Why Is It Extremely Important for Retailers to Lay Emphasis on Visual Merchandising - Essay Example

Retailing Visual merchandising and its effect on behavior Your grade Introduction With the advent of the retailing era, products and pricing alone cannot target customers. Customers who enter a store with the advent of purchasing might return empty handed due to a number of factors. Though one of the factors is the unavailability of the products they need but there are a number of factors which might deter them. They include not being able to find the product, being unsure about the product because the store atmosphere doesn’t allow them to judge it properly and being uncomfortable in the store. The store might not appeal to them and the shopping experience is not as convenient as they would like it to be and they leave in order to buy that better shopping experience. Retail design Marketers need to come up with new strategies to attract and hold on to their customers and one of these promotional strategies is visual merchandising and store design and layout. Walters and White have defined visual merchandising as the activity, which coordinates effective merchandising selection with effective merchandising display. (D Walters and D White, 1987). It involves communicating a positive product image to the customer and also ensuring that the customer decodes it well thus leading to positive behavioral outcome leading to purchase. The basic aim of the retailer is to trigger a customer to make a purchase. For this three major steps are to be followed. The first one should cause the customer to enter the shop. This can be caused by the shops exterior including both the exterior landscape, the board and the window display. The second effort is made to retain the customer in the store for as long as possible which is attained by making the ambience pleasing and the store comfortable. The third and the decision making process of buying is greatly affected by the product display and availability which is ensured by clean products on display in an efficient manner. The interior design of the store can greatly affect the customers psychologically, lowering their defenses and removing their doubts, encourage them to make purchases and maintain interest in the store. (Kotler, 1974). Thus all marketers are unanimous in agreeing with the fact that store design is one of the main factors behind customer store choice decisions. Other factors include pricing, distance and size of the outlet. Previously the emphasis was on the display of the products but now marketers also have to lay emphasis on the elements which excite the senses of the shoppers. Frequently used elements are smells, lighting, flat screen videos and graphics and flooring (McGoldrick, 1990) Visual merchandising involves using four basic design elements namely lighting, cleanliness, design layout and product display. These are also called orienting factors, signage and atmospherics by other marketers. Shopping is not just a need. For many shoppers it is a recreational activity. Therefore shoppers would like to choose stores which are high on entertainment value (A.G Woodside, 1992)as compared to their peers. Display does not completely determine the purchase of an article but makes it four times more likely. (Kerfoot, Davies, & Phillipa Ward, 2003). Therefore visual merchandising is equally important as the product itself. When a customer enters a store he is immediately affected by the sights, smells and sounds in the store. These sensory directions along with the quality and the price of the product will guide him to make the purchase. Effective displays along with other promotional measures such as advertisement compel a customer to buy a object as researchers have found that 64.8 % of all purchase decisions are made inside the store. A customer is attracted to a display in 3 to 8 seconds and within that time he develops interest in the object. Thus all principles of product display and design such as balance, emphasis, harmony, proportion, rhythm and color are to be used. Depending on the type of products symmetrical or asymmetrical balance should be used. Asymmetrical balance should only be used when the products are required to create excitement otherwise it might be perceived as imbalance. Emphasis can be created by repitition foreg sale banners all over the store. It can also be created by setting things on the focal point of the customer where they are most likely to be visible. The objects must be placed at the right place, on the right place and at the right distance from the customer. Shiny surfaces and unusual textures emphasize objects. Main display objects should be frequently changed to ensure that the shoppers do not perceive the store as monotonous. Customers will only enter the store if they are convinced from the store exterior that the store has something new to offer. Thus like store display on the inside, the store exterior is also very important. Signs outside the store should immediately convey what the store is selling and also have a strong relation with the products inside. They should be unique, readable and noticeable. Banners are another visual aid employed by store keepers to interest shoppers. Frequent banner changes are viewed as a sign that new and exciting changes are taking place in the shop thus encouraging customers to enter. Window displays also encourage a customer to enter and is wont be an exaggeration to say that there are stores in which one in four purchases are made as a result of efficient and attractive window display. Both structural and decorative harmony should be employed when arranging the products for display. Structural harmony implies that the products fit in with its neighboring products thus allowing the shopper to find them easily. Decorative harmony implies that the decoration or the ambience of the store should follow a single theme thus allowing coherence and proper relation of one part of the store from another. Lighting can make products shine and liven the colors. Customers do not generally like to shop in places where lighting is low as it is a general perception that dim lighting is used to hide defects. A study of shoppers in Srilanka shows that 66% of them are strongly influenced by the lighting in stores (Wanninayake, 2007)primary lighting is a must in all stores whereas accent and atmosphere lighting should be employed where required. Colors and architecture inside the store also help the customer develop a strong sense of coherence. They help the customer stay in the store a bit longer thus impulsing him to make more purchases. 