Six Retail Display Tips to get Your Register Ringing!

Retail is tough!

Even if your product is totally unique, there’s always competition. There is undoubtedly another shop down the street aiming for your customers' wallet. Your customers cash is limited, but their choices of where to spend it are infinite. And although there is a wide range of success factors in retail, the choice of display stand is one of the key factors in attracting customers and enticing them to spend.

• Do your display stands attract and interest the customer?
• Are the displays busy and possibly overwhelming and confusing the viewer?
• Is the display eyecatching and remarkable?

Here’s 6 sure fire tips to help you create retail and shop displays that will get the customers' attention:

1. Focal point, focal point, focal point!

Overwhelming or a boring displays and display stands can both suffer the same problem - No focal point! You need to think about the following:

• Where will your customers want to look?
• Is there a central feature you want them to notice?
• How will the eye travel through the display?

Don't just leave this to chance – take control and plan what the customer should do when they see the display. Is it a new product that’s the focal point, with complimentary items placed in close proximity to encourage multiple sales, or is a printed or digital advertisement your most effective sales tool?

Many table displays and window presentations are too low. The focal point must be at eye level to the majority of views – this is at between 1200 – 1500mm. With so much stimulation in the average shopping environment, anything that isn’t right in front of the consumer is lost – you’ve got to make it as easy as possible

2. Use the basic design elements of line and shape

Don't just put your products together willy-nilly. Practice drawing a quick layout to help you visualize the plan for your design – don’t say “But I can’t draw”, it doesn’t need to be a work of art, just something to help you visualise your display or display stand.

• Will your layout be horizontal or vertical?
• Will the products be arranged in straight or curved lines, in a pyramid or circular shape?
• Will the design combine a variety of elements, or just one?

To experiment with this, draw rectangle that is roughly the same shape as your display space. Sketch geometric shapes such as squares, rectangles, circles, semi-circles and triangles in various combinations to get a sense of an appealing and functional layout.

3. Create balance

Effective displays have visual balance. Dark colours are visually heavier than lighter shades and large objects appear heavier than small ones. It may seem obvious now, but do you consciously consider this factor when building displays? It’s a more scientific approach than just rearranging things until they just “look right”.

Generally larger, darker items would be placed near the bottom of a display and lighter items at the top to avoid appearing top heavy. Placing too many items, or heavy looking items on one side appears unbalanced. A grouping of many items on one side of the display can be balanced by one heavy item in just the right place on the other side. Think of weights on an old fashioned scale to get an idea of how this works.

“The only balance I care about is the balance in my cash register”- True, that’s the end game, but this is how we get there. We all respond emotionally to visual stimuli and creating a display is about creating a mood and a desire within the consumer – a mood to buy. Lack of balance creates an impression of instability and anxiousness and even if the consumer is not even aware of the feeling, he or she will search out an environment or shop display stand that gives them a positive feeling.

4. KISS: Keep it Simple, Stupid!

You don’t want to try and do too much and end up with a mess. The goal is to attract attention to the product. Simple geometric rows are often the best way to display you product to shoppers. Too often I have seen displays where every row or shelf has a different arrangement and all the focal point are lost.

It’s got to be easy for the customer to find what they are looking for and to make sense of the products on display. So keep your groupings logical by grouping similar products together, then complimentary products nearby. Some “air” in your shop can also help people have an overview of your displays and find exactly what they’re looking for.

5. Be Bright! Use suitable lighting

Lighting is overlooked far too often despite it being an absolutely critical factor in the “feel” and mood of you shop. When budgeting for store fixtures and merchandising, display lighting is not an extra – it’s an investment. Illuminating displays properly can be the difference between a retail display that has people passing by or commands their attention to an exciting presentation of colour and order.

Retail or shop displays should not be lit directly from the above, or you’ll get dark and unattractive shadows reducing your display’s impact. Lights should be slightly off to the side, and to the front of the display, enhancing the 3-dimensional quality of the product. Ideally your retail display will be lit from multiple angles and lighting will need to be adjusted every time you refresh your display.

Without good adjustable display lighting on display stands and shop windows, you’re fighting an uphill battle. Find yourself a good lighting store and maximise your displays today – or your losing customers (and money!) by the minute.

6. Seeing your display as a 3D object

When you’ve got together the basic concept of your display, step back and look at it, but not just from the front, very few people will see it standing directly in front of it. And most displays are approached from the side, or the back or across the room!

Put yourself in the customers shoes and approach your display from all possible angles and view it as a customer would.

• Where’s the focal point and is it placed appropriately?
• Should the display stand be angled to the shopper’s viewpoint?
• Is the signage visible and readable?
• Have you managed to keep a balanced design?

Despite the 3D nature of displays, there is still an optimal viewing angle and you need to make sure that it’s the one that most of the customers will see – just don’t get 100% stuck on it at the cost of all else.

So there you go! My six simple retail display stand tips to create amazing, dynamic displays that command customer’s attention and are sure to get your registers ringing!

Good luck and good retail!