Displaysense Top 10 Tips

Research shows that a staggering 60% of buying decisions are made in store.
While there are many aspects involved in marketing and gaining customer loyalty, an increasingly important decision to make is how you create a successful visual presentation on the display/point of sale stand.

Does your merchandise display attract and interest the customer?
Or does it overwhelm and confuse the viewer?
Is the display simply bland and unremarkable?
Does it look right for your company’s product/brand/image?
Or does it look out of place and show your products/literature in a bad light?

Here are some top tips designed to help you create displays that will get the customers' attention and maximise your sales:

1. Create a focal point

An overwhelming display or a boring one can both have the same problem - a lack of focal point.

Where do you want your viewer to look?
Is there one main feature you want them to notice?
Where will the eye travel through the display? Don't leave this to chance. Plan what the customer should do when they see the display. Perhaps a new product is the main focal point, with complimentary items placed in close proximity to encourage multiple sales.

Many window and table displays are too low. The focal point should be at eye level to most viewers. Visitors will not work to get a good look at your display, they will simply walk on by without noticing.

2. Plan your design

Don't just put your products together willy-nilly. Practice drawing a quick layout to help you visualise the plan for your design.

Will your layout be horizontal or vertical?
Will the products be arranged in straight or curved lines, in a pyramid or circular shape?
Will the design combine a variety of elements, or just one?

To experiment with this, draw rectangle that is roughly the same shape as your display space. Sketch geometric shapes such as squares, rectangles, circles, semi-circles and triangles in various combinations to get a sense of an appealing layout.

3. Create balance

Strong displays have visual balance. Dark colours appear heavier than light ones. Large objects appear heavier than small ones. This seems straightforward, but you need to think about this as you plan your display. Generally larger, darker items would be placed near the bottom of a display, with lighter items at the top to avoid appearing top heavy. Placing too many items or heavy looking items on one side appears unbalanced. A grouping of many items on one side of the display can be balanced by one heavy item in just the right place on the other side. Think of weights on an old fashioned scale to get an idea of how this works.

Does balance matter? We all respond emotionally to visual stimuli. Creating a display is about creating a mood and a desire within the consumer. A lack of balance creates an impression of instability and anxiousness. The consumer is not even aware of the feeling, he or she simply searches out an environment or merchandise presentation that gives them a positive feeling and creates an appealing mood.

4. Keep it simple

Don't try to do too much. The goal is to attract attention to the product or literature you are promoting not the display itself. On slatwall for example, often simple rows are the best way to show the merchandise. Too often displays can be seen where every row or shelf has a different arrangement.

Your goal is to make it easy for the customer to find what they are looking for and to make sense of your product/literature arrangement. Keep your groupings logical by grouping similar products/literature together, with complimentary products/literature nearby.

5. Use proper lighting

Lighting is overlooked far too often. When budgeting for shop/exhibition displays and merchandising, lighting is not an 'extra'. Lighting your displays properly can make the difference between a display that makes people yawn, or makes them stop and look.

Lighting should be adjusted every time you change your display to avoid unattractive shadows.

If you don't have positionable lights in your key display areas, get some as soon as possible. A good lighting store will have some for a reasonable cost and can give you advice on installing and using them.

6. Look at the display from all angles

After you have completed your display, step back and look at it. Very few people will see it standing directly in front of it. Most displays are approached from the side and seen from an angle.

Approach your display from all possible angles and view it as a customer would.

Is your focal point still placed appropriately?
Do you need to angle the display to the customers’ viewpoint?
Is the signage visible and readable?
Does the arrangement still appear balanced?

Observe the direction from which most customers approach the display. Make sure that the best view of the display is the one that most of the customers will see.

7. Survey Others

This may sound obvious to many people, but is nevertheless worth mentioning. Look around at other products and companies. How do they display their products/literature? Is it counter top, floor standing or wall mounted? What size is it? Why do they display it in that way? Would it work for your product/literature?

8. Premium products need quality displays

As a very general rule of thumb: the more expensive the product is, the classier the display should be. Although there are exceptions to the rule, you don’t usually see a piece of valuable jewellery on a cheap display unit or literature advertising a top quality car brand on a bog standard leaflet display.

Equally, if it is a budget/volume product that you are displaying you will normally want to use a budget display that suits the product and packaging.

9. Monitor Performance

When trying new ways of displaying, don’t forget to monitor the results. Little tweaks here and there in the way that you display can have staggering results and of course you want to know what works and what doesn’t.

10. Recycle or donate wherever possible!

Far too many unwanted displays are simply thrown away when they could be donated to charities or recycled into new ones. Please help us to promote recycling of displays, which you can find out more about in the sections below: