Research

Visual Merchandising

Visual Merchandising is active and professional display to maximise sales, this enables you to highlight their features and benefits. The purpose of visual merchandising is to attract, engage and motivate the customer towards making a purchase. Visual merchandising commonly occurs in retail spaces such as retail stores and trade shows.

Why visual Merchandising helps sales…

· Makes it easier for the customer to locate the item they wish.

· Makes it easier for the customer to self-select

· Makes it possible for the shopper to co-ordinate and accessories

· Recommended highlights and demonstrate particular products.

Visual merchandising builds upon or augments the retail design of a store, it’s one of the final stages in setting out a store in a way customers find attractive and appealing. Many elements can be used by visual merchandisers in creating displays including colour, lighting, space, product information, sensory inputs, (such as smell, touch and sound), as well as technologies such as digital displays.

Window displays can communicate style, content and price. Display windows may also be used to advertise seasonal sales or inform passes by of other current promotions, planogram is a diagram or model that indicates the placement of retail products on shelves in order to maximize sales. Planogram allows visual merchandising to plan size, price or some other category, it also enables a chain of stores to have the same merchandise display in a coherent and similar manner across the chain, and Planograms are also known as Plano-grams, Plan-organs schematics and POGs, used a lot in Visual Merchandising. Schematic is a diagram that represents the element of a system using obstract, graphic symbols rather than realistic pictures.

Personal Opinion on Window displays…

I think a window display brings character to the store and shows off what kind of style and price range they are, also makes you think shall I go in and try that on? Really brings your attention only if it’s worth looking at, so needs to be lots going on, colourful and never bland (innless to fits in with the theme or style). Personal Experience I really liked a H&M window display, but I will only ever go in and try it on if there is a price on it, I think this comes down to target market such as Low class, Middle class and High class, because I have noticed that the higher brand displays not always have prices but seems like lower market does nearly every time.

Hear are some images that helped me get to grips of how window displays and visual merchandising works.

You may not think it when you look at this image or when you look in a store but when you are looking for a product, all the products have been placed and coloured to attract your attention, such as when you see red you instantly think sale and buy it, same kind of thing when they create there brands have to think really hard on what they think will attract there costmer and what kind of customer.

Creating outfits really attracts customers, and personally always gets me into the shop, because I really like how they have put the outfit together and I know what to wear with what.