// Craig Hepworth - Senior Creative Account Manager 
The first thing to establish is the answer to the question “What is Visual Merchandising?” Put in its simplest form, it is how product is arranged and displayed in retail outlets in ways designed to encourage you, the customer, to buy their product. Sounds easy enough? But as consumers have become savvier over recent years, brands have had to be smarter and more inventive in the battle to get your hard earned pounds into their tills. This has seen retailers place greater importance on the techniques and processes used to achieve this, meaning the role of visual merchandising teams has grown.
Every brand has their own ways of doing things, but they all based on the same basic principles. As early as when new stores are on the architect’s drawing boards consideration is given to department layout. Certain areas will always be fixed due to the nature of the shop fit, such as footwear departments, but other areas are designed to be more flexible reflecting seasonal changes. From a customer perspective, their journey begins with the windows. This is the first chance to grab potential sales, and head office creative teams spend hours researching trends, visiting museums and galleries, and flicking through magazines in order to come up with eye catching displays.
On entering the store the first area you normally hit will be a trend area where the product displayed in the window is located. This is another great opportunity to wow your customers with an amazing mannequin display wearing the product. Mannequins also serve another function – the ability to up sell. By adding a few key accessories, an otherwise good outfit can be made über-desirable. From here the key is to lead your customer on a journey around the store – fixture placement is key to this. A mix of heights helps to create interest rather than a sea of fixtures all at the same height and position. Play with angles creating paths through each department. How you position the product in wall bays is vital, create outfits and balance colours and arm configurations. Think about the adjacencies of your departments – hosiery next to footwear, tees and shirts by denim. Incorporate mannequin displays in key departments. In a denim department for example, this is another opportunity to highlight the latest range of tees or shirts that are on trend. If floor space is limited, use high levels or areas within the wall bays by incorporating torsos, legs or props as ways to display product. When planning layout bear in mind seasonal influences. In autumn / winter coats and knitwear should sit nearer the front of the store in a primary position, or in summer pull together a festival based trend near the front. But remember to keep a balance of space throughout; you don’t want customers to feel crammed in.
There are a few tricks that are also used. “Eye level is buy level” is a slogan drilled into many VMs, but more subtle techniques such as tactile displays are used – once you touch a product the chance of you taking it home increases 22%.
VM techniques vary according to the type and size of business, but understanding how the fundamentals can stimulate to buy can translate into dramatic increases in sales.