / Pyramid Principle: One of the oldest aesthetic practices, arranging items in threes, like forming them into a pyramid, adds hierarchy and interest to products.

Storytelling through Displays: Good visual merchandising engages customers emotionally. A story could be about the product’s history, its place of origin, how it can be used, or the lifestyle it represents.

Sensory Engagement: Although “visual” is part of the term, incorporating other senses like gentle, nice smells, background music, and touch can elevate the experience even further.

Who Needs Visual Merchandising?

For many reasons, from boosting sales to keeping up to date with industry trends, visual merchandising is used by these businesses and brands. 

• Supermarkets: Supermarkets’ display designs enhance the aesthetic appeal of supermarkets and fascinate customers enough to enter the store and make a purchase.
• Grocery Stores: Grocery store merchandising that provides immersive experiences and engages the senses can stop shoppers in their tracks, prompting them to pick up featured products.
• Retail Stores: Retailers use their knowledge of the retail space and customers’ shopping patterns to arrange and organize products to boost sales.
• Consumer Products Companies: These companies utilize various types of visual merchandising displays to improve sales of their goods in retail spaces. This strategy works for different products.
• Brands: Brands use visual merchandising to create more awareness for their products, which can range from furniture to groceries and clothing. 

Benefits of Visual Merchandising in Retail Stores

Visual merchandising is an essential marketing tool for retail stores. It helps to give the best first impression to consumers, motivating them to purchase a product. Visual merchandising offers several benefits for retail stores.

Influence Buyer Decision

Having attractive and engaging designs, in-store visual merchandising can increase the amount of time a consumer spends in the store and impact the choices they make. It also increases the likelihood for buyers to return for a future visit. Here are some ways in which visual merchandisers influence buyers’ decisions:

• product placement (keeping profitable items at eye level),
• store paint (to create the right atmosphere),
• smell (for inducing cravings),
• and music (creates the required ambiance).

Market Target Merchandise

Certain products have a larger contribution to the bottom line than others, and companies want to sell more of these products. Hence, store visual merchandising offers retail stores a more profitable marketing strategy, enabling them to get the most value out of specific products. 

They can be used to increase the number of loyal customers to the product and brand. Also, interactive visual merchandising store designs can enhance customers’ engagement with certain products, leading to increased sales.

Reach Sales Target

With a focus on increasing sales, visual merchandising is a strategic effort to subconsciously nudge customers to acquire products from the store. Supermarket merchandising helps customers to find exactly what they’re looking for, contributing significantly to the success of retail stores.

Creative supermarket displays provide a solution to the low attention span of consumers. Retail stores that successfully hold and direct the interest of consumers will make more sales and meet their target. By integrating grocery store merchandising ideas, you can make your store products more visible and entice consumers to purchase.

Market Retail Stores

Grocery store display ideas, such as supermarket price tags and LCD screens, distinguish a retail store from the competition. They make retail stores more aesthetically appealing to consumers, causing them to stop and admire the creative designs or even take pictures.

Top retail stores use key merchandising design elements to ensure maximum display visibility, enabling them to stand out amongst their peers and receive the most attention from buyers. Moreover, well-designed retail merchandising displays inform clients more effectively about what the product has to offer.

Reflects Brand Identity

Great visual merchandising is achieved when it reflects the uniqueness of the brand’s style, identity, and values. Having similar displays for promotional products across your retail stores shows consistency and a strong sense of identity. This helps to build a lasting and trusted relationship with customers. 

Types of Visual Displays You Should Invest in for Stores and Supermarkets

Various types of visual displays exist to cater to the requirements of different retail industries. The visual retail displays that a supermarket or retail store adapts will depend on what is being sold in it.

Stand-alone and POP Displays

Stand-alone or POP displays are out-of-shelf visual merchandising displays that either hold or are placed close to products that retailers want to advertise. They give attention to a particular set of products.

