In retail, visual merchandising is a term that is often bantered about. I have written several pages about visual merchandising myself. Today as I write however, I am blasted by this thought: all merchandising is visual. I don’t often see people with their eyes closed shopping in stores. I don’t see them just “feeling around” the merchandise, stumbling between gondolas, do you? So what’s all the fuss about visual merchandising then? How can merchandising not be visual?
Retail visual merchandising is just one part of the retail process. Talking about retail visual merchandising as a source of accentuation however is a good point. It’s a good point because it makes us consider this: “how do I make this look better?” And in this context the “this” that we’re trying to make look better can be a new item, a featured category, or an anemically performing department. Heck it can even be the entire store…probably should be the entire store. So how do we make it look better? How do we draw attention to it?
The next time your thinking about your store’s retail visual merchandising, refocus. Shake your head a few times and say simply “does it look good?” Does it grab attention? Did I use color, light and communication to make the item, the category, the department, or my store stand out? Do those elements, color, light and communication work together to get my point across in the most effective manner? That’s retail visual merchandising. It really is that simple.
Are some people better at it than others? Sure, just like some people are better at any other thing you want to talk about. If you learn that one of your staff has a knack for making things look good, put that person in charge of visual merchandising. Remember that visual merchandising is all about making things look better. Making things look better is simply one facet of creating a better shopping environment. Creating a better shopping environment is simply once facet of retail profitability. Retail profitability is simply one facet of store management. You know, the anklebone’s connected to the shinbone, the shin bones connected to the…well you get my point.
Read more about visual merchandising in Discovery-Based Retail.
