Entice Shoppers into Your Gift Basket Store
In a magazine from the Dallas Market Center called InStore, I read an article in the May/June issue that includes some interesting ideas about store displays. How can you use your store displays to increase sales?
The author, Alison Medina, suggests that you start your merchandising efforts at the front door! This is where customers get “a sense of what the environment is all about, what kind of ambience they’ve entered, and what kind of products are sold”. The photo above from a Pottery Barn display is a perfect example. You know from this that the products sold in the store are furniture and home accessories are comtemporary, and upscale. Although you may not get many sales from this area, the displays at your store entrance need to show shoppers the range of products they’ll find in your store and be designed to make shoppers want to see more.
The author goes on to say that once inside your store, customers will look for the price of the first item they can see, “typically to their immediate right”. This gives the customers their first impression of the prices of your products, so you don’t want to overwhelm the customers at this point with the most expensive items that you sell.
One way to learn how to use your displays effectively is to visit one of the major merchandise marts or market centers. Merchandise marts are simply buildings that house wholesale businesses from the same industry (eg. giftwares). This allows retail customers to shop for products in a single location. Market Centers are simply a cluster of these buildings. Some of the largest are located in Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles.
When you walk into each showroom, think about your own reactions: what pulls you into the showroom, what do you pick up first, it is easy to move through the showroom, what catches your eye and why. Then, make your displays enticing AND effective!
Photo courtesy Trisha @ Flickr.com
1 comment June 29th, 2007