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You can see it right from the corner of the block. That storefront. The sign in clean yet warmly inviting colours, the lovely summer dresses in the window.

You walk in.

There are wooden accents throughout, from the shelves to the ceiling décor, and the backdrop is white with green plants dotted about. There’s the scent of lavender in the air.

You feel calm and content, and stroll around.

The summer collection is just in; you see at least five dresses you like on the hangers.

Near the changing room is a stand with handbags on display.

That brown tote will look wonderful in the afternoon. You emerge with the dresses that fit and grab the tote.

Turn the corner and you see a wooden park bench with shoes displayed on it.

Those platform heels are so pretty! Luckily they have them in your size.

You pay at the cash counter, pausing to pick up a pair of earrings displayed by the cash register.

On your way out, you catch a whiff of something strong and invigorating.

What’s that counter offering? Free coffee tastings? You’re up! That roasted Brazilian brew is out of this world. You should probably grab a packet for those early mornings.

You step out of the store, laden with shopping bags, and walk home with a spring in your step.

Congratulations. You’ve just become a successful catch of visual merchandising.

What Is Visual Merchandising?

Visual merchandising is the process by which retailers make their store spaces more attractive to customers so as to prompt them to make a purchase.

Also referred to as visual retailing, visual merchandising is about presenting an appealing display and store space to customers that will attract their interest and encourage them to stay longer and buy more in the store, even if they had not originally planned to buy anything. By providing different kinds of visual cues, a retailer can evoke the desired emotions in a customer to translate into a sale – be it urgency, impulsive temptation, contentment or seasonal vibes, depending on what the store is selling and the experience it wants to create.

Visual merchandising, in fact, goes far beyond the visual impact and creates a multi-sensory experience that incorporates physiological as well as psychological triggers to stimulate purchase. Colours, lights, smells and even sounds can have a profound impact on the buyer’s state of mind and can prompt the buyer towards a decision, whether a yes or a no. Done correctly, visual merchandising can stimulate awareness, create customer loyalty, elevate brand image – and, of course, boost sales.

Essential Elements Of Visual Merchandising

Retailers who are new to visual merchandising may feel overwhelmed by what it implies.

“Does it mean I need to throw out everything and build a new store that looks nicer? And what do you mean by nicer, anyway?”

There is, of course, no need to build a new store – in fact, visual merchandising is all about using the existing space in a more creative way. With regard to the elements of good visual merchandising, we can classify them under three main heads – store layout, store ambience and store narrative.

Store layout

This is the skeleton of your store: the display outside, the basic structure, the way you use your available space. This forms a backdrop to the themes and special features you add later and gives customers a reason to browse your store in the first place. There are four main elements of store layout.

Signage & Window Display

If a customer doesn’t like the outside of your store, chances are they won’t step in. Visual merchandising begins with designing an attractive exterior that gives the shopper a glimpse of what the store offers and tempts him or her to walk inside. Whatever your product is, use the window display to highlight it with the help of good lighting and complimentary decorations. With outdoor gear, for example, you can place a hat on a display surrounded by artificial leaves and have a forest-themed backdrop to it. Kate Spade took their display up an extra notch by converting it into a shoppable window where browsers could order products by scanning them with their phones. In addition, ensure your store sign is clearly visible, readable from a distance and designed in the colours and patterns you want customers to associate with your product. Almost 8 in 10 shoppers say they would enter a store based on its sign, so make yours stand out.

Product Display

This requires making strategic use of the available space to create a display that attracts without distracting. For clothing and other retail stores, this revolves largely around how you arrange your products. A circular layout tends to expose customers to more merchandise as compared to traditional aisles. If you use aisles, set up display areas that highlight your signature products so that shoppers pause to look. Cash counters are great for displaying impulse buys like jewellery, chocolates or fridge magnets. You can also consider redesigning your store space so as to make it more open or to draw customers to some central point. Goose Island brewery in Chicago, for instance, redesigned its store concept to make use of open spaces, open up brick walls to integrate seating areas and allow customers a direct view into the brewing process.

Focal points

You need a display that’s pleasant overall, but you also want to draw the customer’s attention to certain things. Do that by creating a focal point. It can be as simple as a brightly pattered tea-set on a plain wooden table, or as complex as a seaside-themed section complete with sand and seashells to display a swimwear line – the crucial point is that it needs to be a draw. It’s commonly said in marketing that where the eyes go, the feet follow – and well-designed focal points can boost your sales by as much as 229%.

Empty spaces

It is for good reason that the saying goes “less is more”. Use empty spaces to add wall murals or lifestyle graphics that provide information about your products or simply feature evocative images. In a luxury chinaware shop, for instance, the picture of a well-dressed woman in an opulent setting conveys the image of luxury that the store wants to associate with its chinaware. You can also feature quotes, blocks of text or abstract art on your walls.

Store Ambience

This is what creates the sensory experience for the customer. While the store layout creates the immediate visual impact, the ambience heightens that by appealing to the visual (sight), auditory (sound) and olfactory (smell) senses to capture the customer’s attention.

Colour

There’s an entire body of research on colour psychology and its applicability to marketing, and for good reason. Ever wondered why so many fast-food brands, from McDonald’s to KFC to Chili’s, use red so generously in their branding? Red evokes hunger and is an instant draw. (So the next time you binge on fried chicken, you can blame psychology.) Green calls to mind the serenity of nature and speaks of a natural, wholesome, soothing experience, and is used very effectively by Whole Foods. Black, on the other hand, denotes sophistication and class – which is why it is a favourite with high-end designer brands like Chanel and Dolce & Gabbana.

Lighting

Up to one-fourth of customers can make an impulse purchase on the basis of correctly done store lighting. And we don’t just mean regular illumination – stores can up their visual game immensely by using dynamic lighting, which involves the intensity, colour, direction and movement of light that stimulates a shopper to make a purchase. To draw attention to a product, shine an incandescent light on it and keep the surrounding areas relatively dim. Colours again play an important role in influencing a shopper’s mood, with blue shades creating a relaxed feel and reds sparking excitement. When shedding coloured light on a product, ensure that it matches the shade of the product to avoid clashing – a sea-green light on a turquoise green product, for instance.

Sound

Ever walked into a store and felt that the music was too distracting? Every store needs to have a playlist that reflects the mood of the products and draws customers further in. An organic food store, for example, could play soothing lounge music or oceanic sounds. A teen clothing store, on the other hand, can play the latest pop songs.

Smell

we’re not talking about basic freshness here: every five-year-old knows that if a place smells like unwashed feet, it’ll empty out pretty soon. We’re talking about the positive stimulation of the olfactory nerve to tempt your customer into a long, lingering store visit that culminates in a purchase. Given that our mood may improve by as much as 40% when we encounter a pleasant smell, you should certainly consider investing in a quality aroma for your store. A shop that sells natural body care products, for instance, can entice shoppers with the smell of essential oils. A men’s clothing store can have a subtle musky fragrance, while a kitchenware store could smell of freshly baked bread. And a café, of course, should smell invitingly of freshly roasted coffee.

Store narrative

What is the story your shop space tells? Your layout and ambience may be technically on point, but if your store space doesn’t come together in a cohesive narrative, it won’t be able to retain and bring back customers that well. Use store themes to complement your product – think of the theme as a 3D moodboard that shows how you want shoppers to see the product.

Store Theme

Your settings are an extension of your products. Design them wisely so as to create the mood you want customers to associate with your product. The straight lines, sharp edges, neutral colours and empty spaces of minimalism create a refreshingly simple environment and allow shoppers to focus on the product. Again, other stores might choose to go big and bold. Hershey’s Chocolate World in New York, for instance, brings to life the New York experience with a Hershey’s twist – from a recreation of a Thanksgiving Day parade to a Central Park-themed corner with a camper truck dispensing s’mores, the store immerses customers in the Hershey’s way of life from the moment they step in.

Seasonal Theme

Whether it’s spring break or Thanksgiving, shopping sprees will surge and you want to capitalise on that. Decorate your stores with the right banners, posters and baubles that bring out the spirit of the season, and adjust the music to suit the mood too. Christmas, for instance, can be celebrated by putting up a Christmas tree, adding red-and-white decorations, spraying the air with cinnamon and playing classic Christmas hits.

Extras

Everyone loves free stuff. Use the power of extra bonuses and complementary facilities to enhance the experience for your shoppers. For example, you could serve free coffee or juices to customers trying on clothing. You can also have counters where you feature different vendors and their free samples/tastings each week. Interactive sections are a huge draw as well – MAC Cosmetics, for instance, recently launched a Virtual Try-On Mirror that allowed customers to see what different make-up products would look like on their skin.

Visual Merchandising Examples

Visual merchandising has long been recognised as an important strategy to distinguish oneself from the rest of the market. Fashion and lifestyle brands frequently use attractive displays and appealing store themes to create the right setting for their products, while restaurants devote much of their planning efforts towards designing their ambience. However, visual merchandising isn’t just for fashion and dining any more. Businesses of all kinds are recognising the value in an attractive store space, and are renovating themselves to create a new experience for customers as these brands are.

• Chelsea Groton Bank, Groton, USA – when you think of a bank, you normally think of a dull, austere space with long grey counters and uncomfortable chairs. Connecticut’s Chelsea Groton Bank, however, redesigned their space to become a bank where people would come to learn and understand banking along with availing of regular bank services. With a large lobby, attractive wooden details, comfortable private seating areas and a more open space to facilitate side-by-side interactions, Chelsea Groton created a flexible, welcoming space that is, in the words of design principal James Farnell, all about “un-banking the bank”.

• Coffee For Sasquatch, Los Angeles, USA – this LA coffee shop does the seemingly impossible by blending minimalism with the warm and quirky. Customers step into the café to enter a world of natural light, clean colours, abstract art and the floor-to-ceiling Sasquatch depiction. The use of various materials and surfaces created a minimal space where all the elements are cohesive, and there is still the warmth of greenery and wooden touches. The coffee shop won the award for Retail Renovation of the Year 2018 by VMSD, and makes a statement that passers-by can’t help but be attracted to.

• Script, Bengaluru, India – this stunning home furnishings store by Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd was designed with the aim of appealing to the growing Indian millennial classes with largely Westernised tastes and a modern outlook. The store was thus designed along the lines of an art gallery, with an open-floor layout that let the furnishings speak for themselves and spaces that paid homage to the product designers. Brass details were incorporated throughout the store as a tribute to the company’s legacy as a lock manufacturer, and the storefront was designed to adapt to natural light and also have a backlit display at night.

Visual Merchandising For Online Businesses

It is easy to assume that visual merchandising is exclusively the domain of brick-and-mortar retailers who have an actual physical space in which to wow the senses. However, think about the last online store you browsed. What did the page layout look like? What were the colour schemes? Was the site easy to navigate? Was the content crisp and catchy? Were the products displayed in high resolution and with enough information? Was the checkout process easy and smooth? All these are as much exercises in visual merchandising as are mood lights and free coffee. While tactile, auditory and “smell” experiences aren’t currently possible with online selling, retailers can use visual elements to impress customers the moment they walk in, as these successful sellers are doing:

• Hyphen Sleep – This mattress brand uses a homepage with a clean design and bright pops of colour to tell its story. The homepage contains all the necessary details to convince a prospective buyer – product features, testimonials, price competitiveness and useful tips – without cluttering the page. It uses a neutral palette with splashes of orange and blue to attract the viewers, and the images of happy sleepers are evocative.

• Hook & Albert – this accessories and leather goods brand from New York makes use of a collection format to showcase its goods. This format is inspired by the collection boards on Pinterest and is popular for highlighting clothing, accessories and other lifestyle goods. A simple grid layout makes for a clean look, and high-quality images with bold captions grab the attention of the viewer. A minimalistic backdrop ties in with the theme.

• Rad Soap Co. – this soap brand makes use of collections as well as a feature-based format that highlights certain “hero” products while also allowing customers to explore the collections they are interested in. An entire section is devoted to social proof, where social media posts with the #radsoap tag are featured.

Starting With Visual Merchandising

Whether you’re a seasoned retailer or just starting out, effective visual merchandising can go a long way in making your store more memorable. Giving your store a makeover, however, can be an expensive and complicated task. It’s important to be well-prepared before starting out so that you and your team have a clear idea of what you want your store to look and feel like to customers. You can start off by following three simple steps.

