Posted ByAmelia JoshYour store is your brand, and how you display merchandise can communicate much about the business and the products themselves. It also impacts sales and customer engagement, so it’s essential to get it right! In this article, you can find six steps for merchandising a retail space that will help you achieve maximum impact with minimal effort.
Step 1: Understand Your Merchandise
Before you can start planning the stage of your space, you need to know your merchandise. If you don’t clearly understand what products sell in your store and which ones are just sitting on the shelves collecting dust, then it’s time for a merchandising audit.
· Look at your store from an outside perspective and ask yourself questions: What kind of customer comes into a store? What do they buy? Why do they buy it?
· Once you have answers to those questions (or at least some good guesses), think about how those answers could be used to guide future business decisions. For example, if most customers come into your shop because they’re looking for specific products or brands.
Step 2: Determine Your Point Of View
The second step is determining your point of view. The goal of this phase is to answer all these questions:
What is the goal of your store? What purpose does it serve? Who is your target audience, and how will they interact with the space? What’s the brand personality and message, and how do you want it communicated to customers in decorating?
Step 3: Understand The Retail Space
Understanding the retail space you are working with and how to use it to your advantage is essential. For example, consider using more of your walls for displays if you have a small store. If you have a large store, use less wall space and create product-driven areas that help draw customers towards certain items or displays.
Step 4: Assess A Retail Space
Now that you’ve got a good grasp of the needs of your product and its target audience, it’s time to look at what kind of space you have to work with.
What does your workspace look like? Is there enough room for displays and merchandise? How many people can comfortably fit inside the store at once? You may need extra room for an employee break area or an office space for paperwork.
Step 5: Create A Plan For How You Want To Stage The Items
The last step is creating a plan for how you want to stage the items. You can decide what you want the customer to see first. What do you want them to see second? And so on. There’s no right or wrong way of doing this; it’s simply about creating an experience for your customers where they feel like they’ve walked into a bigger story than “here are some clothes.”
Think about what makes sense for your store and ask questions like:
· How to describe the brand with the use of only one word?
· What feelings do hope people get when they come in – excited, relaxed, energized?
· What kind of mood do you want them in while shopping here – severe and focused or playful and free-spirited?
Step 6: Put The Merchandise In Place
Now that you know what works, it’s time to put it all into action. Start by evaluating your space and seeing how much merchandise you have to work with. Are there empty racks or shelves? Do you have a lot of floor space? You want to be sure everything is organized and easy to find so customers can quickly locate the products they want without having to search through racks.
Conclusion
Merchandising is a crucial step to ensuring your retail space is booming. It will help your customers find their needs and make your store look good. By following these steps, you’ll be able to create an organized, attractive display that will encourage people to come back again and again.