Chapter 1: Retail Display Fatigue and Mistakes
If you were to wander through a retail environment, you’d probably come across dozens of product displays that vary in size, appearance, location and purpose. Some are large, occupying pallets in wide-open spaces. Others are small enough to sit on top of a checkout counter. While retail display signs can take on many forms, the best displays have a few things in common.
The most beneficial and effective retail displays are fresh, exciting and engaging. Otherwise, you might find your retail display does not generate as many sales as you had hoped. Several factors might contribute to an underperforming product display. It’s best to familiarize yourself with the common pitfalls involved with retail displays to ensure yours are as effective as possible. Learn how to avoid mistakes and create the best possible retail displays.
What Is a Retail Display?
First things first, you’ll need to know what qualifies as a retail display. The term is general, encompassing anything a store uses to organize and promote products on the sales floor. Everything from entire shelving units to small tabletop product organizers fall under the umbrella of retail displays.
The primary purpose of a retail display is to earn attention and generate sales through visual cues. To be successful, a retail display requires thoughtful visual merchandising. Visual appeal is one of the most significant determining factors in a store’s success. It’s important to understand why displays are so important and recognize the various objectives they can help you achieve.
Why Are Displays Important in Retail?
Retail displays are crucial for many reasons. They’re a fundamental aspect of any store or other sales-focused environment, regardless of the nature of products a store sells. Displays serve the following purposes:
- Attracting customers: Displays help attract customers to your products, encouraging them to get a closer look at what you have to offer.
- Generating customer interest and engagement: An essential function of any retail display is to generate customer interest and engagement. Your displays should promote interaction with your products.
- Building brand image and awareness: By drawing in consumers and promoting engagement with your products, a retail display is a useful tool for building brand image and awareness. Even customers who do not follow through with an immediate purchase will have learned about your brand and products, which can lead to future sales.
- Offering welcome convenience for customers: While displays are a vital marketing tactic, they also help to promote the best possible customer experience within retail environments. Product displays and signage help consumers figure out where they need to go to find what they’re looking for and make the shopping environment much more convenient.
- Encouraging sales: Of course, the primary objective of any retail display is to encourage and promote sales. The best displays will help you move your products while generating interest and building your brand image.
Why Does Visual Merchandising Matter?
Focusing on visual merchandising principles is vital for a successful product display. People are visual creatures. We rely on vision more than any other sense and can process visuals in as few as 13 milliseconds. Our eyes shift about three times per second, taking in tons of information every instant. That’s why it’s essential to use visuals to your advantage. You can optimize visual cues to stand out in a retail environment.
What Are the Common Mistakes of Displays that Retailers Make?
Not all displays are equally effective. It’s easy to make mistakes when designing retail displays. In some cases, shoppers might miss or ignore a display — or simply not find it compelling. Several different issues can make your retail displays less successful than they could be.
What Are Three Merchandising Mistakes to Avoid?
Mistakes are common when it comes to retail displays, and they can be challenging to recognize. If your displays are not doing as well as they could, you’ll want to know why so you can take steps to resolve the issue. Here are three common mistakes to avoid:
- Untargeted merchandising: Thoughtful consumer targeting is a vital aspect of any marketing strategy. When designing your retail displays, you should know who you’re selling to and what will earn your target customer’s attention. Bad retail displays have no clear customer in mind — as a result, they do not stand out to any particular consumer.
- Cluttered or scarce visuals: Too many conflicting visuals can overwhelm viewers, losing their interest. On the other hand, a lackluster display with not enough going on might bore customers. Be sure to give key products a prominent spot and steer away from distracting displays that take attention from the product.
- Stale displays: Another common issue is that displays can grow “stale,” even if they were successful at first. A worn, irrelevant or outdated display is easy for consumers to ignore. On the other hand, a fresh display will garner new interest and help promote sales.
What Is Retail Display Fatigue?
Even the most successful retail displays have a shelf life. Display fatigue sets in when a display is too old, worn or familiar to draw customer attention. Fatigue is a common issue that you always have to watch out for, no matter how well-designed your displays may be. It’s essential to understand how display fatigue works and why it happens.
Why Does Display Fatigue Happen?
In retail environments, different options and conflicting information surround consumers constantly. Their brains have to process all of this information, which leads to fatigue. As a result, consumers will ignore familiar displays. They may not even register seeing them at all. It’s most likely to happen with a store’s most loyal customers, who tune out displays they’ve already seen.
Of course, any product seller should be aware of retail display fatigue and how to keep it from happening. To avoid retail display fatigue and earn customer attention, you’ll have to update your displays often. A customer who walks right past your current display might stop and engage with a new one.
Other Reasons for Retail Display Fatigue
An outdated display might have other issues, as well. Over time, displays start to look damaged or worn. Wear and tear are especially common if you leave a temporary display out for too long — but permanent or semi-permanent displays are not immune to the same issue. Of course, a display that looks ratty is less likely to garner customer interest.
An older display could also appear out of place. For instance, a seasonal or themed display would no longer make sense after the season has passed. It might look odd if relevant seasonal displays surround it.
How Can I Improve My Retail Display?
You may need to rethink your displays to create visual interest. In many cases, your product displays might need a refresh to combat retail display fatigue. If your displays are not performing well, consider giving them an upgrade. Throughout the following chapters of this guide, we’ll discuss possible solutions for bringing your retail displays to life and attracting new customers.
Learn More About Refreshing Retail Displays
Retail displays can earn you more sales — but only if they have a thoughtful, novel and fresh design. While displays can help promote products and support sales goals, stale or ineffective displays attract little consumer attention. Because shoppers have to process so many visuals at retail stores, they often tune out displays they’ve seen before.
Updating your displays can help you earn new attention and generate new sales. Learn more about the retail display design and creation process. At Creative Displays Now, skilled professionals use your ideas to create effective retail displays. If you have any questions about common retail display mistakes, contact us at 1-866-244-2214.