Merchandising Know-How: Enhancing your store appearance with appropriate fixture and product placement

The key to creating a visually compelling store appearance is appropriate fixture and product placement. Even with limited fixture budget, improved results are easily achievable through better product placement. Making product more visible and providing easy accessibility to that product immediately impacts sales and improves the overall customer experience. The further addition of simple displays, signs and lighting the product properly can further enhance the entire presentation.

Floor Plan

Below is a sample floor plan (before and after) that shows fixture types and placement. Depending upon the square footage and shape of the retail area, fixtures should be used with the following in mind:

• Always plan your floor plan as though you were looking at it from above.
• Alternate fixture types (4-ways, 2-ways, rounders). It actually creates space, visibility and enhances customer flow in the store.
• Use symmetry. Balancing one side vs. the other creates a feeling of order and interest.

Wall Layout

8FT Wall Before

Multiple face-outs and lengthy shoulder-outs without variation make the wall look heavy. Also, this layout makes it challenging to find four styles for the face-outs that work well together.

If you are absolutely stuck with needing the product to face out, one tip to make an all face-out set up work is to create separation with color blocking, as demonstrated in the picture below:

8FT – Wall After

• Sections A are 2 foot wide identical face-out over face-out sections. Avoid placing tops over long pants; it can make the height difficult to shop.
• Section B can be utilized for bottoms or jackets with folded tops above.
• Display shelf – add accessories, marketing signs, etc.

This set up can represent a group of products that compliment each other. Building a collection of products (shell, fleece, base layer, pant, etc.) will greatly increase the opportunity for multiple purchases as well as make the presentation feel more cohesive.

12 FT – Wall Before

The before diagram shows 12 feet of face-outs and eight feet of shoulder-outs, making the wall look redundant and underwhelming.

12 FT – Wall After

Segmenting the twelve linear feet into multiple 3 – 4 foot sections allows for greater variety and balance. The combination of hanging, folding, face and shoulder-outs increase the ability to display a greater variety of tops and bottoms.

— This merchandising know-how primer to freshening up the look of a store was prepared by the merchandising team at the Trailblazer store in Bandford, Conn. Trailblazer is a member of the Grassroots Outdoor Alliance. Be sure to check out the SNEWS Retail Solutions expert network in partnership with Grassroots Outdoor Alliance members. Click here to view the discussion around updating retail display space.

About Grassroots Outdoor Alliance

Grassroots Outdoor Alliance unites independent outdoor retailers as a strong voice to protect and promote the experience of outdoor enthusiasts across the United States. We enable access to best business practices for our retail members, to the best equipment and apparel brands for the public, and to the backcountry for all. www.Grassrootsoutdoors.com