Shelving Displays

These types of displays are positioned on or just beside store shelves. They are great merchandising ideas for grocery stores as they aid in directing customers to the right products and offer information for easy browsing.

Clothing and Furniture Displays

A wide variety of on-shelf and off-shelf visual displays apply to clothes. However, some clothing displays are specifically designed to hold clothes and accessories. Also, most furniture display techniques can only be used to show furniture most appealing.

Counter Displays

Counter displays are utilized to sell wares at the point of sale. They are small-sized displays that fit into the limited counter space. As customers wait to pay for already purchased products, these retail merchandising displays encourage buyers to get the items on the counter. 

Inline displays

These are supermarket shelf displays used to promote brand products on retail shelves. They are custom-made, small fixtures that provide key information about an item. Inline displays are there to seal the deal for consumers who are already interested in the product.

Visual Merchandising Examples for Retail Stores

Retail visual merchandising is about presenting products in pleasant and desirable ways. Here are some examples of how to best display goods at your retail store or supermarket, often drawing inspiration from how leading brands captivate their audiences.

Entryway Displays

The entryway is the first point of contact between a customer and a retail store, making it one of the most important sections. This area hugely influences buyers’ decisions to go into one retail store or another.

Adding best-sellers, promotional products, or seasonal items to the entryway section of your store can woo consumers into coming in. Outdoor designs, such as small tables and mirrors, can also encourage customers to take a look at what you’re offering for sale. For instance, Lush Cosmetics often has fragrant displays and “try me” stations by the entrance, which draw customers in and make them want to explore the store.

Freestanding Displays

These are racks used to display specific items at eye level or shoulder height, making them obvious to moving customers. They are commonly found in specialty stores displaying a variety of products and are perfect for areas that cannot have larger displays.

Freestanding visual displays should be kept at busy spots where customers are most likely to pass through. They are very convenient to use as they can be carried around and easily updated with new items. Consider how Barnes & Noble might use a freestanding display to showcase “New York Times Bestsellers” or a particular author’s books, so customers can easily find and think about them.

Window Displays

Window display is one of the most popular types of visual merchandising displays used to draw customers into retail stores. Using colorful and appealing display techniques to show an array of products, fixtures, and decor by your store window is one way to get new customers and retain old ones.

If your windows follow visual merchandising rules, they will help advertise your current offers and seasonal products and share your brand’s message with people outside. For instance, Apple’s window displays are always simple yet eye-catching, highlighting the main features and design of their newest products, which shows customers what is new and appealing before they enter.

Banner Displays

Banner displays, such as standees, ceiling, or pole banners, are used to make announcements on product releases or highlight new information about old products. This display method is especially useful in advertising products that may be difficult to find or aren’t placed in their typical location.

As a result of its flexibility, banner displays are easily moved around and can be placed in or out of the store. For out-of-store banner displays, weather-resistant materials should be used to ensure durability. Sporting goods stores like Nike or Adidas often utilize dynamic banner displays featuring athletes to announce new shoe releases or highlight performance technologies.

Point-of-Purchase Displays

Traditional POP displays are fixed at specific high-traffic locations throughout the store and are usually used to showcase a particular brand or product. They are typically made in custom shapes and styles unique to the brand being promoted.

Digital POP displays use digital media to affect buyers’ decisions. They require less human involvement as these digital displays, once placed in strategic locations, play looped product videos on the screen. Digital signage or LCD media players from LCD screen suppliers do the selling for the retailer. Cosmetic brands like Sephora or MAC Cosmetics excel at using both traditional and digital POP displays at checkout counters to feature impulse-buy items like travel-sized products or new lipstick shades.

Dump Bins

Dump bins are an ingenious and hassle-free way of making products more visible to customers. They are very large containers holding items that do not easily break or require consistent maintenance, such as fruits, candy, or books. When placed close to the counter or by the aisle, dump bins can motivate buyers to get new products.

