Visit the Pros
Major retailers and chain stores invest a fortune in visual merchandising. They conduct statistically valid research and employ some of the best creative talent available. Yet much of the information and expertise they spend thousands of dollars to acquire can be yours for free. All you have to do is go shopping.
Visiting your local shopping mall and other large retailers should be something you do on a regular basis. Be prepared to make notes and take pictures. Don’t be afraid to borrow any ideas that may work for you. Among the stores I like to study:
Major Department Stores Stores such as Nordstrom and Bloomindales often represent some of the very best ideas in visual merchandising (they certainly spend enough money doing so). Here’s a challenge for you:
- Pick your best local department store.
- Visit it on the first of the month, every month for a year.
- See whether the displays are ever the same from one month to the next.
Best Buy (www.BestBuy.com) The challenge Best Buy faces is helping consumers decide between similar items displayed side by side — usually without salesperson interaction. To do so, they excel at signage, with signs that are clear, colorful, easy to read and usually packed with sufficient feature/benefit and price information to help customers make informed decisions.
The Disney Store (www.Disney.Store.Go.com): Visual merchandising is about stimulating the imagination, and if there was ever a master of this, it has to be the Disney organization. Things that make Disney Stores stand out:
- They’re clean and colorful.
- Displays are almost always neat, orderly — and brimming with merchandise just begging to be purchased.
- Large video displays bring action and animation to the setting.
Be sure to note the colorful Disney characters that line the walls between the tops of the displays and the ceiling.
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