Merchandising Mistakes to Avoid
October 11, 2021
Brick-and-mortar retail stores have been facing growing challenges over the past several months. Shoppers are being cautious about in-person purchases, and eCommerce has become ubiquitous — even for consumers who never bought anything online before being faced with a pandemic.
Retail store owners need to do anything in their power to gain an edge. The right merchandising can offer that edge, but the merchandising mistakes can send shoppers running for the competition. Below are the merchandising mistakes you need to avoid, straight from our merchandising experts.
Not-So-Great Lighting
You can have the best-looking products and inventory in the world, but if the lighting in your store isn’t great, nobody will give it a second look. Research shows that 70% of shoppers don’t decide what they want to buy until they’re actually in the store. That stat alone is enough to convince store owners to upgrade their lighting.
As much as the proper lighting helps showcase products and make them appealing for customers, too much of a good thing can be distracting. The point here is to avoid overwhelming or overstimulating shoppers and drawing their eyes away from your inventory.
Boring Merchandising Displays
How often do you change out your displays? Do you rotate your products to keep shoppers on their toes while helping them find what they need? Is your signage relevant and exciting? If you don’t have answers to these questions, your merchandising is probably not doing the job it should.
An easy way to do this is with seasonal merchandising and decorating. Don’t just make things exciting during the weeks when most people are doing their holiday shopping. You can even use technology like QR codes or augmented reality to make merchandising interactive and immersive. The trick here is that customers have to shop your store in person to take advantage of this tech.
Disorganized Merchandising Displays
How you allocate shelf space to a product will determine its value to customers. You would never throw expensive luxury products together with the less expensive “bargains.” You can apply the same theory to how organized your shelves are.
If you’re not paying attention to keeping things straightened, your customers won’t think your inventory is valuable enough to pay the price you’re asking. Be strategic and give high-value items the real estate they deserve on clean, organized shelves placed in areas of the store that are easily seen and shopped.
Hard-To-Navigate Footprint
It makes sense to take a different route if you know that the highway is bumper-to-bumper during rush hour. Think about this as you plan the footprint of your merchandising displays. If shoppers can’t effectively navigate your store, they’ll go elsewhere to make a purchase. It’s also essential to make your store accessible to those with disabilities.
You need to give customers room to move about freely and browse displays without feeling cramped. Better yet, make the merchandising displays mobile so you can move them around and switch things up, giving the store a new feel with minimal effort.
Distracting or Lack of Signage
You don’t want your retail signage to be another distraction from what’s bringing in the revenue. Yes, you absolutely need signs in your store as they attract about 20% more attention when they’re on a merchandising display, but they don’t have to steal the show.
Ensure that signs are clearly worded with bold type, with information that helps educate and inform shoppers about their purchases. This is not something you want to DIY; handwritten signs look sloppy and unprofessional. Consult with a team that has experience creating signage that converts.
When your signage is well-designed and high-quality, you’ll demonstrate to your customers that you value them enough to invest in their experience at your store. You know first-hand as an owner that shoppers will notice when signage is misspelled, misprinted, inaccurate, or just plain confusing. Working with an experienced signage partner will help give you peace of mind that you won’t have to deal with any costly or time-consuming merchandising mistakes or errors.
Retail signage is one of the most critical, pivotal aspects of marketing your product. Butler MSI understands this; since 1926, we have provided sophisticated branding in the form of retail signs to everyone from small companies to large, Fortune 100 industries. We pride ourselves on excellent customer service and relentless attention to detail. Our breadth of in-house design and manufacturing capabilities position us to be a low-cost producer and effectively compete for your business. Let us fulfill your retail signage needs and show you how well we can do it, contact us today to get started!
