The Top 5 Mistakes People Make with Retail Displays

Avoiding these mistakes will help you create a better retail display

You’ve made the wise decision to invest in visual merchandising. You’ve recognized the necessity of incorporating visual elements into a retail display to make your product stand out among your competition. You’ve recognized that simply stocking your product on a store’s shelves next to all the others is not the most effective way to market your product.

This is all a great first step. Now, though, it’s time to design that retail display that is going to catch shoppers’ attention, getting them to stop at your retail display, interact with it and, hopefully, make a purchase.

There are an unlimited number of ways that you can approach creating your retail display, but there’s also a tried-and-true formula for creating the most effective retail display possible.

Here are five of the biggest mistakes people make when they create retail displays, and how you can make yours better.

1. They Use the Wrong Colors

Color has the power to evoke strong emotions inside us. Color can influence the way we feel. Our brains make a determination of whether we like something or not based on color. Studies have shown that consumers make a purchasing decision within 90 seconds of interacting with a product, and 60% of that decision is based on color.

Color is perhaps the most important element of your retail display, so choose your colors wisely. Bold colors stand out and catch a consumer’s eye, but don’t go too bold that you’ll scare them away. Red and orange are considered arousing colors. Blue and green, meanwhile, are calming.

Consider the color of your product and how the display elements can complement that color. You don’t want a display that clashes with your product. At the same token, pay attention to the background of your display, not just the more prominent sections, ensuring all your colors are working in concert.

2. They Don’t Include a Header

Much like the articles you see when browsing your favorite news sites or social media feeds, a header is an essential element in retail displays. Headers won’t necessarily attract shoppers to stop at your display, but they absolutely will have a significant impact on whether or not they interact with your product and purchase it.

Studies have shown that retail displays that do not include a header (or don’t have an effective header) are far less likely to result in a sales conversion than those that do. Again, think back to your internet browsing habits. You click on stories that have good, eye-catching headlines. That’s exactly what a good header on a retail display will do. It will entice the shopper to read more, to take another action.

3. They Don’t Consider Shape

You might not realize it, but shape has a very real effect on how our brains perceive objects. Psychologists have long suggested that our brains will mentally break down what we see into simple geometric shapes, and that different shapes elicit different emotions.

For example, shapes that are irregular, unstructured, natural and/or organic appear to be more soft and fluid. Geometric shapes that are structured – such as squares, triangles or circles – appear to our brains as more rigid.

Shape, then, cannot be overlooked when you’re creating your retail display. Stay away from the “structured” forms and shapes that would elicit those more rigid emotions. Opt instead for rounded edges throughout your display, including not just on the body of the display but on the header as well.

4. They Don’t Make the Display Interactive

If you’ve accomplished steps 1, 2 and 3, you’re more than halfway home to making a sales conversion. Your potential purchaser has noticed the color and shape of your retail display, and your header was effective at enticing them to want to learn more. But what happens next?

Hopefully, the next action the potential purchaser takes is they interact with your product. It might seem not important that a shopper physically interact with your retail display and, therefore, your product, but the proof is in the pudding. Retail shopping studies have shown that 56% of shoppers who pick up and hold a product will purchase something in that category.

So, more than half the time, if a consumer interacts with your retail display, they will either purchase your product or another product in your category. That’s why your retail display needs to invite the consumer to interact with your product, to pick it up and hold it in their hands.

To do this, make sure your retail display showcases your product prominently. You want your display to highlight your product, not distract from it. You also want your product to be easily accessible on your display so consumers can pick it up.

5. They Don’t Include a Description

As you can tell, the major elements of an effective retail display fall into the form rather than function category. This fifth no-no, though, deals with more of the function – the description of your product.

The words you choose for the rest of your product display (and how many you choose to use) are important in helping to make that final sales conversion. You don’t want to use too many words that could either confuse shoppers or turn them off from your product, but at the same time, you do need to succinctly describe what they are seeing.

Short, sweet and to the point is best. You want shoppers to understand what they are looking at and why they need it. You don’t want to force them to read a book to do so.

By paying attention to these five common mistakes in visual merchandising, you’ll be well on your way to create effective retail displays for your product.