Visual Merchandising Display - Fairchild Books

Figure 26.2 Category killers must visually reduce their tremendous
selection into easy-to-view, easy-to-select, and eye-pleasing areas
of merchandise presentation if they are to encourage a shopper to
make a selection. In the multilevel Hamleys store on Regent Street,
in London, the display team has organized the hundreds of stuffed
bears into easy-to-shop clusters and enhanced the setting with
the giant tree and the imaginative tree house.
The lighting in the store must reinforce the displays
along the way—highlight them and turn them into focal
points that will attract and stop the shopper on his or her
way. The graphics should not only set the lifestyle concept
for the product, but also help explain how, when, and where
the product will work. Some big-box operations have electronic
stations near the entrance where shoppers can punch
in what they want and be shown, on a monitor, the quickest
way to get to the product. Some computerized stations, in
the departments, will provide answers to specific questions
about the products contained in this area.
Although merchandise in the big-box stores is often
crated and boxed and stacked ceiling high, samples must
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P a r t 5 : V i s u a l M e r c h a n d i s i n g a n d P l a n n i n g
be available to be seen, touched, tested, and tried. Easy-toread,
easy-to-understand signage should be provided near
or on the sample product to make it self-explanatory. Here,
too, a simple display, a prop, a background panel, a graphic,
or a floor pad—whatever—can enhance the product and
make it more relevant to the shopper: a wicker basket overloaded
with colorful T-shirts standing next to a washing
machine, a stuffed toy dog with a doggie bowl standing and
staring at a refrigerator, bags of popcorn and pizza boxes
piled up on the floor in front of a TV set, and so on.
The big-box phenomenon is now moving into town
and taking over old, no-longer-used movie houses,
deserted supermarkets, and—quite naturally—untenanted
warehouses. The major problem is providing
sufficient parking spaces, especially when shoppers have
to pick up and move large, clumsy, and often heavy crates
or cartons. Big-box stores are not only for hard goods. The
two- and three-story Borders and Barnes & Noble bookstores,
for example, have a vast selection of books for all
ages and interests, as well as magazines, writing materials,
reading-related gifts, CDs, DVDs, and computer software.
They seem to have everything and anything anybody
would hope to find regarding literature, how-to, hobbies,
and entertainment. Here, too, the café/coffee shop has
become the add-on “entertainment” factor, along with
celebrity appearances. These attractions do prolong visits
to the bookstores. In some instances, the café has become
the primary reason for the visit, and the book-related
purchase is the afterthought.
Discount and
Factory Outlet Stores
Discount, factory outlet, and value-oriented shopping:
These are buzzwords that get the shopper’s instant attention
and are often enough to bring on a shopping spree.
These magical terms seem, more and more, to be the
“open sesame” to sales. Time- and money-conscious
shoppers all have the same goal in mind: they want the
best for the least and preferably in the most comfortable
and convenient stores.