at 2/23/2009

1) You can't use yesterday's store fixtures to capture the attention of today's shoppers.

2) Choose retail displays and fixtures that are uniquely suited to your target market.

3) Design your space using retail display systems that make it easy for your customers to keep shopping.

3 Tips for Choosing Customer-Friendly Fixtures

 

Win customers by using retail display systems that are customer friendly: in other words, harness the powerful psychology of shopping. People love to shop. In fact, a great number of people consider shopping a relaxing leisure activity or even their hobby, with Business Network (BNET) stating that 39 percent people in the United States "love to shop." So, retailers in general have an eager audience that is ready and willing to buy its products – but, they also have significant competition and so they must woo and win the attention of their potential customers.

One key way to attract and keep the attention of shoppers is to create an environment that is conducive to shopping – and one key way to do that is to use compelling, interchangeable store fixtures and retail display systems to keep your store fresh, interesting and appealing.

Here are several more important tips:

1) You can't use yesterday's store fixtures to capture the attention of today's shoppers. An educational site in the United Kingdom – BizEd – published an article titled "The Psychology of Shopping." This article reported that retail giants of the 1970s relied heavily upon the philosophy of "pile it high, sell it cheap" and they found success with that philosophy. Since then, though, retailers are using increasingly sophisticated ways to capture the attention of shoppers – which means that you, as a retailer, also need to use contemporary strategies, which include attractive retail fixtures, to keep customers satisfied.

2) Choose retail displays and fixtures that are uniquely suited to your target market. Here's a great example of how not to structure your retail space. A blogger at a site for petite female shoppers was complaining that retailers – meaning those who cater to the petite – use retail displays that are not within comfortable reach of its customers. Now, does that make any sense? Of course not. Take a detailed look at your own store. In what ways are the store fixtures and retail displays that you're using not compatible with your customers' needs?

3) Design your space using retail display systems that make it easy for your customers to keep shopping. The BizEd article also pointed out how successfully some retailers lay out their stores using retail displays that allow and even encourage a customer to keep browsing. Nothing blocks the customers from this path. So, again, take a look at your own store. What store fixtures or other items make it difficult for your customers to continue to navigate through all of your products? Remember, too, that an average person's field of vision tends to be around 170 degrees. Keep that in mind as you design your retail space.

Finally, here is a fun quote from a 1924 publication about the psychology of clothes – and, really, it also relates to the way you lay out your retail displays! According to this publication, "dress has a tremendous influence upon individuals, upon both the wearer and the beholder. The consciousness of being becomingly and fittingly dressed for the occasion, whatever that occasion may be, strengthens and insures one's self-confidence tremendously, gives poise and self-command, encourages the brain to forge forward, emboldens the timid tongue, and quickens one's wits along the avenues of resourcefulness, inventiveness, graceful speech, and tact. In fact all of one's faculties are stimulated and inspired by the consciousness of being properly attired."

Yes, dress does have a tremendous psychological impact on the people wearing them – and the way in which you arrange your retail fixtures have a tremendous psychological impact upon the customers who walk inside your front door. Make your retail space a friendly welcoming place through the strategic use of contemporary compelling store fixtures today!

Jerry Barczyk is the managing director of marketing and sales for Marlite's retail visual merchandising systems, which include retail fixtures, slatwall display systems, displawall and more. For more information about compelling store fixtures and retail displays from Marlite, visit the website.

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