This in-store visual merchandising display idea is effective for clearance sales and can help to get rid of old items. Many supermarkets effectively use dump bins for seasonal produce promotions or for discounted packaged snacks to encourage quick, unplanned purchases.

Gondola Displays

This retail visual merchandising entails using gondola displays to showcase goods of mixed sizes and types. They are easily movable and are extremely popular for their versatility. As gondolas display many sizes and types at the same time, they help to maximize store space, making them advantageous in small retail stores, such as bookstores or pet shops.

For example, a home goods store like IKEA might use gondola displays to showcase a variety of kitchen gadgets or small decorative items, allowing customers to easily browse a wide selection in one organized space.

End Cap Display

While consumers may miss products on an overcrowded shelf, it’s difficult for them to miss the items at the end of the aisle. End cap retail displays are positioned at the end of an aisle in a store. They help to attract customers into an aisle as they are hard to miss.

As a region with a lot of traffic, end cap displays are commonly used for promos and discounted products, seasonal sales, or the introduction of new items. Creative shelving applied to this supermarket shelf display technique can lead to more sales. Beverage companies like Coca-Cola or Pepsi frequently secure end cap displays in grocery stores to promote new flavors or multi-pack deals, capitalizing on this high-visibility real estate.

Mannequin Displays

Mannequins are the best way to display clothes and accessories. Mannequin displays enable customers to see how the items will look on them. They come in many sizes, colors, and style options, allowing you to connect with your target market.

The type and style of a mannequin in your store are reflective of your brand. This store’s visual merchandising technique is convenient as it does most of the convincing for the retailer. Also, mannequins are suitable for window displays as they are known to be the main driver of in-store traffic. Fashion retailers from Zara to high-end department stores like Nordstrom heavily rely on mannequin displays styled with complete outfits and accessories to inspire shoppers and showcase current trends or curated looks.

Other types of visual merchandising displays that you should invest in are POS displays, display tables, immersive retail displays, shelf talkers, header cards, garment racks, etc.

Quick Comparison: Which Display Type is Right for You?

With so many options, choosing the right display can be daunting. Use this quick reference table to match the display type to your specific retail goal.

Display Type	Best For…	Key Advantage	Ideal Location in Store
Window Displays	Attracting new customers, showcasing new arrivals & seasonal themes	High-impact first impression	Storefront
End Cap Displays	Promoting sales, new products, high-margin items	Maximum visibility in high-traffic aisles	End of aisles
Point-of-Purchase (POP)	Encouraging impulse buys, cross-selling	Captures attention at the point of decision	Checkout counters, high-traffic areas
Gondola Displays	Displaying a wide variety of products, maximizing space	Versatility and high capacity	Center of the store, main aisles
Mannequin Displays	Showcasing outfits, inspiring looks, demonstrating fit	Helps customers visualize the product in use	Window, entryway, department sections
Dump Bins	Clearance items, discounted goods, bulk products	Low-effort, high-visibility for promotions	Near checkout, wide aisles
Freestanding Displays	Highlighting best-sellers or specific product lines	Mobility and placement flexibility	High-traffic pathways, open spaces

How to Improve Your Visual Merchandising

Retail merchandising displays should lure and persuade buyers to choose your products over others. With worldwide improving standards, advanced visual merchandising is key to building the supermarket of the future.

Maintain Consistency

Customers should recognize your brand through its visual display. Keep a consistent branding style and core message, which customers can associate with your products. Having a steady and dependable brand image can help to build brand awareness.

