The Importance of Visual Merchandising in Building Your Brand

Did you know that 90% of the information that is transmitted to the human brain is visual? Hence, when it comes to selling your product, the way you present it to your buyers will influence their decision. To ensure your buyer chooses your products over your competitors
every time they pass through your aisle you need visual merchandising.

Visual merchandising is a strategy that can influence a customer’s buying decision inside a store. Hence, it is essential for retail marketing. This blog will help you understand everything about visual merchandising in depth. Continue reading to know about its importance, benefits, elements, and some dos and don’ts that’ll come in handy!

Definition of Visual Merchandising

Visual merchandising is a retail practice of designing in-store displays in a way that will catch a shopper’s eye and compel them to buy your product. Visual merchandising takes the following details into account:

• How does your buyer interact with your product in a retail setting?
• How does your buyer interact with your product in a retail setting?

Visual merchandising helps you develop floor plans and 3D designs that can maximise your sale. It is an intentional practice of optimising the layout of the store and space such that you present your inventories in the best way possible. The main focus is to highlight the products and their benefits. It also includes using proper greeter design, signage, fixtures, and lighting. It shows that the impact of visual merchandising on brand perception is pretty evident.

Importance of Visual Merchandising

Every time buyers enter a store, they see two things, the brand, and the store’s design. Hence, visual merchandising and brand building are related to each other. Visual merchandising directs a customer’s attention to specific areas of the store, thereby making a positive first impression. It shows, creating a strong brand image through visual merchandising is a huge possibility. But there’s more to it than just brand image. Here are a few other reasons why visual merchandising is important for you:

• It improves customer experience
• It helps customers find what they’re looking for 
• It ensures customers engage with your products better
• It plays an important role in keeping your customers informed with well-curated displays
• It highlights the products that make you more profit
• It appeals to a customer’s unconscious mind and influences their buying decisions
• It makes sure your store stands out 
• It ensures you attract your target audience
• It uses the store’s resources in a way that you make the most of ROI
• It helps you make the most out of a promotional space as well

Benefits of Visual Merchandising

The role of visual merchandising in branding is crucial. But let us talk about the benefits of visual merchandising and how it can become a game changer for you.  

Increase In-Store Traffic
Strategically placing your products attracts your potential buyers easily. Once buyers are in the store, they can wander around the merchandising displays which intend to get their attention to specific areas of the store. It increases the in-store traffic of the store and provides your buyers with a memorable shopping experience. 

Surge In Sales
Retailers need to ensure that the attention of buyers is not drawn towards just a specific product but also related products. When your buyers wander in the store, it encourages them to discover new products, and they tend to be open to impulse buying. They may have not planned to buy it initially, but they might end up buying it. All of this brings a surge in sales. 

Rise In Repeat Customers
One of the best ways to retain your customers is by having a good store narrative. The chances of your customers visiting the store increase if they had a memorable and unique experience. They start associating this with the brand and are more likely to end up purchasing from your store again. It makes creating brand loyalty through visual merchandising easy.

Supports Retail Store Marketing
Often good visual merchandising leads to customers recommending your store to their friends. The narrative you create becomes unforgettable. This makes it easier for you to retain customers and acquire new ones. You can also use social media channels like Instagram and Pinterest to showcase your store. 

Key Elements of Visual Merchandising

There are three key elements of visual merchandising. These help retailers like you create one-of-a-kind experiences for buyers. These three elements are:

• Store narrative
• Store layout
• Store ambiance

Store Narrative
Your store’s narrative is the story that your retail store tells. The narrative can be displayed via visual elements in the store like product selection, interior design, and merchandising methods.

It can be based on the following:

• Brand’s theme
• Brand’s personality and history
• Popular story that communicates an interesting message
• Products sold in the store

Store’s narrative helps you create a memorable experience for your customers based on different elements like:

• Store’s theme
  The store’s theme aims to create a mood you want your buyers to associate your products with. It is also the reason that the store’s theme gets changed based on the season, event, holiday, or trend. 
  
• Store’s atmosphere
  The store’s atmosphere is the store’s ambience and visual merchandising combined. They convey a specific message about the product or the brand. It leads to buyers associating with these feelings leading them to come back in the future.
• Storytelling
  Your store can be designed to tell a story. Your store’s story can revolve around:
  • Products in the store
  • Theme 
  • Brand’s history
  • Any idea that matches your business objective

Store Layout
The store layout is the arrangement of retail space that lets your buyers find everything they are looking for quickly. Display fixtures, signage, shopping flow, focal point, entry point, and store greeter are included in a store’s layout. Here is everything that is considered a part of the store layout:

• Store design
• Interior design of the store
• Presentation of merchandise
• Empty space in the store
• Marketing collaterals
• Mannequins
• Promotional space
• Brand’s elements

Store Ambience
Store ambience is the sensory experience that is created by using the following:

• Lighting
• Music 
• Colours
• Scents

They are all designed in a certain way to enhance the buyer’s experience. The store ambience directly impacts the rest of the visual merchandising elements. It can change the perception of any merchandise based on how your customers perceive it.

Is Visual Merchandising For You?

It is visible that maximizing brand exposure through visual merchandising can make a huge difference. Hence, any brand that sells a product at retail runs visual merchandising campaigns. Apart from brands carrying out merchandising activities, retailers also engage in visual merchandising often. Since they have an insight into what doesn’t work and what works for their customers. Several brands use visual merchandising across retail categories:

• Grocery merchandising
• Apparel merchandising
• Beer or wine merchandising

If you want to engage in visual merchandising activities, you can try our visual merchandising solutions or hire a visual merchandiser. Visual merchandisers play an important role as their decisions have a clear effect on sales. They need to be well organised, have an eye for detail, and be creative. They monitor a product’s appearance on a shelf in various stores. They work closely with manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers. A few of their responsibilities include:

• Collaborating with manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers to ensure merchandising plans are properly executed
• Ensuring that the retailer complies with merchandising strategies
• Maintaining product inventory
• Organising advertising campaigns and in-store promotions 
• Analysing data and reporting growth, expansion, and change in markets

How To Collect And Analyse Data As A Visual Merchandiser?

A visual merchandiser collects and analyses the retail data. They need to have a good understanding of three types of data:

• Activity data
• Sales data
• Observational data

Most merchandising data falls under the category of observational data. This is the data that comes from store-level data that merchandising teams record and observe. They record details about:

• Product’s placement in retail locations
• Condition of display
• Position on the shelf

This data will help you plug it into your strategies and work as insights to make better and informed merchandising decisions. 

Do’s & Don’t of Visual Merchandising

The main goal behind visual merchandising is to give your customers a reason to remember your brand for all the right reasons. But you need to ensure you do not overdo something your customers may not like. Hence, here are a few dos and don’ts that you can remember while planning your visual merchandising campaigns or strategies. 

To Wrap Up!

Visual merchandising and brand identity goes hand in hand with each other. Your visual merchandising can make a significant difference in your sale. It helps in creating a memorable experience for your customers and helps you retain customers too. If you are looking for visual merchandising solutions, do not forget to check our page here!