Store Display as Retail Marketing

A well designed store display is a powerful marketing tool. For a retail business it is the most direct and interactive form of promotion. It gives substance to fantasy in a way that no other form of advertising can. In simple terms, effective retail design is stage design or stage-setting wherein the central character is the potential customer.

Good retail store display should project a coherent image, enhance the perceived value of the merchandise and improve the customer’s experience. However, with the bewildering array of retail store fixtures to choose from it is all too easy to blow through a budget on unnecessarily costly designs. Ideally, store fixture costs should be quickly recouped by the boost in sales afforded by the enhanced impact of the stock presentation. Sadly though, too many entrepreneurs believe they must sink vast sums of capitol in top-of-the-line or custom-made store fixtures, when in reality exercising a little good taste and selectivity can achieve an equally striking store display without miring the enterprise in excessive cost.

Good store displays should simplify the experience of both customer and retailer. Store fixtures should exist only in the peripheral consciousness of the viewer, and not overwhelm or detract from the merchandise being presented. For the retailer individual store displays can be arranged according to a floor plan that will encourage patterns of movement within a store to bring the customer into contact with additional fashion ideas and tempting possibilities.

A store fixture is simply to tool organize and present merchandise in an attractive, logical way. It is the merchandiser who, with an artist’s eye can create the retail atmospherics that transform the simple store fixture into the kind eye-popping store displays that will promote the merchandise and stimulate sales.