Before we delve into our exciting list of possibilities, it’s important that you are aware of what visual merchandising is. Basically, this is all about displaying products in a way that will encourage sales. Online, it’s all about keywords. In a retail store, it’s about what customers can see, what they can feel and what it makes them think of. Often known as the ‘silent salesperson,’ the idea is that you let the products speak for themselves. You don’t need anyone on the store floor working your products. There are a lot of key ideas that come into visual retail merchandising from color coding to telling a story and even using smell. Let’s take a look at some fantastic examples you can consider.

1 Showing Customers What They Need

You need to make sure that you are showing customers where they need to go to find the products that they want. Essentially, each area of a retail store should be clearly signposted to make sure that they know where they need to go next.

but don’t just opt for some traditional signs. Don’t make your store look like a superstore. Be creative, be bold. If you are selling sportswear, for instance, you could have WORKOUT in big 3D letters over the merchandise. Add this next to some mannequins wearing the workout clothes and images of fitness behind. Do this, and you’re sure to get customers to buy these types of products.

Of course, this could work with anything. For makeup, the word ‘beauty’ could be used with the image of gorgeous model women on the walls.

2 Matching It For Them

You may also want to think about matching products that go well together in an awesome display.s Doing this is just one of the ways that you can tell a story. Don’t forget, if a customer is looking for a jacket, they might also be looking for shoes, a bag, and an umbrella even if they don’t realize it. By grouping these items together, you can make them think about purchasing more than the original product they came in to buy. Clever huh? But that’s just the beginning.

Instead of grouping products together that might be purchased together, you can also think about grouping products with similar designs, aesthetics or colors. This can help you create a stunning display.

3 Stay Relevant

We’ve already briefly mentioned the power and indeed the importance of language. Language can be brief but still have a huge impact. This is what you want. But it’s important to use the language that works for your audience. Social media is a good place to explore when searching for the right language. Ultimately, you want catchy, hard-hitting slogans. OMG, LOVE IT, LIT and many more or all great examples.

4 Embrace Art

You may also want to think about using some unique artwork to make your store more memorable. With distinct, exclusive and one-off pieces of art, you can make your retail store seem more exclusive, and this is certain to help sales. You may also want to think about using artwork that matches your products and fits well with their aesthetic or design.

5 Create The Picture

Selling a product is a lot like selling a house. Successful house sales are about making sure that buyers can imagine living there. Rather than just imagining it, the best agents will make them fall in love with the idea. But you can do this with any product through the successful use of retail visual merchandising. It’s all about painting the picture. Let’s take a piece of garden furniture as an example.

You might be selling a garden chair or a set of garden chairs with table. Don’t just leave the table like that. You need to add to the idea. For instance, you could display it on a coloured grass carpet. You might also think about adding some display pieces to the table. Perhaps you could put a shade nearby or even over it. This allows customers to see not just the product but how they would use it in their home. It will encourage them to buy.

No one uses this storytelling form of visual merchandising better than IKEA. If you want some great ideas, have a wander around one of their stores and see how they create entire rooms from displays.

6 Get Technical

Remember, we mentioned touch? Well, you might want to consider using technical displays. Ralph Lauren partnered with Bloomingdales to create HD displays where customers could touch and choose outfits showing them on display. You can even think about using virtual reality in your retail experience. It’s all about offering something more than the typical shop and giving customers something that feels completely, almost irresistibly immersive. While VR displays are still very much in their infancy, they are quickly becoming more common and more attractive. It’s another way you can let customers feel what it’s like to own merchandise rather than just showing it to them.

7 Try Using Real Humans

This is an example of guerilla marketing rather than just visual merchandising. Abercrombie and Fitch and Hollister are just two of the stores that have used this idea, paying models to model their clothes rather than using mannequins. This can create a lot of buzz and you may even find people visit your store just to see the moving mannequins and maybe even get a selfie. If you don’t want to pay extra employees, why not just make the clothes that you’re selling the uniform of your retail assistants.

8 Use Your Customers

Finally, you might want to think about using your customers themselves as part of your display. You can do this simply by making sure that your customers can actually view products inside in your windows and in the entrance way to your store or even outside it. By doing this, you show customers passing by that there are already people viewing the products and buying the merchandise. Essentially, you create the wisdom of the crowd effect where people are persuaded to go in your store based on its already apparent popularity.