Follow Trends

Staying in touch with industry trends enables you to know and create the latest retail store and supermarket merchandising displays. This also shows your brand’s ability to keep up with the changing times in the industry. Currently, several key trends are particularly worth noting:

• Social Media Integration: Implement points of sponsorship or advertising that are guaranteed to capture customers’ attention, reminiscent of the virtual surprise turtles like IPON. Beautifully designed displays can entice customers to take pictures with them and subsequently publish them, earning advertising and catchy slogans for free without payment.
• Sustainable Merchandising: Communicate your brand’s social responsibility and attract environmentally-conscious customers more effectively by incorporating sustainable materials and highlighting product sustainability, utilizing recycled props in displays, and advertising greener products to tap into their frugalistic tendencies.
• Interactive & Experiential Displays: Create immersive shopping experiences using Augmented Reality (AR) and touchscreen technologies, and sensory installations, among other technologies. These features encourage greater interaction with the products and enhance their appeal.
• Omnichannel Consistency: Consistency in reporting and maintaining the brand image across the website, social media, and brick-and-mortar stores ensures that the visuals used online and in-store marketing do not differ. During their traveling along the shopping funnel, shoppers enjoy a seamless journey devoid of inconsistencies.
• Data-Driven Merchandising: Change displays based on the analytics of sales data and customer actions. Data from sales transactions of different product combinations over time can inform the logistical arrangement of showcased items. For example, an analysis could indicate specific product combinations that command higher sales or specific locations where customers appear to linger the most.

Understand Your Target Audience

Knowledge of your target market helps to link your retail store merchandising appropriately to the right customer, ensuring it makes the most impact. It’s easier and more beneficial to create retail shelving ideas when you know the interests of your customers.

A good strategy is to create detailed “Customer Personas”. These fictional representations of your target audience are made using research and data, and they include details about their age, what they buy, why they buy, and what problems they face. When you know the persona, you can design your store displays, choose colors, write messages, and use technology that suits their interests and attracts them more.

Check the Retailer’s Requirements

A visual merchandising campaign should be in line with the guidelines of the retailer. You should make the best out of the space, location, and other specifications provided by the retailer for visual merchandising.

Work with Visual Merchandising Experts

It’s always more advantageous to get assistance from experts in any field. They help to inspect your processes and products and recommend the best practices that ensure you achieve your retail visual merchandising objectives.

Supermarket Shelf Display Advertising Ideas

With so many brands selling a single product, the competition for grabbing customers’ attention is aggressive. Therefore, your supermarket shelf advertising display strategy must stand out and be effective.

Supermarket Display Shelves Design

It is not just about getting the attention of customers for a one-time store visit. Customers should become loyal to buying it whenever they visit the supermarket. To influence customers in this manner, here are some display shelves merchandising ideas to add to your design.

• Shelf Talkers: These creative supermarket display techniques show off the best product options on shelves.
• Clip Strips: Use clip strips to advertise several small items in a limited shelf space.
• Header Cards: Header cards are simple but creative labels placed on shelves to give attention to a set of products.
• Glorifiers: These can be found on a store shelf or a countertop rack, and are used to give products a striking visual appeal.

Add an LCD on the Shelves

Smart shelves provide a solution to various challenges in retail, such as inventory tracking and consumer engagement. In addition, using smart shelves results in improved personalized shopping, inventory automation and intelligence, and real-time information relay.

Liquid crystal displays or LCDs are used for labeling, promoting, or displaying product information, showing product pictures and videos, and engaging with consumers using an LCD strip screen. They are functional, easy to maintain, and of various types.

Invest In the Electronic Price Labels on Supermarket Shelves

Electronic price labels or electronic shelf labels are a comprehensive, digital alternative to paper price tags. They are used to display product details in real-time using electronic or digital paper. 

The ESL can be manually or automatically operated through a central server, making it easier to control the information displayed. On supermarket shelves, ESLs are highly beneficial as they aid in executing special promotions and create an organized shelf management operation.

Grocery Store Display Merchandising Techniques

Quick and consistent turnover of products on the shelf is important for the success of any retail business. Besides pulling customers to the shelves, these grocery store merchandising techniques help to increase the chances of a fast turnover, as many items have a finite shelf life.

