VISUAL MERCHANDISING

Creating Order Out of Chaos

All the store’s a stage—is your show an appealing one?

do you feel challenged with creating order out of chaos in your retail area?

If so, you are not alone—most retailers grapple with this behemoth challenge. A store environment, with its many product offerings and visual stimuli, can be overwhelming and intimidating. If the space lacks organization, it will definitely not promote a positive shopping experience.

How to craft order out of the bedlam? The successful retailer will use the store as a tool of communication. By controlling the physical environment and employing effective presentation techniques, we can convey quality messages to our target customers.

Here are four ideas to get you started.

1. ORDER? YOU’VE GOT THIS.

The role of the visual merchandiser is complex—including creating and defining an environment, projecting the nuances of the brand, and, of course, presenting merchandise. The overarching goal, however, is to make shopping as easy as possible.

To that end, get started by organizing your merchandise (eyewear, sunwear, accessories, etc.) in an orderly, easy-to-shop fashion. Edit your product assortment with an eye to presenting a focused production rather than an overwhelming epic.

2. FASHION! TURN TO THE RIGHT.

Shopping surveys reveal that 80% of customers turn to the right upon entering a store. This information is indispensable when it comes to developing an orderly store layout. Because the lion’s share of your customers and patients will automatically turn to the right upon entering your optical area, play upon this by positioning a focal point (read: a brightly colored accessories display, an area highlighting sunwear fashion trends, etc.) to the right but at the end of the area or their sight line. This will help draw them forward—and into additional, add-on-sale areas you define, such as sunwear and accessories.

You are now moving them where you would like them to go. As customers see these presentations, they approach and then bounce from one presentation point to the next.

These sequential points of travel are used religiously by store designers and visual merchandisers today. And your optical business can employ them effectively, too.

3. GO TALL, NOT WIDE.

Vertical merchandising is another key component of an orderly retail environment. To intensify visual impact and make dynamic merchandise statements, consider the “airspace” above eye level.

A flat sea of merchandise is unattractive and unappealing—and can appear cluttered. Continuous horizontal displays of merchandise, even with eyewear, will wear out even the most enthusiastic shopper.

Vertical merchandising moves the eye upward, opening new vistas and merchandise stories. Strategic positioning of highlighted vertical displays and changing product presentations can also help put the spotlight on key items.

4. PUT ON A SHOW.

Retail is naturally the showplace for new ideas, new concepts, and new products. As such, the store becomes a selling stage, and the merchandise offerings are actors.

Experiential shopping—a retail platform that delivers an experience for today’s demanding customers—differentiates one store from another. As such, strive to deliver a unique-yet-orderly experience and tell a story that is uniquely yours.

Harry Gordon Selfridge, one of the early merchant princes at the turn of the 20th century, once said, “Every day is show day in this establishment.”

Remember, the store is a selling stage; it’s theater. If you keep Selfridge in mind—and keep it simple and organized—you won’t have to worry about selling the merchandise. It will sell itself.

—Eric Feigenbaum

Eric Feigenbaum is the New York editor of VMSD magazine, a visual merchandising publication.