Crystal Rae
While trends in retail may come and go, one thing that remains constant is product merchandising. Merchandising tips and techniques are the same around the world over and are transferable from one end of the industry to the other.
The way that a product is merchandised could have a profound impact on whether that item will sell or not. For many retailers, merchandising is everything.
So, what is product merchandising and how can it be put to good use in your business?
Let’s take a look at the art of retail merchandising and how to merchandise a product.
What Is Product Merchandising?
Product merchandising is the art of positioning items sold in your store in an attractive manner to entice your customers to buy them. It includes shop windows, how an item is positioned on a shelf for the customer to select it, and the use of point of sale materials such as graphics and videos.
If you want your retail business to thrive, you need to have a keen understanding of merchandising and a flair for making creative displays.
- Eye-Line Is Buy Line
One cliche phrase that is often used throughout the retail and visual merchandising sector is ‘eye-line is buy line’. Put simply, this means that the products that you want your customer to buy the most need to be positioned in the most prominent positions.
And by prominent positions, we mean directly in the eye-line of where your customer will be looking. This could be at eye level on a shelf, at the most prominent position on a stand of a table, or taking center stage in a window display.
Before you start to merchandise your products at eye level, how do you determine which products should go there?
You’ll need to carry out some research into your products. Look at the lines that have the best margins, that you’ve committed to buying the most of, and which sell the best. All of these factors are relevant when it comes to determining a product’s position in your store.
- Spark the Customer’s Imagination With Product Grouping
Products that are grouped together can help set a customer’s imagination off. There are several ways that you could choose to group your products. Purpose, price point, size, type of product, and color scheme are all ways that you might want to consider.
You may choose to group products together such as an entire outfit or all of the ingredients needed to make a particular meal.
Why this is not innovative, it does work well. Product grouping will entice shoppers because it tells a story,
- Support Your Product With Appropriate Signage
Signage informs your customer about promotions, it also helps direct people around your store to find the items they may be looking for. If you want your customers to head to a certain part of your store, lead them there with signage.
Once you’ve taken your customers to where you want them, you can use signage to highlight great price points or even the key features and benefits of your products. Point of sale signage can be used in a wealth of ways. Professionals in digital signage at Mandoe have a vast experience in the industry.
Add a barcode or QR code to your signage to take your customers on an interactive journey. Here’s how to create product barcodes.
Think about adding striking visuals and using your company branding on all of your signage to make things really stand out.
- Cross Merchandise
We’ve touched on using product grouping to enhance displays, however, a must in retail is cross-merchandising. This means placing complementary items next to the main product.
For instance, if you’re selling RC drones, a great range of products to cross merchandise with this might be batteries, spare parts, and books on how to operate an RC drone.
When applied correctly, cross-merchandising increases the total basket spend of any given sale. Throughout your store, look for opportunities to add value to your main products by suggesting items that they might also like to buy.
- Engage the Senses
You need to build an experience that surrounds your product. This means engaging all of the senses. Instead of passive shopping where your customers just scan the shelves to find a product, an active experience will put the shopper at the heart of the purchase.
One of the best ways to do this is with retail theater. Retail theater means demonstrating your products and merchandise. If your customer can try a product out or see it in action, or even smell or taste a product, then you should try and merchandise in a way that lets them do this.
If live demonstrations aren’t an option for the product in question, you could engage the senses by adding videos of the product in action.
You can also use light to help draw your shopper’s eyes to certain places without any extra effort, alternatively, you could incorporate a light aroma that enhances your brand.
Product Merchandising Tips for Beginners
If you’re new to retail, make learning about product merchandising your number one priority. Before you start merchandising, find out how much each product is costing you, how many you’ve bought, and how the item has previously sold.
Use this information to create displays that engage the senses and encourage add-on sales. Use signage to enhance everything you have on offer.
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