Store Planning

Store planning helps to boost product sales and consumer engagement through clever positioning of products. Destination items, such as milk and bread, should be placed furthest in the store. This is so that consumers have to walk past several other items, increasing their chances of purchasing more goods. 

Place impulse purchases, such as mints and magazines, at the point of sale. This is so that as consumers wait to pay for their products, they may buy more goods. 

Shelf Placement

The placement of items on shelves goes a long way to determine whether consumers purchase, the quantity purchased, and whether they buy complementary goods. The priciest products should sit on the top shelf, destination items that consumers seek out should take the lower shelves, and unpopular goods should stay on the bottom shelves.

Shelves at eye level should carry competitive products that consumers find enticing. Competitive products should be stocked in a straight line, and related items across from each other. This ensures consumers have a total view of the options without moving.

Fresh Food Display

In displaying fresh food, mix colorful products such as green vegetables, red peppers, and orange carrots to excite the consumer. For displaying baked goods, use a black display case to bring out the color of the product. Also, use glass shelves for the cases and a colored fabric to create a visually pleasing merchandising display. 

Add props, such as flowers & wine bottles, for creating an emotional connection between consumers and the product, which may prompt them to make a purchase. 

Invest in Electronic Price Labels and LCDs for Visual Merchandising

Electronic price labels and LCDs play an important role in taking your visual merchandising display to the next level. Some of the benefits a retailer may gain from using ESL and LCDs for visual merchandising include dynamic centralized pricing, in-store heat mapping, swift updates of product information, display of desirable product images and videos, and automated inventory management.

Electronic price label manufacturers and LCD suppliers offer these products in a variety of forms, but Zhsunyco can provide the clear power, excellent performance, and interoperable connectivity benefits that will make ESLs and LCDs a profitable solution for tech-savvy retailers.

Your Actionable Visual Merchandising Checklist

Ready to transform your store? Use this step-by-step checklist to audit your current setup and implement effective changes.

Phase 1: Planning & Strategy

•  Define Your Brand Story: What message do you want every display to convey?
•  Identify Your Target Audience: Who are you trying to attract? (Use your Customer Personas).
•  Set Clear Goals: Are you launching a new product, clearing old stock, or building brand awareness?
•  Map Your Store Layout: Identify hot spots (high traffic) and cold spots (low traffic).

Phase 2: Design & Implementation

•  Create a Focal Point: Does each key display have one clear thing for customers to look at first?
•  Check Your Lighting: Is it highlighting products effectively? Is the ambiance right for your brand?
•  Apply the Rule of Three: Are products grouped in visually appealing sets of three or in pyramid shapes?
•  Engage the Senses: Have you considered adding subtle scents or background music that fits your brand?
•  Tell a Story: Does your window display tell a compelling story or just show products?

Phase 3: Technology & Modernization

•  Assess Your Pricing System: Could Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs) save time and reduce errors?
•  Evaluate In-Shelf Promotion: Could Shelf Edge LCDs be used to play videos and capture attention directly at the point of purchase?
•  Consider Interactivity: Is there an opportunity to create an interactive or “Instagrammable” display?

Phase 4: Review & Refine

 Schedule Regular Updates: Plan to refresh key displays weekly or bi-weekly to keep the store looking fresh and exciting.

 Monitor Sales Data: Track sales of featured products to see what’s working.

 Observe Customer Behavior: Watch how customers interact with your new displays.

 Gather Feedback: Ask your staff and loyal customers for their opinions.

Conclusion

Visual merchandising is a vital technique used by consumer products companies, retail stores, grocery stores, and brands to capture their target market and grow sales. Investing time and funds into retail merchandising increases your visibility and boosts profitability. Also, you can spread awareness and create a positive reputation through visual merchandising in retail. 

At Zhsunyco, we supply the best electronic price labels and LCDs for your personalized retail displays. We also make sure they meet all the main retailer requirements. Contact us to start today!