editor’s letter

Visually Merchandising a Luxe Look

Stephanie K. De Long

Lighting, colors, you name it. They’re always important, but even more so when it comes to merchandising your most exclusive and expensive products.

To help, here are some tips from the Visual Merchandising Experts Panel we moderated at Vision Expo West.

The main message: In the luxury category, it’s all about creating an experience. And, that means selling both the product and the environment.

1. SORTING & STOCKING. In the luxury arena, suggest our expert panelists, don’t separate sun and optical. Or, if you do, then display an extra pair of the sunnies alongside the ophthalmic frame. That’s especially important when you’re trying to tell a brand story.
2. SEPARATE & ALTERNATE. Separate your product and colors vertically—light to dark, warm to cool—and put neutrals together. Be sure to “mix it up” by placing solids between patterns.
3. FOLLOW COLOR TRENDS. Check out Pantone.com for the season’s trending colors. It was emerald for 2013 and is dazzling blue for 2014. DON’T tear your displays apart changing colors, but DO add a pop or two of what’s hot.
4. ODD NUMBERS. When arranging product, a display with an odd number of frames—five instead of four, for example—gets more attention.
5. PERSONALIZE P.O.P. Don’t plop a lone cardboard-backed point-of-purchase item in a display. Instead, hang some of your favorite vendor-provided images on a wall, all in similar (and same-colored) frames.
6. GO RIGHT. Ever notice there’s always a great display to the right of the entrance of major stores? That’s because 80 percent of customers will turn to the right when they enter. Yours will, too, so give them something terrific to see.

Whatever you do, when it comes to visual merchandising, remember the most important rules of all: DON’T be intimidated, and DO have fun.

Steph De Long
Editorial Director

MERCHANDISING RESOURCES

Travis Reed, a contributing editor to Eyecare Business and a participant in the Visual Merchandising Experts Panel at VEW, suggested several resources to attendees for both purchasing and perusing great looks that readily translate into optical.

Here are just a few of those resources:

READY READING

• Visual Merchandising and Store Design magazine…this by-subscription-only monthly is the bible of the visual merchandising world (vmsd.com)
• DDI (Design and Display Ideas) magazine…available by subscription or online (ddionline.com). Also check out DDI’s Retail Design Newsletter
• Retail Environments magazine…published by the Association for Retail Environments (retailenvironments.org)

TRADE EVENTS

• Globalshop (globalshop.org). Next event: March 18-24, Las Vegas Convention Center
• NRF’s Big Show (bigshow14.nrf.com). Next event: January 13-14, New York’s Javits Center

ORGANIZATIONS

• PAVE: Planning and Visual Education (paveinfo.org)
• A.R.E. Association for Retail Environments (retailenvironments.org)
• NRF: National Retail Federation (nrf.org)