• Design a planogram – a planogram is a diagram of your store layout that depicts what elements you want to put in and where. Prepare a planogram for your store as it is first, and then see how you can improve it. Can you relocate items to make them appear less cluttered? Can you realign furniture to create more open spaces? Where can you add lighting, decorations, wall murals, shelves, display stands etc. to enhance the layout? What colour schemes will you go for and how will they be distributed? If you have an online store, come up with similar plans for each of your webpages. Narrow down to a final set of ideas, as well as one or two backup plans in case the original one doesn’t work out.
• Allocate a budget – redecorating a store can be expensive, especially for a new business. With your planogram as a reference, determine how you can implement the desired changes at the most reasonable rates. Wherever possible, see how you can reuse what you already have or give existing furniture a facelift so that it fits in with your new theme. For online stores, allocate an amount for a seasoned web designer who can give your website the upgrade you desire.
• Keep the team in sync – It is essential that your team, particularly your shop-floor staff, are aware of the new theme of the store. This way, floor staff can guide customers to focal points and take them through the narrative of the store space – it also reduces the risk of staff members rearranging exhibits or shifting the displays on their own. You should also have a system in place by which your team can share and discuss new ideas for visual merchandising. For an online store as well, it is important that the team in charge of site content, graphics and maintenance is aware of the store theme so that it can make updates and share new content accordingly.

Bottom line?

Humans are visual creatures. We gravitate naturally towards the aesthetic. Our tendency to be loyal to a brand depends on how well we can relate to the brand starting from the first impression – there is thus a clear case to be made for investing maximum effort in good visual merchandising. However, too elaborate a display could end up confusing the customer and putting them off further browsing. As a retailer, therefore, you need to use your store space strategically so as to expose customers to the maximum amount of merchandise while providing enough empty space to browse and reflect, and use a multisensory experience that ties in with your theme and convinces your customer to stay. While this could take a little time to perfect, the payoff in terms of customer loyalty and sales per square foot will be more than worth it.

After all, you can never go wrong with a good makeover.

Go On, Tell Us What You Think!

Did we miss something?  Come on! Tell us what you think about our article on visual merchandising in the comments section.

What makes a good advertisement campaign?

Is it the catchy tagline, the sales pitch or is it how well you have structured your communication message?

Well, all of these are crucial in making an advertisement campaign a ‘good one’. But not all good ad campaigns are effective.

So what makes an advertisement campaign effective? What makes it a memorable advertising campaign that engages the masses, create an impact and also boost sales positively?

To answer this question, let’s look back at some of the best ad campaigns of all time:

Dove ‘Real Beauty’ Campaign

In the year 2004, a research by Unilever revealed that only 4% of the women considered themselves to be attractive. But, what caused this mass- insecurity among women? The root cause for this was found to be digitally distorting photos to create the illusion of perfection. Basically, Dove called out the Photoshopped lie that most brands try to sell their customers.

While most ad campaigns feed on the insecurities of people, claiming to guarantee the ‘perfect look’ by using their products, Dove took the polar opposite approach by opting for a more ‘natural, everyday look’ in their advertisements, rather than highly glamorizing the commercial, thus sparking a string of discussions about how unrealistic beauty standards affected women adversely, among a number of other feminist debates.

Why Did It Appeal To The Audience?

The ‘Real Beauty’ campaign resonated with a large number of people, and instilled a sense of self-esteem in them with the assurance that ‘everyone is beautiful’. The campaign was all about building confidence in men and women, alike. Women who resonated with this campaign were also keener on buying products by Dove.

The campaign wasn’t about ‘I’m really glad they put this in the shampoo.’ It was about ‘I really appreciate what the brand is doing in the world. I want to put my dollars against what they’re doing.’ ˗ Nancy Vonk, Producer at Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto (for the ‘Real Beauty’ campaign).

Coca-Cola ‘Share A Coke’ Campaign

What do big companies do to appeal to an already large audience?

They appeal to the individuals.

That is what Coca-Cola did in the year 2011, with the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign. The ‘Share a Coke’ advertisement campaign started in Australia, after Coca-Cola personalized Coke bottles and cans with 150 of the most popular names in the country, with the U.S quickly following their footsteps. Coca-Cola also gave people the option to personalize bottles on their website with names and logos.

The very idea behind this was to encourage the customers to ‘Share a Coke’ with the person whose name was on the bottle, if it did not have their own name.  This sense of familiarity was new and exciting to the customers.

