Must-Follow Rules for Retail Merchandising

Feature groupings should be natural, and any cross-promotional items should have an obvious relationship. Allot enough space and lighting for each of your products to help it succeed. For high margin items, ensure they are positioned front and center of the store or at eye-level on shelves with a generous amount of space between items.

1. This situation may require the clothing store to purchase hundreds or even thousands of clothes for it to be eligible for the discount.
2. Likewise, certain promotional signage may not apply to all retail banners in a merchandiser’s territory.
3. “One of the most essential measures when it comes to running a brick-and-mortar store is getting foot traffic.
4. Still, in both models, the wholesalers do not interact with the end-users, and they depend on retailers to sell their products to the final customers.

While the store may have been required to purchase in large quantities, they offer the product to you in a small, personal-use size. Some of the examples are clothing stores, grocery stores, and bookstores. These businesses function by taking lots of products from either wholesalers or manufacturers at a discount and then reselling the products to make profits. For these businesses, there are cycles in merchandising, and they are particular to cultures and climates. The cycles may also include holidays, school schedules, and predicted weather outcomes that affect the types of products offered.

“The right people” can mean knowing your customers — demographics, psychographics, buying habits, politics, and pain points. This understanding allows ecommerce businesses to tailor their product selection, prices, promotions, and overall customer experience. Your success as a retailer depends almost entirely on the five rights to merchandising as espoused by the Fashion Institute of Technology. These rights are not entitlements, rather each represents the correct way to ensure that your products are sold. However, high demand inventory can maximize your profits, helping to ensure retailing success. Don’t get rid of products just because they don’t turn a ton of profit.

Costco’s Bev Al Team: A Focus on Simplicity & Doing What’s Right

It reminds me of the book “Blue Ocean Strategy,” wherein authors W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne argue that a business should focus on creating a “blue ocean” of untapped market space rather than fighting for a share of a crowded “red ocean” market. Imagine a business that sells second-hand apparel to vegans. The company’s niche might be 6 rights of merchandising verifying or even certifying that a specific, decades-old garment was manufactured in such a way to appeal to that audience. The five R’s of retailing — a 100-year-old concept — applies to modern-day online sellers. Matthew Hudson is the author of three books on retail sales and has nearly three decades of experience in the industry.

Finally, pay attention to the placement of signs and other supporting materials like props. Feature signage should be placed at eye level – the 3 ½ to 4 1/2-foot point. Props can be grouped in threes but should never outshine the products themselves. A merchandising checklist is as much an audit tool as it is a vehicle for continuous improvement. Then, you will meet the standard and achieve your sales goals. You may also want to assign tags to items within your checklist.

Planograms, merchandising guild lines and task management software all aid solid merchandising execution, but your employees remain key to implementing your merchandising campaigns and vision. The POS area does some heavy sales lifting, and it is also where customers can spend some time waiting in line, all the while evaluating your store. Keep employees’ personal affects (water bottles, keys, wallets, phones, snacks) out of view. Have some small housekeeping tools (hand held vacuum, brush and dustpan, glass spray and dust rags) close by for quick touch ups during slow periods. “One of the most essential measures when it comes to running a brick-and-mortar store is getting foot traffic. A retailer’s exterior is responsible for nearly 45% of a brand’s marketing image.

What are the 6 Rights of Merchandising Costco?

It also gives stores the opportunity to respond, ensuring communication flows from the bottom up as well as the top down. FastCompany says one of the best ways to drive the message home is through visual content. Taking pictures and adding them to an audit is both quick and easy. As Nicasio notes, “Staff education isn’t something you can set and forget. You can, for example, create videos demonstrating how to set up a display.

Poor lighting makes your store appear drab and product lifeless. Worse, it can discourage shoppers from even entering your store because it can look unsafe or dirty. In the above section, we outlined focus areas to maximize merchandising compliance.

Retailing is a very competitive field, and business people need ways to lure customers into buying from their stores. Product merchandising is a means of making window shoppers and browsers buy products in a specific store. Therefore, customers are compelled to buy more than they intended by creating awareness of product existence. Want to start auditing your stores for merchandising compliance today? Use one of our sample checklists below and set the bar for performance.

While merchandising has always been important, the new priority being placed on it by these shoppers makes these five rules your new textbook. Finally, keep track of the levels of customer engagement each new display attracts. This can help point you in the right direction to repeatedly capturing attention. For instance, Sam’s Club promotes “Health and Wellness” season in January with vitamins and exercise equipment.

Must-Follow Retail Visual Merchandising Rules

Choose a content management system that will let you send all types of training materials easily to your stores and track interaction. Gerry Weber, a fashion retailer in Germany saw its sales increase by 12% in one pilot store, after installing a new lighting scheme. A good lighting base should consist of a number of grids that can be individually controlled depending on the area of the store as well as the time of day or year. Messaging is critical but signage positioning and hierarchy are just as important. Remember, it’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it. Displays with signs get 20% more traction, but signage overload can make your stores look cluttered and inventory appear cheap.

Whether you are set up on a grid, loop or free-flow layout, check that display tables do not congest prime browsing areas. Discuss the checklist and pilot with your merchandisers, field and sales managers. A form may look fine at head office but prove to have severe shortcomings when you actually conduct a merchandising audit. Get the latest ECRM news, best practices, and category insights by visiting our social media platforms.

Supply can be affected by the amount of storage space available, how fast these products can be manufactured and supplier availability. Demand is based largely on consumer appeal for the product and the price. A lower price can increase demand, while a higher price can restrict demand. Developing a linear equation can help the retailer find the right price point to coincide with demand.

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These businesses sell goods and employ tactics such as special offers and good display to attract customers. Merchandising businesses can offer any type of products, can be independently owned https://1investing.in/ or part of a chain, and can be a physical store or an online business. The differentiating factor is what it offers – whether it provides finished products to consumers or services.

Keep them clean, well-lit and rotate often to keep attracting valuable foot traffic. As a best practice, showcase the newest and/or high-value products in the window or nearest the inside of the entrance. They are also tasked with keeping things clean, retagging shelves, and stocking new items upon delivery.