Designing the layout of your jewellery store to maximise sales is one of the most critical marketing strategies.
The price of failure is a lack of loyal customers, declining sales and, eventually, financial ruin. Conversely, if your store is well-crafted, you are well on your way to success.
How a product is displayed directly influences the customer’s path to purchase. When a display is well done, you’ll sell more products; when it’s poorly displayed, even the best jewellery can sit unloved and gather dust. Fortunately, there are plenty of strategies, tactics, tips and techniques to help you encourage customers to come closer and interact with the merchandise.
Consider the following strategies and assess whether they can take your store to the next level.
Create windows that stop traffic
It’s a fact that pre-occupied shoppers will spend approximately eight seconds looking at store windows as they pass by.
Your job as a visual merchandiser is to expand that time frame. Think about the product you want to feature, your desired message, any props you will need, signing to add and, of course, lighting.
As you create your display, step outside and check it frequently from different angles. Is the display easy to take in from all directions?
Let’s start with what not to do!
Avoid any display that assumes shoppers will place themselves at the centre of the window and pause to take it all in. Some customers will do that, but most will glance around and keep walking.
You are in trouble if there is no clear focal point or theme. Mango, a Spanish clothing design and manufacturing company founded in Barcelona, now has locations worldwide.
In New York, the company’s window display used two techniques to stop traffic: Bold colour and the 'power of three’. Customers are attracted to the colour red, that’s why it’s frequently used in product packaging. Red in display windows catches the eye and becomes a style backdrop.
The ‘power of three’ technique works because our brains are hardwired to seek asymmetrical things. Displays that feature products grouped in odd numbers – especially threes – cause our eyes to move about the display. We see more and potentially buy more.
Creative props and merchandising
Do you know that dresser you picked up on the curb, cleaned up, and repurposed as a display fixture? You were upcycling, practising one of today’s hottest trends.
Banana Republic performed brand upcycling in 2021 when the company went back to its origins with its ‘Imagined Worlds’ campaign that ‘reflects Banana Republic as it was originally conceived – a fictitious territory – far-away and unknown place that is part of explorer folklore and adventurers’ lore.’
Props and fixturing carry out the theme in-store.
Slow customers down
Located approximately 10 feet inside the front door, speed bump displays build an instant first impression.
Their job is the same as their cousins in the parking lot: to slow you down! Speed bumps create the perception of what customers can expect while perusing your sales floor, so use them to feature new arrivals, cross-merchandise with related items, and tell product stories.
Remember to change them weekly.
Increase your add-on sales
Cross-merchandising is your best friend and an easy way to increase your average sales. How?
Your store should be displaying complementary items next to each other. If you are buying scrapbook paper, you might also need glue sticks, and if those glue sticks are hanging on the paper rack on a clip strip, you have a better chance of encouraging an impulse sale.
Cross-merchandising also includes using merchandise outposts and placing a complete display of products from one department in another. Bundling products together at one price also helps unload overstocks and slow-moving items Coordinating accessories and plants on the shelf can finish the look for this approach. Plants are always a lovely touch.
Studies show that plants reduce stress, increase productivity, and add a positive spin to your store’s overall ambience.
Signs to increase sales and visibility
A study by FedEx Office found that 68 per cent of US consumers made a purchase simply because a sign caught their eye.
Here’s another statistic: 74 per cent of all purchase decisions are made in-store, so signs are silent salespeople. Imagine what it could mean for your sales if you decided no display was finished until the fixture was signed correctly. Well-thought-out and signed displays allow you to express your creativity while optimising the square footage on your sales floor.
Try these visual merchandising tricks of the trade in your store and watch what happens!
More reading:
Does your store have ‘community charisma’?
Sales tips you can apply to everyday life
Six big ideas to increase sales
Simple and effective ways to boost your word-of-mouth referrals
How to improve and create great retail displays
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