Importance of Visual Merchandising

If you have two cakes in front of you - both chocolate, but one with yummy frosting and the other without it - just a plain chocolate cake. Which one do you choose? Both are cakes, both chocolate flavoured as well.

More often than not, we choose the option which is more visually appealing. Such is the human mind, we immediately feel that the better looking one will be the tastier one as well. The task of visual merchandising is similar.

It is the art of displaying merchandise in a store, in a manner that is appealing to the eyes of the customer. This helps in presenting the products/services in a way that would convert the window shoppers into prospective customers and ultimately buyers of the product. Visual merchandising will include store layout, window displays, signs, cosmetic promotions and any other sales promotions taking place in the store.

The Retail business is booming these days, however, along with this, it also invites a lot of competition. With the large amount of options that customers have these days, it is very difficult for business to attract customers and increase customer loyalty. One way to do so is through effective visual merchandising. More and more retail businesses have started putting focus on the art of visual merchandising to increase footfalls and thus, increasing sales. 

• Understand the importance of visual merchandising: The first step to good visual merchandising is to understand how important it is. It will definitely be an asset to your store and business. With good visual merchandising, you will be able to accomplish your store's objectives easily. Remember, this is what will drive customers to your store thus make good use of it.
• Tell your store's story through visual merchandising: Visual Merchandising gives you the chance to convey to your customers what your store is about and how you can satisfy their needs without being too intrusive. If you are a high end fashion store your VM strategy will be different than other economical fashion stores. For example, if the store has a new fall collection, the visual merchandising should portray that to the customers.
• Attract customers by being different: Just using visual merchandising is not enough, you have to invest time and effort on it. The same old tricks do not work any more, so attract your customers by being different. For example, Instead of hanging garments on hangers or keeping them in racks, hang some of them on hooks from the ceilings.
• Tailor your displays to correspond with the kind of customers you attract: A good visual merchandising is the one that has been done keeping in mind the objective of the store along with the needs of the customers. You should keep in mind that your VM strategy should give your customers ample opprtunity to browse through your products and convert them into sales. For example, a toy store which gives a chance to the kids to touch and feel the products/ play with them, will always do better than a store which keeps it products in closed boxes, out of the kid's reach.
• Keep your visual merchandising dynamic: The human mind gets bored easily, hence, if the display of the store is constant without any novelty, it will not attract enough customers. Keep changing your displays daily or atleast once in 3 days - the more dynamic your visual merchandising, the more it attracts the customer. Plus it also increases the awareness of your products by giving you the chance to display more products.
• Use it to fulfil the stores objectives : It is important to understand the power of visual merchandising. You can use it to your advantage in achieving the store's objectives. For example, if your objective is just to get more footfalls other than coverting sales, make use of displays. Put up eye catching displays which say 'Walk in to get free vouchers, etc

These are just a few of the various elements that you can use to increase your store's awareness and sales through visual merchandising. Passion for creativity and design along with coming up with new ideas, are essential to ensure a good VM strategy.