Unit 30 – Visual Merchandising

Unit 30 – Visual Merchandising

P1 - Explain how visual merchandising techniques are applied to goods in different types of retail outlets.

M1- Analyse the visual merchandising and display techniques used to present goods in retail outlets.

Muhammed Islam

Muhammed Islam Nikki Echezona

P1 This is an E-Book and I will explain the visual merchandising and display techniques used by my chosen three different types of retail outlets Types of Retail Outlets Supermarkets- Retail stores that usually sell a variety of food products and household goods. They are exactly placed and arranged in specific departments.

Supermarkets are a large version of small grocery stores. Example of supermarkets can be TESCO, ASDA and Sainsbury’s etc.

Specialist Store- They specialise in selling specific types of products and associated items. They would not sell anything else apart from that specific range. Example, JD and Carphone Warehouse are speciality stores, JD sell clothes specifically related to sports and Carphone Warehouse are a well-known expert with phones.

Discount Store- These stores offer a variety of products to end-users at discounted or less than the normal retail price. They generally offer a limited range and quality of goods sometimes may be inferior as compared to the department stores. E.g.

Poundland and B&M etc. are discount stores.

Malls- Malls are comprised of many retail stores operating in one place within it premises and all outlets selling their own goods but at a common platform. This forms a mall. E.g. Brent Cross and Westfield etc. are malls.

Department Store- These stores are a set-up which offer many varieties of goods in different departments to customers all under one roof. Consumers in these stores can buy nearly all the products they expect to shop at one place. They provide a variety of options to shoppers, hence fills their shopping needs. E.g. Debenhams and Marks & Spencer are department stores.

Warehouse Store- A retail format that sells limited stock at discounted rate in bulk.

Warehouse stores do not focus on the interior of their stores and products are not properly displayed.

Different kinds of goods Impulse goods- goods such as inexpensive or luxury items like to be bought unplanned and without significant thought. They are normally placed near tills and checkout operators. Example of goods include chocolate, magazines and snacks.

Speciality goods- these are products that certain consumers will actively and make effort try to purchase it because of certain unique features or loyalty to a particular brand.

Seasonal goods- products that are only available to buy only during certain seasons of the year. For example, Christmas trees in Christmas and pumpkins in Halloween.

Convenience goods- consumer products that are extensively available and bought often with minimum effort. As convenience goods can be found easily, it does not involve hard decision-making process as its cheap enough for most consumers to buy. E.g. Soap, detergent powder, toothpaste, toothbrush, shaving cream, hair-oil, etc are all convenience goods.

Search and compare lines- Consumers find product of interest by seeing through the website of the retailer directly or searching between sellers through a shopping search engine, that displays the same product’s availability and pricing at different eretailers.

Complementary merchandise placement- products that are to be consumed with another good. E.g. butter, pasta sauce and etc. are goods of this type.

Different Visual Merchandising Techniques Micro-merchandising- a technique attracts attention to certain products in the middle section of an aisle by using different sorts of shelving or fixture End–cap techniques –cross-merchandising - the display of products situated at the either end of a main shelving unit within an aisle.

Technology- the use of technology display, using video, digital graphics, and music and sound to display merchandise. Colourful graphics, engaging videography, popular music mix with electronic display on flat screen viewers, large and small, to gain customers' attention and create instant emotion and desire for the products.

Proper Space and Theme Display and Special events- This is used as a method of cross merchandising by setting displays of products around certain special events or holidays. It is also the utilising of space in stores to make sure that it is good shopping experience for consumers.

Vertical/horizontal- This tactic is the practice of displaying products in a vertical manner, upwards from top to bottom or in horizontal manner, across from left to right.

Repetition/consistency- This is when one display design is made and then repeating it, it is made clear throughout the whole store to make it easier for consumers to look around and also ensure that they do not feel there is too much going on.

Fragrance of store- This is the smell of the interior of stores customers will inhale when they come in to shop.

Rule of three- this is grouping of products together in sets of three, giving the three focal points to rest on. This also creates a variety between products.

Colourisation- This technique is the use of different colours and schemes as a tool to help the merchandising of products. It is an effective way visual merchandisers use to enhance the display of products in store.

Visual merchandising displaying techniques End-cap The end cap tactic is commonly used by Asda as it is known to be a unique display fixture as they draw the attention of customers compared to others placed on other regular shelves as they explore the store. The merchandise stocked at the end of an aisle is very appealing as it doesn’t compete against other products stocked close by for customer attention. They are also effective areas to display impulse goods. A prevalent endcap technique that is commonly used by Asda is cross merchandising, where products that are related are placed to together to encourage add-on sales like spaghetti sauce displayed with pasta products. End-caps are used to sell impulse goods e.g. Asda use end-caps to sell different brands of chocolate bars together with special offers of discount prices.

