At Mannequin Madness we pride ourselves on providing retailers with information and resources to create visually appealing window displays – on a budget. So in addition to selling a variety of used mannequins and dress forms at discount prices, we post lots of examples on our blog of budget friendly retail displays.

Even though we think ALL window displays look better with at least one mannequin or mannequin body part, we try to be unbiased in our blog and include eye-catching window displays that do not use mannequins at all such as this one.

Eye-catching Halloween Window Display

Just because your store does not have the deep pockets of Barney”s, Lanvin or Bergdorf’s (the gold standard for window displays) doesn’t mean you to have boring. Creativity and good execution are really the most important things in eye-catching window displays. Anthropologie for example, creates fantastic windows using inexpensive and recycled materials.

Anthropologie display with balloons

This is  perfect example of a key rule in visual merchandising that most small retailers don’t realize. You have to do more than just show product in the window. You need something visually appealing to get people to stop, look and come inside. Clothes on a mannequin aren’t enough to get people’s attention.

This Anthropologie window display is much more appealing with the addition of the pink balloon poodles. How cheap and chic is that!

budget friendly window display

A client of ours, a visual merchandiser for a retail store inside the San Francisco airport, sent us this photo. The clothing the mannequin is wearing is a lot more interesting because of the paper flowers and other props surrounding it.

We are going to share with you here a list of websites that offer products, resources or inspirational ideas to help retailers create budget friendly window displays. Of course we would be remiss if we did not include our own website, www.MannequinMadness.com, where we have a rotating inventory of used mannequins, dress forms and assorted props that we acquire from high-end retail stores when they remodel or close locations. We sell new mannequins too, but our claim to fame is our recycled mannequin inventory.

These resources below were provided by Erica Ecker, a fantastic visual merchandiser based in San Francisco. She has a regular gig for a chain of stores but is available for freelance work. So if you are based in SF there is no excuse for you to have a boring window display! Erica can be reached at ericaecker@gmail.com

www.techshop.ws (this is where we go in Menlo Park to make everything)

www.save-on-crafts.com (lots of cheap supplies)

www.notmartha.org (lots of great ideas)

www.realsimple.com (more ideas)

www.hubert.com (cheap signage and materials)

www.etsy.com (everything!!! all handmade, I’m sure you’ve seen this one)