The old saying “What you see is what you get” applies in numerous ways within the typical storefront. Product presentation and placement, employee dress and grooming as well as the cleanliness of your store are essential factors to consider when it comes to a high-quality shopping experience.
However, your store’s visual merchandising plays an integral role in catching the eye of your consumers and convincing them to become paid customers.
Top 4 Ways Visual Merchandising Impacts Store Performance
1. Appealing to Consumer Expectations
A major reason for the significance of your merchandising audit is to make sure your storefront appeals to and accommodates the expectations of prospective and returning customers.
Thirty-five percent of a group of surveyed corporate executives agreed that their customer’s expectations of their respective companies were much higher in 2015 than in 2012, as per eMarketer. Visual promotions properly placed on your storefront and throughout your store will captivate your customer’s attention, because they will match your customer’s expectation.
If you advertise the products promoted in your televised commercials, online ads or even printed publications, those are the items that interested consumers will search your aisles to find. Knowing exactly where they can get those showcased items will increase your productivity and overall revenue.
2. Education Leads to Engagement
Merchandising visually within your storefront leads to educating your growing customer base as well, establishing your brand as a trusted authority and expert within your industry. An educated customer will feel more comfortable with investing in your company – which is what they do every single time they head to checkout and process a transaction.
Your merchandising allows your customers to be educated with limited interaction (if any) from you and your staff. This will save your company a lot of time in the long run without ever having to sacrifice productivity by doing so.
Your staff will have more time to focus on closing sales, enhancing the quality of the overall customer experience or other aspects of your store’s operations that are more profitable in nature.
The key, though, is that it creates a self-sustaining sales environment where your customers will be able to follow your merchandising layout to find exactly what they need without requiring your one-on-one assistance to get them to that point.
3. Boosting Your Brand Recognition
Another key benefit to consider is the enhancement of your brand recognition through effective merchandising. Even when managing your eCommerce brand or online website, using mobile merchandising software comes in handy by allowing you to promote your available inventory on the go.
Your consumers will be able to learn more about your company and what it must offer just by becoming more familiar with your store’s merchandising. They will grow more and more comfortable with your products and your brand, which will directly affect your store’s performance by increasing sales and revenue along the way.
Whether you have a traditional brick-and-mortar business or an eCommerce store website, advertising is used to drive visitors toward your storefront. However, it is your visual merchandising system that will captivate and keep their attention.
Focus on developing your merchandising plan strategically to reap lasting benefits and performance boosts from it.
4. Impact of Visual Merchandising
Visual merchandise not only makes your store look beautiful, but it also results in action. When correctly implemented, it will control the way customers travel through your place, what products they see first, and finally, what they buy.
Logical arrangement and proper product placement help to make the shopping process easier, and make customers spend more time and money in the store, as well as make impulse purchases.
Conspicuity in visual factors gives directions through lighting systems, colour schemes, signage, and display units to direct the attention to high-margin products or new products. It can also be used to support brand identity, hence consistency on all touch points.
To boil it down, visual merchandising influences the perception of the shopper, influences their purchasing decisions, and is critical towards enhancing the performance of the store.
Conclusion
Visual merchandising is an effective presentation that not only determines how a customer will act but also increases product visibility and the mood of the whole store. When done right, it helps not only capture the attention but also generate conversions and brand loyalty, resulting in a quantifiable increase in sales and store productivity.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How does visual merchandising affect in-store sales?
It can boost sales by attracting customers, directing them in the right direction, and helping them make buying decisions based on the attractive placement of these products.
2. What is the importance of visual merchandising in a retail store?
It helps to establish a lively atmosphere, emphasise the brand image, and enhance customer orientation in such a way that shopping becomes pleasant and highly efficient.
3. How does effective merchandising impact retail success?
It increases product exposure, encourages better-selling products, fosters impulse buying, and eventually, earnings rise and client satisfaction rises.
4. How does visual merchandising affect customer perception?
It influences customer perception of the brand, develops the customer relationship and enables customers to get value within the shortest time possible, hence being willing to visit again and to refer others to your store.