Why Did It Appeal To The Audience?

Coke fans are regular buyers of the product. So Coca-Cola implemented full individual ownership for their bottles. Not only did the individuality in personalized bottles show customers that the company cares, it also encouraged them to ‘break the ice’ and share a Coke to make friends. This made the product even more lovable and the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign, one of the most memorable ad campaigns of all time.

Nike’s Just Do It

Fitness has always been a craze among people. One such fitness-frenzy in the 1980s led to Nike coming up with the ‘Just Do It’ advertising campaign, to compete with its counterpart, Reebok. Reebok was more successful than Nike at the time, whereas Nike exclusively catered to marathoners. This was their chance to expand by reaching out to the common folk as well.

Short and sweet, the ‘Just Do It’ campaign resonated with millions of people. The message was simple, ‘Just Do It’̶ no matter how hard it is. The campaign for Nike’s shoes blew up and the sales went from just $800 million in the year 1988, to a whopping $9.2 billion in the year 1998.

Why Did It Appeal To The Audience?

The campaign put the journey to physical fitness in just three words, and urged people to push themselves beyond their own limits. The very fact that the advertisement pushed people to be more determined, encouraged them to relate to the message ‘Just Do It’ being sent across by Nike.

This personal level of encouragement is what made the ‘Just Do It’ advertisement campaign a huge success, thus also making the product a household name.

Always #LikeAGirl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs&feature=youtu.be

Two sets of people were asked to perform a set of tasks ‘like a girl’. The campaign focused on the fact that girls’ self esteem is lowered around puberty and they are still as capable as just about anyone else, driving home the fact that the phrase ‘like a girl’ was not to be used as an insult.

The #LikeAGirl campaign started out as just a commercial by Always at the 2015 Super Bowl, but blew up to be a social message that hundreds of millions of people worldwide could relate to. The campaign was not a success merely because it went viral, but because it also inspired the masses about something important- self esteem.

Why Did It Appeal To The Audience?

The main reason why the #LikeAGirl campaign became a success was because it reflected the problems faced by women in our time and culture. Apart from just addressing the issue, Always also took a stand for something that a huge fraction of the masses could resonate with.

Acknowledgment of the challenges faced by their customers and bringing it to everyone’s attention made the #LikeAGirl campaign a world-wide success and a popular hashtag used on social media widely, even today.

Volkswagen’s ‘Think Small’ Campaign

In a time when everyone was obsessed with pompous, big German cars that showed off status in an exaggerated manner, smaller German cars were left largely unnoticed by people. To tackle this, Volkswagen and the advertising group at Doyle Dane & Bernbach came up with the legendary idea to incorporate the minimal features of the car into an equally minimalist advertisement.

Though a print ad, the ‘Think Small’ advertising campaign went on to be classified as one of the best advertisements of all time. Why? Because, the campaign never tried to sell a lie to the masses. The ‘Think Small’ campaign was brutally honest, to the point and mocked people’s obsessions with big cars that did not live up to the standards.

Why Did It Appeal To The Audience?

Transparency and minimalism. It’s as simple as that!

With the ‘Think Small’ advertisement campaign, Volkswagen did what we can only describe as ‘cut to the chase’, and sold their small, but efficient cars to the masses, while also garnering a huge amount of praise for their advertisement campaign.

What Makes An Effective Advertising Campaign?

Ad campaigns are hard to come up with, especially if you are a household name. The same product can be advertised in a hundred different ways, and when it comes down to just one, what is that extra element in your advertisement that is going to be the selling factor?

What did these ad campaigns have in common? What made them so memorable? What was it about these advertisements that impacted the growth of the brand?

The answer to these questions has nothing to do with how the advertisement has been structured. While the structure is something that influences the impact of your advertisement campaign, there are other factors that give your campaign the push it needs.