Colourisation Asda use colourisation because it makes it easier for customers to shop and it is more visually coherent. E.g. they arrange a colour scheme to display (toys), so they used blue to show their boys toys and pink to show they’re girls’ toys.

Asda use this because colour influences customers emotions and mindset. They harness the power of colour due to many advantages. Utilising colours raises emotion and sets a tone of what customers can expect from the products. It is the best way to quickly, easily and effectively develop an emotional response from customers. Visually, it is also an effective tool for shoppers to separate and differentiate products that are displayed in a large wide-ranging diverse shelf section. Colourisation conveys to customers where to focus when may be buying by helping them focus in a certain area or on similar products in the same section of an aisle. It also facilitates 'compare and contrast' efforts between products in the same aisle but with different features and benefits.

Theme displays Poundland uses this tactic for example, when it is Halloween Poundland sets displays and products based around Halloween to sell season goods like pumpkins, buckets and scary costumes. Poundland uses this because it greatly boosts the brands presence and brings it to life, merchandise that are displayed with a theme tells a story and forms emotion for customers.

Setting a tone for customers would inspire them to connect with the goods, they can think of themselves having a good time with the product and remember memories or experience the fun with it and purchase the product displayed. When Poundland display the theme to the windows of their store, they attract and motivate customers to come into the store and when they step in and see the aisles of diverse theme-related products, it builds a sort of excitement to encourage them to investigate more through inspecting.

Technology Since the continuous advancements in technology, this had led to retailers utilising visual devices like big flat screen TV’s for broadcasting advertising messages instore. Retailers often use this to provide customers information regarding store services, or to promote special sales and demonstrate new brands of products.

For example, Carphone Warehouse use big advertising TV’s to advertise speciality goods, which is phones.

Displayed on their windows to try and attract shoppers into the store by promoting their offers on their latest trends of phones, on both Pay as You Go and Pay Monthly. Details shoppers did not know about hence the store is providing them with it.

This benefits Carphone Warehouse as colourful digital graphics with electronic display on big flat screen viewers big and small, draws customer attention and form instant interest and many occasions desire for the merchandise.

Technology is an effective and fast tactic to show shoppers the product and why they want it. This type of method gives Carphone Warehouse a modern, sleek and highend environment in-store. It appeals to the busy crowds in the mall or high street with bright-coloured electronic graphics on big screens. Graphics that are engaging, high quality video footage displays work well together to form a consistent brand image around several product offerings. So, in Carphone Warehouse the product could be the new Samsung Galaxy S9 and why they want it, because of discount prices on offer on it. Another reason why they have used it as it physically takes up small amount of space in the store, it can on the wall or on the windows.

Vertical Merchandising This tactic is the practice of displaying products in a vertical manner, top to bottom.

By displaying products that are popular, close to customers line of eye view, those items have better visibility than products that have a way lower turnover.

Merchandisers vertically displayed lets shoppers to stay in a single position but use their sight to follow the display of products, from top-to-bottom. Carphone Warehouse use this tactic to sell speciality goods, so they vertically display phones.

They added this tactic to their selling methods as it will effectively help them make certain phones stand out and generate more purchases. They have used this because displaying items directly at customers sight of view, they are more likely to sell these devices because of their prime placement. They can gain and maintain customer interest by separating walls of different phones to differentiate phones of other similar models at similar levels. In this instance Carphone Warehouse display their

top luxury phones, Samsung’s and iPhones at the first wall of phones as soon as customers walk in to the store. This lets potential buyers spot the top brands quickly at eye level. Carphone Warehouse can display phones of lower popularity in less-prominent areas instore, ensuring that top-quality phones like iPhones and Samsung’s are more heavily marketed to customers.

M1 In this part of the assignment I will now analyse and explain the visual merchandising techniques used to present a variety of goods in my two selected business which are ASDA and Carphone Warehouse.

What is visual merchandising and why is it important?

Visual merchandising is a sales tactic of effectively displaying products to an extent where they are attractive and desirable to customers, to try entice and prompt them to buy and encourage sales of store products. This tactic is about essentially using artistic displays to engage and interest potential buyers.

Visual merchandising is important as it is used in a layout of a store to the full effect by displaying products in key places of the store. Its value of visual merchandising is in its ability to make merchandise attractive to the eyes of potential buyers. If a product display attracts the attention of a customer, they spend a long time on the product. When they take their time on a product, then they are eventually to buy it.