80% of impressions are created by sight and therefore it is very important that the customer has a pleasant impression of the store and its merchandise. Most stores besides those who are dealing in custom products do not have the staff to attend to each and every customer individually, therefore the products and the interior should be able to market and sell the products. The product display therefore should be categorical, efficient and organized. The selling space is the most important part of the store and therefore maximum utilization of each and every square foot should be made to ensure maximum profits. This might apply that the store stocks more products to ensure availability of everything that the customer might demand but in reality it is ensuring availability of customers satisfaction from the store which wont be possible if the store is too cluttered or if it takes a lot of time to locate what the customer is looking for. After all time is money too. Since catering to customer aesthetics is also of primary importance specially in stores which cater to high end customers, stores ensure that they promote the right image. Rolls Royce shops promote an image of luxury whereas Walmart whose target market is broad and low spectrum ensures that the price advantage is known to customers as soon as they enter the store. (Colborne, 1996). Thus the right external and internal image of a store make it easier for the customer. A Wal-Mart shopper will not like to enter a Bloomingdale like store to shop. Thus it should not come as a surprise that "The Body Shop" has developed and maintained its own special environment and feel which is common to all its stores. This is developed by serving the olfactory sense of the customers by assuring that the stores have a pleasant smell. This in a background with sight worthy posters of The Body Shop claiming to be organic does much more to attract the customer. The product display is extremely efficient. Even in the smallest Body Shop stores around the globe it is very easy to find the right products because of their categorical arrangement. This trend is amplified by the fact that the display in the shop is almost global. In stores around the same continent customers are bound to get the same products arranged in the same manner and at the same prices. The Body Shop has further integrated visual merchandising by appropriate use of lighting. In stores wherever possible day light has been used again reinforcing their belief of being organic. Besides that the stores are ordered and never look cluttered despite the huge range of products the company offers. The display in the windows is minimalistic, rather it opens up the shop to the customers by giving them a view of what is going on inside. This open attitude with glass walls and a few posters outside appeal to the customers as they can observe the calm and luxurious interiors in bustling shopping malls. Last but not the least is The Body Shops strategy of promotional posters with special offers on their normally bare walls and doors. This attracts customers which the inside ambience and the products manage to retain. Similarly the new Bloomingdale in Santa Monica California employs both efficient visual merchandising and a clear aesthetic direction to pull its customers. It tries to integrate Bloomingdales shopping sense into the beach community of Santa Monica. While it retains the sophistication of its Newyorks Soho location, the display also synchronizes with the beach community that Santa Monica boasts of. (Bloomingdale press releases). Its chic and the interior makes apt use of the Southern Californian sun by using glass boxes and aluminum in the exterior. The sleek and contemporary designing of the stores interior matches with what its customers expect from the merchandise. Extreme importance is given to the stores finish which captures the Santa Monica theme by using weathered wood and frosted white acrylic. (Retail design diva, 2010) All these efforts are being made to relate to their up-class customers mindsets who want their shopping experiences to feel as if they are straight out of "Coastal Scents" magazine. Conclusion Shopping in the 21st century is a way to satisfy both the physical and recreational needs of a person. Thus shoppers lay emphasis on not the value of products but also to the kind of shopping experience they have received. The quality of the shopping experience is determined by the shoppers senses and therefore it is extremely important for todays retailers to lay emphasis on visual merchandising. A stores exterior and interior appeal will attract and retain the customer long enough to trigger him to make purchases and if the store does not project confidence and suitability then the customer is bound to leave empty handed thus affecting the stores sales. Therefore to ensure maximum sales it is necessary for retailers to lay emphasis on facets of merchandising such as product layout, store design, lighting and exterior. These will make an impression on the customer and a positive impression may last long enough for the customer to make a purchase. A comfortable shopping experience might also guarantee customer loyalty and return. References A.G Woodside, R. R. (1992). Finding out why customers shop your store and buy your brand: automatic cognitive processing models of primary choice., . Journal of Advertising Research , 59-78. Bloomingdale press releases. (n.d.).(online), from Bloomingdale: http://www1.bloomingdales.com/about/company/press/detail.ognc?newsID=121 Retrieved November 22, 2010 Colborne, R. (1996). Visual merchandising: the business of merchandise presentation . Cengage learning. D Walters and D White. (1987). Retail Marketing Management,. Basingstock: Macmillan Press,. Kerfoot, S., Davies, B., & Phillipa Ward. (2003). Visual merchandising and the creation of discernible retail brands . International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management , 143-152. Kotler, P. (1974). Atmospherics as a marketing tool. Journal of Retailing , 48-64. McGoldrick, P. (1990). Retail Marketing,. Maidenhead.: McGraw-Hill, . Retail design diva. (2010, 16 August)(online)., from retail design diva: http://retaildesigndiva.blogs.com/retail_design_diva/new_stores/ Retrieved November 22, 2010 Wanninayake, W. (2007). THE IMPACT OF VISUAL MERCHANDISING ON CONSUMER STORE CHOICE DECISIONS IN SRI LANKAN SUPERMARKETS. 7th Conference on Business and Economics. Rome. Read More