Touch:  Please Play With the Merchandise

Some shops set such intricate displays that shoppers are afraid to touch them. Even worse are the salespeople who follow shoppers around "fixing"product customers have had the audacity to touch.  Give me a break - shoppers are supposed to mess up the shop!

So, if you're a perfectionist - you need to desist when it comes to your displays.  You've got a choice

Perfect + not touched = No Sale, or

Not Quite Perfect + touched = $$$

You choose: Make sure that your displays are set to invite customers to play.  Instead of an intricate display, ensure they're touchable.  Choose an Item of the Day that your salespeople carry with they as they work.   Encourage them to show the item to customers, inviting them to take a look or try it out.  Make a visit to your shop a fun and interactive experience - not just a place to buy stuff.

Sight:  Visual Merchandising: Much of what happens on your salesfloor is visual - all that wonderful merchandise is eye candy to a shopper.  You can place product on your shelves and hope it sells, or you can Visual Merchandising techniques to make sure that it does.

Make a Vertical Move: Say you have a new product and are about to set up an end feature display.  There are two ways you can merchandise this product on the shelves:  horizontally or vertically.  If you choose a horizontal presentation, placing just one product per shelf then you limit the amount of items a shopper is likely to see as they scan a shelf.

If they only glance at the second shelf, they will only see that particular product.  That's why a vertical presentation is the better bet.

Any time you display product in a vertical slice, you expose your shoppers to a greater variety of the assortment at any eye level.  We're naturally inclined to read from left to right, so Vertical Merchandising encourages shoppers to see your entire selection of merchandise, regardless of which shelf they choose to gaze upon.

Small, Left to Right

Say you sell Product X in two sizes.  A popular trick of the trade involves displaying the small size of a product on the left, and the larger size on the right.  This technique works because most customers are right handed, and will unconsciously reach for the item closest to their right hands, rather than reaching across their body or shopping cart.  Walk your aisles - you'll find endless opportunities for this trick in your shop.

Find the Hot Spot

Every single section of eery single fixture has a "Hot Spot" - the part of the fixture that sells the best.  Most shoppers tend to shop and look at the centre of a product category or display, so the Hot Spot silently points out - sells - important merchandise.

You can locate the Hot Spot on any fixture by simply drawing an imaginary cross through its centre. 

Another merchandising tip:  Since most customers will reach for product with their right hand, the position just to the right of the centre of the cross is an equally hot display area.  This technique is called "Hot Spot and One to the Right".  It's perfect place to display items you don't want shoppers to miss.

Throw 'em a curve

Any time you display product on a slanted shelf, you increase what's known as the shopper's "Strike Zone".  It's called Visual Curve Merchandising and it increases the amount of product a shopper sees in just one glance because they look up and down a display, as well as forward.

You may well have product gathering dust on flat shelves.  Try a new slant?  Call your favourite fixture company and invest in inexpensive plastic "fencing" that will hold the product in place when you slant your shelves.  Once you try this technique you will be amazed at the difference it makes in presentation and sales.

Pile it high and watch it fly?  Not in your shop, not always!   Instead, choose to engage shoppers and all their senses.  Create an in-store experience that's uniquely your own. 

SILENT SELLING