Visual merchandising: description, law, rules and usage

Today the art of sales is one of the key theoretical foundations used in trade. Every store owner, every head of the sales department makes every effort to increase the number of sold goods and, at the same time, attract the maximum number of customers. A significant role in this is visual merchandising.

More details about what the discipline represents, as well as the key points that it studies, we will discuss in this article.

Merchandising is ...

Perhaps you know what merchandisers call people working in the sales room of your supermarket. These are specialists, whose duties include the placement of goods on the shelves. Since any store (and especially - a supermarket) has a rather large range of products, its arrangement can take a lot of time. Therefore, this function is entrusted to specialists who have sufficient qualifications for this.

Working in teams, merchandisers can spread out thousands of pieces of goods stored in boxes in a few hours in the most accurate manner. As a result, a client who has come to the store, does not suspect anything about how much effort this costs and how much effort is invested in ensuring that the goods are placed in this way.

Accordingly, we can more specifically say what is merchandising. If we proceed from the definition of the duties of a specialist of such a profile, then this is the science of how to arrange the goods and what principles should be followed by the person who performs such work. It also includes, perhaps, theoretical elements of how faster and more efficiently this task can be accomplished.

Visual Merchandising

About what the merchandiser is doing and what his tasks are, we talked. Now let's find out one more key point. In this article we are talking about a phenomenon such as visual merchandising. What it is, and how it can be related to the definition given above, read on.

So, this is another branch of science, which, again, studies how the units of the product are to be placed. True, in this context we are talking directly about the form of trading shelves, and not about the mechanism of the arrangement. That is, visual merchandising determines how the trading shelves should look, how best to arrange the goods (visually), so that, in the end, it allows you to raise sales and interest more customers. As practice shows, such a science is quite relevant.

Application in practice

It turns out that the stores do not deal with placing goods on the shelves on the principle of chance or "as desired." In fact, the place where this or that product lies is strictly determined by a combination of different factors. And the primary tool that helps determine the position for each of the categories of goods is visual merchandising. It is with his help that stores make sales.

All heads of trade departments of certain companies study the main rules governing how to arrange the goods, where should be placed those or other products, what should be guided in this matter. And, I must admit, these principles work! And the sales volume is really growing, if you introduce what the visual merchandising offers. Books, perfumes, food - each of the product categories has its own characteristics, which should also be taken into account.

Merchandising Objective

So, we have considered in some detail general information about how to place the goods in such a way as to attract more buyers and push them to purchases in large volumes. However, sales growth and, as a result, store profits are not the main goal. In addition, there are also such moments as the ease of finding the desired unit of goods by the buyer, as well as the emotional sensations of the shopkeeper that resulted from the purchase.

Properly spaced goods can help the buyer spend less. Leaders who take care of a competent strategy for the location of units of production, can indeed shorten the visitor's time, if they apply the logic understandable to the latter. To do this, it is sufficient that groups of similar products are close to each other; For example: tea and coffee, dairy and meat products, vegetables and fruits.

The second point is just an emotional component. Visiting a supermarket, a client can get positive or, conversely, negative emotions - depending on what he sees there and what he will meet. If, for example, the thing necessary to him was placed in a group of "irrelevant" products to her, it would rather upset the buyer, since he is more likely to look for it not where necessary.

From the general concepts we turn to the instruction concerning the main points in the art of placing goods on the shelves.

1. Selection

One of the most important principles that operate in visual merchandising is the art of object selection. This is achieved through various techniques, such as: color contrast in the design of goods, the original packaging of products, the number of units of goods based on the area occupied by them. The first two points are obvious: if you place a brighter product on the background of others, you automatically focus on the visitor's attention.

The same goes for packaging design. As for the number of products, this indicator builds all visual merchandising. The fundamentals of the theory of the placement of goods suggest that placing items on the shelves should be as laconic as possible, without dumping everything into one pile. Of course, following this advice is difficult, given the limited space.

2. Height of placement

The second important factor to consider when placing products is the ratio of the height of the shelf on which it is located, with the eye level of the client. So, directly at eye level there should be the most popular goods, which will be noticed by the visitor in the first place. If you sell goods for children, it is better to put it lower so that the children can notice and ask their parents to purchase it.

3. Diversity

People who organize the arrangement of goods on the shelves always remember the need to provide their customers with a choice. The product range is the main factor that can increase sales in your store. Try to maximize it, while adhering to the principle of laconic accommodation, which we wrote about above. Successful visual merchandising of a showcase is the ability to show the best samples of a product in a minimal space.

4. Groups - our all

All products must be strictly grouped by category and placed according to destination. In the department of household chemistry, no one will look for dairy products, so these sections are best placed away. Unlike food, visual merchandising of clothing in this regard is somewhat simpler: many stores share goods, depending on the type of product. For example, winter shoes are placed near the top of winter clothing so that the buyer can look for additional items for himself.

5. Create space

Do not forget that any buyer likes the presence of a small amount of free space between the shelves. It should suffice to provide comfortable shopping and convenient movement around the store. Agree, visitors will not want to crowd in a small room, stuffed with the same customers as they are. This is - an unshakable law of visual merchandising: you can not gather around a small rack a huge number of people, because there will be a crush and visitors will be uncomfortable.

6. Price-lists

Another very important element in trade - the so-called "price tags". The designation of the value of the goods is the first thing that every second buyer pays attention to. Therefore, one should not even say that they should have a clear and pleasant appearance, be sufficiently informative and relevant (otherwise a visitor may simply refuse to purchase this product at the checkout), and also correspond to the unit of production near which it is located.

Thus, if you paste a huge number of price tags, the visitor may not understand which one belongs to one or another product category. As a result, again, there will be confusion, and this will cause a lot of trouble to the client. Do not allow this: place price tags directly under the product, so that the visitor in a few seconds understood what the cost of a product.

conclusions

Of course, just reading one article, you can hardly learn how to professionally place goods on the trading shelves. As the experience of successful entrepreneurs engaged in retail trade shows, it is best to focus on the "trial and error" method, with which in a few months the head of the outlet, changing the goods, begins to understand how a product is sold, being in Different places of the trading hall. True, you will agree, this approach is very laborious. In addition, it can negatively affect your sales for the time that you "experiment". After all, regular customers, accustomed to how the goods are located, will be uncomfortable if they suddenly move. This is, rather, the practical side of such a science as visual merchandising.

Teaching her is, on the contrary, a theoretical side. In the course of training, you must first read a lot of material about what goods you need to have in what order, after which you will have some general picture of how the products will be placed in your store. Well, of course, we can recommend books, which describe in detail the visual merchandising. Tony Morgan is the author of the eponymous bestseller, which teaches art to beautifully and efficiently arrange goods on shelves. We advise you to familiarize yourself with this book and draw your own conclusions from this.