Visual Merchandising Top Cheats During Tricky Times
We may know what we need to do for ideal retail visual merchandising presentations, but find ourselves short of being able to achieve it. After all, we are human, and life brings all sorts of challenges, resulting in facing shortages in key resources. These resource shortages may be time, energy, manpower, space, and/or budget.
Let’s talk about our favourite top 5 hacks to cheat Visual Merchandising when we are low in any of the above!
PROBLEM #1:
We cannot keep up with steaming all of the products in our shop
IDEAL SITUATION:
Every material item is perfectly steamed in the selling space, which elevates the actual product and increases its perceived value by customers.
THE FORGIVABLE CHEATING:
At the bare minimum, steam the product in their hanging positions, only where they are visible to the customer. This may mean steaming just the one side while side-hung, or the very first item on a face-out, so that the first batch of customers see nicely steamed items at a glance. Then, you can progressively steam the rest of the products in quiet pockets of the day.
*When a customer purchases something, make sure you steam those in particular, so that customers aren’t going home with wrinkled products!
PROBLEM #2:
There is not enough product to keep the presentation looking as full and abundant as needed.
IDEAL SITUATION:
There is the perfect amount of inventory where product groupings are strong and approachable, while negative spaces are still left yet for proper premium presentation.
THE FORGIVEABLE CHEATING:
Use fillers! For smaller items, fill their containers with items like crinkle paper, pebbles, fabric, foam, anything to fill up the space and keep the products levelled high. If the filler is something not visually-pleasing, add a cover to it such as fabric wrap or a type of board to block off the view.
For bare shelves, see if there is other relating product that you proportionately have more of, and double-park it into this bare area, interjecting it as a filler between sparse product.
PROBLEM #3:
There are many single units left, which is not visually pleasing, nor are they getting noticed, because they are overshadowed by the more abundant products.
IDEAL SITUATION:
If these singles cannot be stored away until more units come in, another solution may be to have a “Last Chance” section so that you never have to let those singles destroy an otherwise pristine presentation.
THE FORGIVABLE CHEATING:
Pair the singles with like-items, where they also act as coordinated props. For example, a single jacket can be shown layered on the very first top shown in a more abundant section. Or, a single top can be layered underneath a section with many jackets. A blue vase can be paired with another grouping where the colour story makes sense, or it can be styled with a table setting, where it is also used as a prop. Treat those singles like an add-on to a fuller area.
PROBLEM #4:
The weekend shopping has completely dismantled the great merchandising we had done, and there is no time to fix it in time for the next day opening.
IDEAL SITUATION:
You would first walk the whole floor, ensuring that all items are in their correct zones, check if any new arrivals have arrived, re-merchandise making room for new arrivals, and finessing all of the other sections.
THE FORGIVEABLE CHEATING:
To be presentable in time for opening, correct the grouping where you are tightening each product grouping, ensuring all labels are facing forward, and creating proper negative spaces in between groupings. At least, this way, the merchandising will look “solved” and presentable in time for the first batch of customers, and you can plan the rest of the steps to fix the merchandising during quiet periods.
PROBLEM #5:
I want to have a good Visual Merchandising operation in place, but every point of walking staff through the necessary fix-its, figuring out the next phase of changes, or explaining to the staff what needs to be done, is incredibly daunting and time-consuming.
IDEAL SITUATION:
You would have daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal plans scheduled where all those involved know exactly what they are accountable for, the merchandising flips follow the needs of the business calendar and product arrivals, and there are standards in place so that executing set-ups are as easy and smooth as possible. There is also a training system in place to minimize the time spent in re-training and constantly changing the set-ups.
What you need to achieve this are tool creations:
A VM Planning workbook (at least until you have set standards in place and a seasoned merchandiser)
A daily/weekly checklist so that staff members are clear of expectations
Floorplan creations to help efficiently and strategically plan effective placement of zones by monthly and seasonal changes
Presentation guidelines so that any staff members will easily understand the presentation standards that are a part of your brand identity (your VM ID!)
Customized set-up instruction sets by a VM expert to help guide feasible internal execution
…. These are all services we can assist with!
THE FORGIVEABLE CHEATING:
While we would be happy to serve you with the items above, the point of this blog is to talk about times that we are lacking in key resources. In those times, the DIY tools may make more sense for you:
A VM Planning workbook (*Free with newsletter sign-ups)
…. And any other goodies that you find helpful here: https://www.vm-id.com/diytools
The best thing we can do is be honest about our situation, so that we can do ‘good’ or ‘great; when AMAZING is not quite possible. Any step still a step forward and upwards, and that’s what we need to keep moving towards!