• Remind your customers that you care. Address issues that are rampant, but often overlooked. Make sure that you create a personal connect with your audience while doing so.
• Add a dash of humour to the advertisement, if possible. People pay more attention to advertisements that either strike a chord with them, or the ones that can make them laugh.
• Add a catchy phrase or tune to your advertisement. If you can’t get it out of your head, chances are that others can’t, either.
• Keep it simple; don’t overdo it. Much like the ‘Just Do It’ and ‘Think Small’ campaigns, minimalism is very important when you’re trying to establish a connection with the audience. There is only so much you can put into the limited time and space allotted for the advertisement, so it is always better to get to the point.
• Be honest with your customers. Don’t try to sell your product as something it is not. Transparency and honesty are very important when you sell your product. It also helps people trust you.
• Be creative in a way that your campaign is memorable to your customers, even if the concept is simple. If the subject is boring, then use your creativity to get the message across in a lighter manner.
• Don’t push your products on to your customers. Instead, make them look at the pros and cons of your product in a manner that they would find more relatable.
• If your advertisement has gained momentum among your customers, keep them engaged with a sequel to your already famous campaign. That being said, don’t be repetitive with the same concept.
• Emotional and nostalgic marketing are powerful tactics that influence your buyers. If there is a bigger, more universal story behind your campaign, make sure it’s articulated well.

So, there you go.

Apart from knowing just how to structure your advertisements, you now also know the X-factor that it needs to make your campaign a success. Advertisements are predominantly about establishing a connection with your customers and capturing their attention. They are about creating an image for your brand that is both honest and simple. While the kind of ad campaigns today may have changed after all these years, the principles of a good campaign still remain the same.

Go On, Tell Us What You Think!

Did we miss something?  Come on! Tell us what you think about our article on What makes an effective advertising campaign? in the comments section.

It’s been nearly an hour and the salesman has just called for the fifty-sixth pair of shoes to be fetched. All around the floor are strewn open boxes displaying footwear deemed variously as nos, maybes and almost-sures.

Amidst the sea of espadrilles and ankle boots, the customer frowns as she scans a shopping app for the availability of the shoes she likes. Her lips purse and she rises from her seat with an air of finality the salesman has come to know all too well.

“Nah…I think I’ll just get them online,” she says.

Accepting the inevitable, the salesman bows her out of the shop before proceeding to repack the pairs in tissue and cardboard, to be replaced on the shelves in waiting for the next such not-customer who comes along.

Whether you’re a store owner or a customer, you’ve almost certainly nodded along to the scenario above with a wry, been-there-done-that smile. And now there’s a business term for it too – showrooming.

What Is Showrooming?

Showrooming is the practice of examining products in a brick-and-mortar store, shopping booth or other offline settings, and then buying it online, usually at a lower price.

Showrooming is a tactic of the ultimate “deal seeker”, who wants maximum convenience at minimum cost. They appreciate the personal touch of going to a store, being educated on the product by the salesperson, trying different variants, enjoying the plush ambience…and then heading out of the store and towards a shopping app like a homing pigeon and buying the product at the cheapest rate available.

The retail outlet has a distinct value in the showroomer’s buying process – it allows her to try out what she plans to buy and determine whether it’s the right product for her. People try on clothes to see what’s the ideal size or style for them, and test electronics to see how they work. When it comes to actually buying, however, customers tend to walk out and buy online. They get better deals when they shop online, and the products get delivered to their homes without them having to carry bulky shopping bags – plus, thanks to their try-out sessions at the store, they no longer run the risk of having to return or exchange suboptimal products. It’s a win-win for the buyer – and a head-scratching situation for the store.

How Worried Should A Store Be About Showrooming?

Showrooming, for better or for worse, is here to stay. Customers will continue to prefer online purchases as long as the products are priced lower than in the physical store – which, given the negligible inventory costs of online sellers, is almost always true.

This certainly doesn’t mean, however, that retailers should write their stores off as obsolete. Stores, in fact, hold far greater potential than an online marketplace for engaging with customers and getting them to form a relationship with a brand. And with the right strategy in place – based on tactics like the following ones – stores can capitalise on that potential and win customers over to the point of an on-spot purchase.

Go Online With Active Social Media Accounts & Review Pages

Sounds counterintuitive when a retailer is trying to boost offline sales? It’s actually not. Today, your largest chunk of consumers is likely millennials, who spend a significant amount of time online. And when they’re online, they expect the people, places and brands they interact with to be online as well. In fact, 82%of buyers say that they consult their phones about a purchase they plan to make at a store, 50% of shoppers say that they visit a store the same day they make the search query, and 90% of them say that their buying decisions depend significantly on online reviews for the store. Clearly, there’s a strong case for a retailer to focus on what turns up when people search for the brand.

