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Themes in Merchandising
January 22, 2007
Lead tables, lead mannequins and lead displays are your first
line of merchandising—after your window—but what about
the rest of the stuff and the rest of the space?
Merchandising by theme. Basically it is up to you, the shop owner,
to make sense of your purchases for the customer. You can do like
the grocery store does and put all your canned peas and canned
corn together or you can do like your favorite deli and merchandise
by themes. "Italian night" for example, is thematic,
versus pasta in Aisle Four and tomatoes in Aisle Five.
If you have not already purchased by theme (for example a theme
could be: "Spring Garden"), you may want to make sense
of what you have purchased now, and sort it into simple themes
for your customer.
For "Spring Garden" think of floral tablecloths, watering
cans, bird books, vases, floral prints, garden stakes, cards etc.
You make the theme and then merchandise around it. A theme such
as "Spring Garden" can encompass many ideas but like
Spring, those ideas would need to feel fresh and light. The way
people respond to the season Spring—with surprise and delight—is
how they should also understand your Spring.
Keep checking your product against your theme to be sure it truly
fits. The more true the fit, the stronger it will come across
to the customer.
Propping your themes when shopping the shows, look for items that
will help highlight your themes: containers, baskets, unique shelving
or product support items are available from whimsical to functional
and can be as important to your presentation as the product itself.
Invest in display items that have some resale potential. Tthis
way you can get your money back on your displays and reinvest
it again in fresh display props the following season. In your
buying, put some budget aside for props and display.
Remember to invest in your display in proportion to the product
it supports. Unless you are in the fixture selling business, you
want to have the majority investment in the product—not the
prop.
April Cornell
Burlington, Vermont |
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