Appearances are everything in the retail business, and it’s essential to make a good impression. Every part of the in-store experience must present the brand in the best possible light, from the employee uniforms and signage to the product displays and interior design of the store. A Copenhagen Business School study revealed that in-store visuals influenced the buyer decision process.
You want your customers to feel good when they shop in your store, and it starts by designing a visually pleasing experience. In the age of Instagram, you want your displays to be picture-perfect. You also need to utilize tools to present your products: mannequins for clothing, bottle glorifiers for alcohol, interactive displays for electronics, and so on.
Here are a few ways to maximize your product displays:
1. Use customer psychographics to your advantage
Businesses routinely use demographic data to develop customer profiles. Details such as gender, income, age, and education all inform our business decisions. But when it comes to designing a retail experience, you need to take it a step further. If you want to create the best visual experience for your target customers, then you must also understand their psychographic profile.
Psychographics refers to the factors that help drive consumer behaviors. These can include political values, ethics, motivations, and attitudes. Let’s say your brand sells lingerie. Your demographic data might tell you that your customers are mostly female, young, and well-off. Their psychographics will reveal that lingerie wearers are usually liberal, romantic, and open-minded. Use this information when designing your in-store displays.
2. Utilize the different sense
Product displays are usually visually driven, but that doesn’t mean that you can appeal to the other senses as well. More and more retail stores are designing multi-sensory experiences that transform the way their products are perceived. Best of all, these changes can be subtle, and your customers won’t even realize that their five senses are engaged.
For instance, playing soft and mellow tunes can help encourage your customers to linger in your store. You can also play music that your target customers like to improve your brand’s appeal. Another sense that you can stimulate is touch. Many electronics stores allow customers to interact with the devices, providing customers an understanding of how the product works.
3. Carefully plan the design
Product displays are a critical component of the overall store experience, which is why you need to think carefully about how you design them. Utilizing design theory goes a long way in creating displays that contribute to your brand’s business goals.
For instance, playing around with balance can help provide visual clues about the way your store is set up. A mix of symmetry and asymmetry makes your display more interesting and dynamic. Color also breaks up monotonous displays. If most of your products are of the same size, using color schemes can help create a contrast to avoid giant blocks of the same color.
Consider your products and branding when designing the in-store experience. If you sell shoes or clothes, experiment with contrast and balance. Electronics and home appliances lend well to balanced layouts with lots of space.