Start The Experience Before Customers Even Enter The Store

Social media and product reviews not enough of a draw? Set your brand apart from the others by adding, quite literally, another dimension to your strategy. Alibaba, Samsung and Lowe’s have turned to virtual reality to give customers an exclusive preview of what awaits them at the store, while Converse has launched an augmented reality app to help shoppers try on virtual shoes. More recently, Nordstrom’s Manhattan menswear store has integrated a feature into their app that allows customers to decide which clothes they want to try well before they reach the store, so that a dressing room can be ready with the items they have selected by the time they arrive. It’s a simple way to show customers that their needs are given priority – and an excellent way to attract more people into the store.

Make Stores Cool Places

The typical retail outlet with shelves of products and a check-out counter is passé. Brands know this, and are re­­­sponding.

In 2015, for instance, clothing designer Rebecca Minkoff tied up with software company Oak Labs to make fitting rooms – the point of highest in-store conversion as well as highest dissatisfaction – into an experience of its own. Three Rebecca Minkoff stores were equipped with “magic mirrors” that allowed customers to choose merchandise in different colours and sizes, adjust lighting, check styling recommendations for each outfit and purchase online with one touch. Results were highly encouraging, with a tripling of in-store clothing sales within a year. Other brands have embraced in-store augmented reality as well. Sephora, the beauty retailer, has equipped its stores with mirrors that allow customers to try on different makeup products to see what best suits their skin. Lego has installed AR kiosks in select stores to allow shoppers to scan a box and see what the finished creation looks like. And most recently, in summer 2018, Nike launched “Nike Live” in LA, a concept store that lets NikePlus members send products to in-store lockers, scan barcodes to learn about colour and size availability and more – this comes as a follow-up to their acquisition of Invertex, whose AI technology allows them to analyse shoppers’ feet in-store and suggest which shoes would suit them best.

A brand doesn’t need AR, however, to make its stores cooler. Home Depot, for example, conducts classes for adults and kids that teach all kinds of DIY skills, from making toy trucks to installing ceiling fans.

Equip Salespeople

It’s not for nothing that people say your most valuable asset is your employee base. 54% of customers said that a knowledgeable and helpful sales assistant was the main reason they would be prompted to buy in-store.

Having well-trained staff capable of answering questions and finding products tailored to a customer’s needs is a major draw for in-store sales, especially when it comes to technical products like electronics and cars, or highly personal products like makeup and skincare. For instance, Best Buy offers in-home advisory services, through which its shoppers get free consultations on how to connect all the electronic products in their homes, such as TVs, computers and security systems. Beauty brands like Clinique guide customers step-by-step through skincare routines and makeup tips, and also offer free facial treatments and makeovers to its customers – a solid reason for beauty lovers to keep coming back.

Allow People To Check Out Anywhere

One reason millennials like shopping in-store is that they don’t have to wait for delivery. Now, technology makes it possible to eliminate check-out time as well. Walmart, for instance, allows customers to view its entire range of toys at Walmart.com at in-store kiosks in its Texas outlets, so that they can order on the spot and pick up at a convenient time without being restricted to what’s available on the shelves.

Another option is equipping sales assistants to help customers check out right from the aisles. Lowe’s has armed its New York store employees with devices that help them scan product codes and check a customer out wherever she happens to be standing. Nordstrom Rack stores feature roving cashiers who can help customers check out on the spot – they have also acquired BevyUpand MessageYes, start-ups whose technology offerings allow store assistants to communicate directly with one another and check out a customer simply by texting “yes” to confirm an order. Innovations like these in the check-out process reduce the chances of an in-store customer doing a “research-and-run”.

Give Them Offers They Can’t Refuse

Cool stores and helpful assistants notwithstanding, price remains a major factor in the buying decision. Retailers can face this by offering customers special offers just for them if they buy in-store. For example, opt-in apps make use of Bluetooth or beacon technology to push unique offers to shoppers as they come near certain products.

The same apps can also offer special purchase rewards for loyalty programmes that customers are enrolled in. Store assistants can also be given the authority to extend special offers to customers if they check out on the spot.