This tactic is also important as it is a critical retail strategy that maximises the aesthetics of a product that aims to boost and maximise sales like impulse goods.

Differences in techniques ASDA and Carphone Warehouse use ASDA uses colourisation to greatly intensify display of goods and make it more appealing to customers as colour is known to have a huge influence such as on mindset and tone. Also, that certain aisles where colour can be utilised don’t look plain and have the chance to engagingly shine in consumer eyes using the right colours. Multicoloured sections can also appear to consumers that they have a diverse range of options. E.g.

ASDA display different types of chocolate together with coloured packaging. Carphone Warehouse do not use colourisation as most of their phones on display are black. It would be more appealing and interesting if they displayed their phones in different colours for buyers to see which particular colour would be good in their eyes to buy.

ASDA use end-cap to draw the attention of customers to goods compared to others placed on other regular shelves. ASDA also use this to encourage add-on sales by cross-merchandising with different products and to try boost the sales of impulse goods as they’re well-known effective areas to sell them because they don’t compete with other goods on long shelves. Furthermore, they use this technique to draw attention to certain products as they’re won’t be a wide-range of products to see

like on regular shelves because end-caps are short and small so, customers won’t think there will too much to look at as their eyes will remain in one place. However, Carphone Warehouse would not use end-cap as they are typically short and small, because alternatively, Carphone Warehouse like to display a broad variety of products such as lavish phones and accessories on large wide shelves stretching around the store to draw attention.

Another reason why Carphone Warehouse can’t use end-cap is simply due to interior space. ASDA have end-caps in every store as their bigger and a lot of Carphone Warehouse stores just don’t have enough space.

Carphone Warehouse use technology as an attractive way to appeal to customers through top electronic big vivid graphic displays, to form great interest and persuade buyers to come in and checkout their products. They are also a technology store that sells the latest technology so, it is a smart tactic to attract customers with large vibrant screens to give them a top modern environment that sells top modern phones. ASDA, however do not use technology as there are enough visual merchandising techniques in their stores so, there may not be any space to fit big vivid electronic screens in plus they are mainly are grocery store.

Similarities in techniques ASDA and Carphone Warehouse use Carphone Warehouse uses the rules of three to display search and compare goods which are phones of the same model, e.g. they display the Samsung Galaxy S9, the Galaxy Note 9 and the Galaxy Note 8. They use this as looking at 3 huge models makes it way more interesting and attractive than just looking at one lone model. It also encourages customer eyes to move around and take in more detail. This tactic also enables potential buyers to effectively make easy comparisons among similar products, judging for themselves which lavish expensive phone would be better to purchase. ASDA also use the rule of three in a similar way for search and compare goods but for clothing on mannequins, because customers would be more visually

engaged and remember when they see three rather than one as products will look visually pleasing in sets of three. E.g. ASDA dresses three mannequins in three similar clothing. Consumers would visually analyse and take in more detail of the fashion, see how the clothing could look like on them and compare and decide which clothing is the best to buy.

ASDA uses repetition and consistency horizontally in visual merchandising to express the broad variety of options customers have on the wide-range of exciting merchandisers they have available for purchase. For example, ASDA have a long aisle of videos games, movies and DVD’s on stock, this shows that they have all the good games and movies consumers can look forward to when deciding which to buy. In a similar way, Carphone Warehouse use repetition and consistency to display the wide variety of products such as lavish phones and accessories that they have available across the store. Showing that they have the latest trends of phones and others available.

Carphone Warehouse uses vertical technique to show the best trending phone devices at eye level at the first row of phones when customers come in. E.g. they display the best model of Samsung phones at the top and the other less popular models all the same brand which is Samsung at the bottom. Carphone Warehouse use this to ensure the prime items which are the luxury and expensive devices are more heavily marketed to customers.

These phones at the top are Samsung’s latest, most expensive and best quality phones they want to primarily market more heavily to consumers. By placing them at customers line of sight so they are the first phones they see.

ASDA also use vertical in a similar manner, e.g. they display vertical rows of different types of milk and they put the smallest gallon at the top. ASDA use this to differentiate items such as the different types of milk tops as they look the same but contain different types of fat and they always place the small milk at the top of all milk which is at the customers line of sight, to try to push for more sales of small ones as customers generally buy the medium and big ones to use them for longer.

eBook: https://issuu.com/makevili96/docs/p1-m1_7ffbc4a262d975