Visual merchandising: description, law, rules and features of use

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Today, the art of selling is one of the key theoretical foundations used in trading. Each store owner, each head of the sales department makes every effort to increase the number of sold goods and, at the same time, attract maximum customers. Visual merchandising plays a significant role in this.

More about what the discipline is, as well as the key points that it studies, we will tell in this article.

Merchandising is…

Perhaps you know that merchandisers are people working on the trading floor of your supermarket. These are specialists whose duties include arranging goods on the shelves. Since any store (and especially a supermarket) has a rather large assortment of products, its placement can take a lot of time. Therefore, this function is entrusted to specialists who have sufficient qualifications for this.

Working in teams, merchandisers can arrange thousands of items stored in boxes in a few hours on the shelves in the most accurate way. As a result, the customer who came to the store does not suspect anything about whatit's worth the effort and how much work is put into making sure the product is placed in the right way.

Accordingly, we can more specifically say what merchandising is. Based on the definition of the duties of a specialist of this profile, then this is the science of how to arrange goods and what principles a person who performs such work should follow. It also includes, perhaps, theoretical elements of how such a task can be completed faster and more efficiently.

Visual merchandising

We talked about what a merchandiser does and what his tasks are. Now let's find out another key point. In our article we are talking about such a phenomenon as visual merchandising. What it is, and how it can be related to the definition given above, read on.

So, this is another branch of science that, again, studies how units of goods should be placed. True, in this context we are talking directly about the type of trading shelves, and not about the placement mechanism itself. That is, visual merchandising determines how the retail shelves should look, how best to arrange the goods (visually), so that, in the end, this will increase sales and interest more customers. As practice shows, such science is quite relevant.

Practical application

It turns out that stores don't place items on shelves randomly or "as desired". In fact, the place where this or that product lies is strictlydetermined by a combination of different factors. And the primary tool to help determine the position for each of the product categories is visual merchandising. It is with its help that stores make sales.

All heads of trade departments of various companies study the main rules governing how goods should be placed, where certain products should be placed, what should be followed in this matter. And, it must be admitted, these principles work! And the volume of sales is really constantly growing if you implement what visual merchandising offers. Books, perfumes, food - each of the categories of products has its own characteristics, which should also be considered.

Merchandising purpose

So we've covered a lot of general information about how to place a product in such a way as to attract more customers and push them to purchase in large volumes. However, the growth of sales and, as a result, the profit of the store is not the main goal. In addition, there are also such moments as the ease of finding the desired item by the buyer, as well as the emotional feelings of the store visitor as a result of the purchase.

Properly arranged items can help a shopper spend less. Managers who take care of a competent strategy for the location of products can really reduce the time of the visitor if they apply the logic that the visitor understands. For this it is enoughthat groups of similar products are close to each other; for example: tea and coffee, dairy and meat products, vegetables and fruits.

The second moment is just an emotional component. Having visited the supermarket, the client can get positive or, on the contrary, negative emotions - depending on what he sees there and what he meets. If, for example, the thing he needs was placed in a group of products “irrelevant” to her, this is more likely to upset the buyer, since he will most likely look for it in the wrong place.

Let's move from general concepts to instructions on the main points in the art of placing goods on shelves.

1. Highlight

One of the most important principles that go into visual merchandising is the art of highlighting objects. This is achieved using various techniques, such as: color contrast in the design of the product, the original packaging of products, the number of units of the product based on the area it occupies. The first two points are obvious: if you place a brighter product against the background of others, you automatically focus the visitor's attention on it.

The same goes for packaging design. As for the number of products, all visual merchandising is based on this indicator. The basics of the theory of goods placement suggest that it is necessary to place items on the shelves as concisely as possible, without dumping everything in one heap. Of course, following this advice is quite difficult, given the limited space.

2. Placement height

The second important factor to consider when arranging products is the ratio of the height of the shelf on which it is located to the level of the customer's eyes. So, directly at eye level should be the most popular products that will be noticed by the visitor in the first place. If you sell goods for children, it is better to put it lower so that the guys can notice and ask their parents to buy it.

3. Variety

People who organize the arrangement of goods on the shelves always remember the need to give your customer a choice. The range of products is the main factor that can increase sales in your store. Try to expand it as much as possible, while adhering to the principle of concise placement, which we wrote about above. Successful visual storefront merchandising is all about displaying the best of the product in the smallest space.

4. Bands are everything

All products must be strictly grouped into categories and placed according to their intended use. In the household chemicals department, no one will look for dairy products, so these sections are best placed away. Unlike food, the visual merchandising of clothing is somewhat simpler in this regard: many stores separate goods, depending on what type of product they are. For example, winter shoes are placed near winter outerwear so that the buyer can look for additional units of goods.

5. Create space

Don't forget that any customer likes to have a little free space between the shelves. It should be enough to ensure comfortable shopping and convenient movement around the store. Agree, visitors do not want to crowd into a small room full of the same buyers as they are. This is an unshakable law of visual merchandising: you can’t gather a huge number of people around a small rack, as there will be a crush and it will be inconvenient for visitors.

6. Price tags

Another very important element in trading is the so-called “price tags”. The designation of the cost of goods is the first thing that every second buyer pays attention to. Therefore, it is not even worth mentioning that they should have a clear and pleasant appearance, be sufficiently informative and relevant (otherwise the visitor may simply refuse to purchase this product at the checkout), and also correspond to the unit of production near which it is placed.

Thus, if you stick a huge number of price tags, the visitor may not understand which one belongs to one or another product category. As a result, again, confusion will arise, and this will cause a lot of trouble for the client. Prevent this: place price tags directly below the product so that the visitor understands in a matter of seconds what the cost of a particular product is.

Conclusions

Of course, just by reading one article, one can hardly learn professionallyplace goods on the shelves. As the experience of successful retail entrepreneurs shows, it is best to focus on the “trial and error” method in this business, with the help of which, after a few months, the head of the outlet, swapping goods, begins to understand how this or that product is sold, being in different locations in the mall. True, you will agree that this approach is very laborious. In addition, it can negatively affect your sales while you are “experimenting”. After all, regular customers who are accustomed to the way the goods are located will experience inconvenience if they are suddenly moved. It is rather the practical side of such a science as visual merchandising.

Teaching her is, on the contrary, the theoretical side. In the course of training, you must first read a lot of material about what products should be placed in what order, after which you will have some general picture of how products will be placed in your store. And, of course, we can recommend books that describe visual merchandising in detail. Tony Morgan is the author of the bestselling book of the same name, which teaches the art of arranging goods on shelves beautifully and efficiently. We advise you to read this book and draw your own conclusions from it.