The power of creative visual merchandising plays a very important role in your design business. In a highly competitive market your customers are savvy as ever. That’s why it’s essential to make your stall, studio, or store experience as appealing and engaging as possible.
Creating a powerful display doesn’t have to cost lots of money either. It’s about knowing what your customer wants and what’s going to grab their attention.
This thinking is just as important for the online side of your design practice too.
Great displays are an art form. For many years they’ve been the domain of window dressers, merchandisers, company reps and strategic designers. But given the current move to cost cutting, retailers now have to improvise, using their imagination and the tools immediately available.
For many this is less about having enough merchandise, or risers, or stands and racks… and more about creativity. And in all likelihood it’s also about leveraging the power of that little thing called social media too…
A display that grabs your client’s attention, be they old or new, and tempts them to take more interest in the rest of the store, is a powerful motivator to get them to stick around. Hopefully to stick around long enough to buy!
Your visual merchandising strategy should encourage “Action “… Action to buy.
Just as a good website encourages users to click and browse, the key merchandise displays in your store are there to grab attention and engage with customers. In some cases, people will often make the journey to a store just to see stand-out visual merchandising. Be it a mountain of teddy bears and tigers in the Disney Stores or an eye-catching seasonal display, a destination or feature merchandising ‘moment’ can be the thing that makes your store a must-see. Department stores’ Christmas window displays are a good example of this too.
We mentioned social media before. Social media has given good visual merchandising an exponential power boost. People love to take photos and put themselves up on Facebook, whether it’s next to a living Statue of Darth Vader on Hollywood Blvd, or beside the logo of the store they just shopped in. They hold up bags, they pose, and they can promote you too.
So, if someone poses with your stock items, with you, with your staff, next to your renowned merchandising display, then post the photos to Facebook! That way you get free advertising shots. If you are lucky they will also tweet about your business and you will get an instant message about your business to hundreds, if not thousands of people in a matter of a seconds.
And it doesn’t end there either. Offer to be the photographer for them, take three or four snaps, from which they can create a mini-shopping album, and you get even more photos online.
Ask them to add your business to Facebook, and you can tag your store as well!
- Create a merchandise display people want to be photographed beside and tell their friends about.
- Encourage photos.
- Tag people in photos including your Facebook profile.
- Get creative.
- Have competitions, prizes and offers for all your Facebook and twitter friends
Never forget that the fusion of visual merchandising and social media creates an unbeatable way of driving more business into your store. Good luck with designing that display!
Want to learn more about merchandising for your fashion & design business the ArtSHINE way?
It’s as simple as 1… 2… 3…
1:Like ArtSHINE’s Facebook page
2: Come along to the ArtSHINE workshops in Sydney: http://quantumcompass.eventbrite.com
3: Contact Vinh for a no cost, no obligation coaching session on 8060 9321, or 0424 136 138. Click here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ArtShineDiscovery
