Why You Should Never Leave Your Visual Merchandising Solely in the Hands Your Retailers
When consumers are shopping they are generally in a hurry and brands have to really go out of their way to catch the attention of consumers passing by. Visual merchandising is very important for this reason! Because visual merchandising covers everything from developing planograms to marketing campaigns that involve 3 dimensional displays, visual merchandising will often mean the difference between a new customer stopping to look at and possibly purchasing your product and them deciding to just keep on walking. Your visual merchandising should attract, engage and motivate the customer towards purchasing your product.
If you want to make sure that your visual merchandising is effective it must be executed according to your plan which is why it is best not to leave your visual merchandising in the hands of your retailers.
When you have a marketing campaign planned that incorporates a visual merchandising display it is important that you validate that the displays are set up according to your directions and placed according to your plan.
All too often we see brands who send their visual merchandising displays and product to their retailers only to find out later when sales are not achieving expectations that the visual merchandising displays were not placed where they were supposed to be, or maybe it didn’t even make it out onto the sales floor! Even worse, there have been cases where, when a display ran out of product, instead of re-stocking it, the retailer threw another brand’s product in the display unit. This happens more often then you may think!
If you don’t work with a visual merchandising company who is actively following up on these types of issues, you may be thinking right now that this isn’t happening with your product. Well think again.
You may be thinking that your retailers handle your in-store merchandising and your current sales are good so this couldn’t be happening. Well, if you think that sales are good, imagine what they could look like?
Leveraging retail intelligence and performing an audit on your retailers, you can identify deficiencies in your retail merchandising, including your visual merchandising, and come up with a plan to address them. Let’s face it, you need retailers to list your products and you have little control over what they do. You do however have control over what you do.
If this is something that you have been thinking of doing but were not sure the cost or how to go about it, consider interviewing some merchandising companies. Merchandising companies offer outsourced solutions that are generally affordable for even smaller brands. Merchandising companies can not only audit your retailers but can also help you come up with a plan to manage issues that are identified in the audit. Merchandising companies can also help you to implement your plan to ensure that it is a success.
For more information about visual merchandising or about our merchandising services please visit www.storesupport.ca or call 905-847-6513
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