The blog post was written by StoreTraffic.com. and is the first in a three part series they wrote about this.
Creating an eye catching window display has many benefits for your store:
-it will obviously serve to show off or display the products that you offer
-it can give the store a theme and image; it can segment seasons and update the exterior look of the storefront
-it can help to entice shoppers into your store, which is the ultimate aim as increased foot traffic is likely to equate to increased sales and custom.
While some of the above points might be obvious, there are still far too many store owners who are not exploiting the benefits of creating effective and engaging window displays.
Store windows the world over are littered with poorly arranged displays with weak lighting and cluttered, unorganised merchandising which continues to work toward missed opportunities and promoting a poor impression of the store.
With a little effort and input, these issues can be worked upon. It actually might not require a huge amount of budget but it will require thought and planning to execute it well.
Begin With Your Target Customer In Mind
Not all customers are created equally and of course any advice presented here will need to be adapted to suit your own store.Having an intimate understanding of your customers will help you create a knockout window display and this doesn’t only refer to their age and income but also to their lifestyles. You need to dig a little deeper into your customer’s psyche when creating a window display.
It may take some trial and error to figure out the window displays best suited to your customer base. The great thing about window displays is that they’re adaptable and you can make constant little tweaks to see if it has a positive impact. One particularly effective way of testing the impact of your new window display is with a 3DScope camera. This camera allows retailers to find out their “Capture Rate” and know for sure how many of the people walking past their store actually enter.
Retail Display Ideas
Here are some suggestions on getting your ‘A’ game in play for your store window display.
1. Choose a Relevant Theme
If it’s Valentine’s Day, don’t go for the obvious red hearts, try to think differently while keeping to the theme so for example you could incorporate some red material as a backdrop and showcase some of your styles (if you have a clothing store) with accents of red using your red tones accessories like jewelry or handbags, purses etc. It keeps the romantic theme but it still showcases your products. Obviously put some effort into ancillary bits and bobs to amp things up, lots of flowers will add some romance and drama and use luxe materials like velvet and chiffon to accent the red colour.
2. Think Eye Level
Analyze how people will engage with your window display. As a general rule it is best to keep things at eye level but there are exceptions. You can also try suspending items from the ceiling or placing items on the floor while concentrating the customer’s main attention on what’s at eye level.
3. Give Expensive Products Space
Keep in mind that if you’re displaying expensive products don’t cram them all together as it will make them look cheap. For example, if you’re selling a pair of really expensive ladies shoes, you should create a window display to highlightthe diamond encrusted buckles sparkle so they look like they’re worth every penny!
4. Be Surprising
Don’t make your storefront boring. While this may seem obvious, it’s astonishing how often store owners fall into this trap of creating an unappealing and basic window display. Your display should force people to stop what they’re doing. The modern consumer is constantly busy and they won’t stop unless you give them a very good reason. If it’s something a bit different they will and they might even take pictures and share it on social media. Hopefully it will whet their appetite so that can’t resist finding out what’s inside your store!
5. Be Creative
It isn’t rocket science. A good starting point is to think about how best to use bold colours and shapes. Maybe something that will catch a person’s eye from the distance. The amazing thing about storefronts is the potential customer doesn’t even need to be walking past your store directly, and they may be able to see a creative storefront from the other side of the street. When trying to decide on your window display, ask yourself if you would walk across the street to see it? If you wouldn’t, make little tweaks until you get it right!
6. Keep it fresh
You should change your storefront every few months. No storefront should stay the same forever and you need to keep the people passing by (or even from across the street!) interested. Remember that even the best storefronts will become boring after a while. We know it’s hard to dismantle what you worked on for a month straight to perfect, but if the same people are walking past your display every day it will start blending into the background for them.
7. Lights, camera, action
When you create a new window display you want people to see it. Effective use of lighting is essential. This is particularly true at night because if you’re the only store in the block with a lit up display it will draw attention to your store- even when you’re closed! How you light your display is important and you should focus on highlighting areas within the display rather than individual products, unless of course, you are displaying particularly expensive products.
8. Keep it Simple
By now you probably have a few ideas about constructing your window display, and it can be pretty easy to get carried away. Remember that when it comes to window displays-less is more! If you try to do too much it will end up looking too busy and the display will be too unfocused to capture potential customers as they pass by.