Study Why They Behave As They Do

Retailers will almost never be able to beat the prices offered by Amazon – a fact that customers are well aware of. Yet, they do often buy at stores. Clearly, price motivation isn’t the only factor that prompts a purchase – which is why it becomes crucial for retailers to understand why customers enter the store to begin with. This involves tracking store behaviour, online interaction with the brand and purchase data. Understanding what prompted a purchase – a product demo, a free sample, a compelling discount, product variety, similar purchases made previously or ease of check-out – as well as what made the customer walk out after looking around can help retailers zero in on the most effective sales tactic or purchase channel to encourage a sale the next time the customer visits.

What If Showrooms Become The New Way To Shop?

Sellers tend to dislike showrooming because it means that customers try products at the store but end up buying them online. New trends, however, suggest the retailers may actually end up embracing the showroom and turning it into a profitable way to sell more.

According to analysts at strategy and management consulting firm A.T. Kearney, showrooms may be the next phase in the evolution of retailing, largely because customers already view retail stores as showrooms where they can try out a product and get to know it better before buying it online.  Most stores today have large stockrooms where they store several pieces of each product and hire staff to manage all the stock. By becoming showrooms, stores can do away with the need for a large inventory and simply keep a few pieces of every item for customers to try on in-store, with the final purchase being made online at a later time. This would allow stores to reduce their square footage, thus saving on rent, utilities and extra staff, and invest more in creating an immersive experience for customers to interact with the brand and buy from it.

Does it really work?

The showroom isn’t just a fancy concept. In 2012, online menswear brand Bonobos launched a series of brick-and-mortar “guideshops” across the United States, in partnership with Nordstrom. These were designed keeping in mind the needs of their primary target audience – male millennials who enjoy dressing well but find in-store selection and check-out tedious. At these guideshops, visitors are asked to make appointments in advance of up to an hour in length. Guides take them through the shop, which contains one piece of every colour, cut, fabric and size so that customers can find the right item for themselves. Fitting and tailoring sessions are carried out to ensure the shopper gets exactly what he needs. Finally, the guides check the customers out on a phone or laptop and schedule delivery of the final products. This is the perfect example of a hybrid shopping experience where online and offline are seamlessly merged to meet customer requirements in an interactive, convenient manner. And given that Walmart acquired the brand in 2017 for over $300 million, it’s clearly a winning formula in terms of profitability.

So why isn’t everyone doing it?

Before locking up the inventory room and setting up a showroom, however, it is important to evaluate whether the switch will really bring in more benefits.

• While inventory costs and store area will go down, showrooming will call for an efficient supply chain that can deliver products quickly and efficiently to customers’ doorsteps, and the increased cost of setting that up has to be less than the costs reduced from less inventory space
• There is also the extra cost of training store assistants in the showroom style of selling to take into account
• In addition, brands that are already heavily discounted (like TJ Maxx) or that follow a fast-fashion model (like Zara) will see little extra benefit in a showroom, as they’re making sales from their stores in any case

Bottom line?

In-store spending is projected to go up by $36 billion by 2022, and e-commerce by $50 billion, according to a study by Deloitte. Clearly, brick-and-mortar is not going anywhere. What is happening, however, is a slow yet steady change in the way retailers use their brick-and-mortar space. Shoppers of today, especially millennials, are ready for a shopping experience where stores are designed for product selection rather than purchase. By 2025, according to IBM, it will become the norm for buyers to enter stores, try out products, place orders and get their chosen products shipped to their homes. And while the transition may not be as rapid as predicted, the coming years will undoubtedly see brands across industries experimenting with showrooms, figuring out the optimal size and location and streamlining their supply chain to cater to both store and showroom clientele.

Above all, the focus will be on responding swiftly and efficiently to changing customer needs, with showrooms or without. “As they work toward success in the retail renaissance, brands must think beyond product as a differentiator and become more granular in how they identify and satisfy customer wants and needs,” reminds the Deloitte study. In other words, retailers that want to succeed will invest time and resources into knowing the shopper, which simply means figuring out how to solve her problems, both in the showroom and outside of it.

That, ultimately, is what good selling comes down to.

Go On, Tell Us What You Think!

Did we miss something?  Come on! Tell us what you think about our article on A Retailers Guide To Showrooming in the comments section.