VM DISPLAY WASTED EFFORT OR STRATEGIC MOVE?

THE DILLEMA FACE BY APPARELS RETAIL STORE

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 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

This is to certify that the project titled “The store design and VM displays will require change
in perception” an original work of the Student and is being submitted in partial fulfillment for
the award of the Post Graduate Diploma in Management in ___________ University. This report
has not been submitted earlier either to this University or to any other University/Institution for
the fulfillment of the requirement of a course of study.

SIGNATURE OF GUIDE SIGNATURE OF STUDENT

Place: Place:

Date: Date:

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

Sr. No. PARTICULAR PG. NO.

1 INTRODUCTION

1.2 Scope of the Study

1.3 Objectives of the Study

1.4 Limitations of the Study

II REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1 Research Methodology

2.2 Characteristics of Research

2. 3 Application of Research

III GENERAL OVERVIEW OF AREA

TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES USED FOR VISUAL

IV
MERCHANDISING

V RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

VI FEEDBACK FROM EXPERTS AND INDUSTRIES

VII SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

VIII REFERANCES

IX ANNEXURE

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 LIST OF FIGURES
Sr. no. Particular Pg. No.

1 Novel combination of colour and display in an apparel retail shop 31

2 Fashionable ladies wear show-room designed with catchy white background 32

and texture
3 Colourful window display reflecting aggressiveness and proactivity 34
4 Shadowbox window displaying small items like jewellery and accessories 34

5 Variation in lighting can amplify product’s charm to customers 34

6 Happy Customers at a Cheerful outlet 36

7 Merchandising Techniques All Retailers Should Know 43

8 Factors and merchandising techniques that affect the most 52

 Color 52
 Fixture and Fittings 54
 Signage 55
 Lights 57
 Window display 58
 Conceptualize cool Product Groupings 59
 Music - The sensory gratitude 60

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 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
The Indian retail industry is expanding its canvas with a rapid growth. There is a huge potential
of expansion in the Indian retail industry. On one hand, online retailers are conducting high sales
by organizing big sales days while on other hand offline retailers are feeling a steep competition
from e-commerce players to achieve their targeted level of sales. The offline retailer uses many
strategies and practices to attract the customers at offline stores (physical retail store) including
Visual Merchandising strategy. Visual merchandising (VM) plays its important role in presenting
the overall view of offline retail store that depicts merchandise in an aesthetical appealing way.
The way, by which entrance of retail store, its store layout, arrangement of merchandise and
season displays are depicted, come under the VM. The VM provides ‘experience shopping’ to
customers. It creates an environment within the retail store that appeals the customers to try and
purchase the products. The VM also gives message from retailer to its customer regarding the
merchandise it offers. Besides the quality and taste the VM makes the customer to feel for the
product. The modern retail has changed the way of offering products and services to the
customers. Now, the customer is informed about the product and attracted to offline retail stores
to make purchases in an organized retail environment. When, a customer is in the retail store,
VM informs, guides and influences him to make a purchase

Retailing per se has been with us since the beginning of time. Over the years retailing methods
and techniques have been adapted and changed in order to meet the demands of the market. In
the same way the in store activities aimed at the consumer has been evolving and changing. At
first the focus was on merchandising per se, but even merchandising has become more focussed
and professional and specialised. This has led to this study focussing on visual merchandising
and its effect or not - on consumer spending. Much has been said about visual merchandising
displays and the effect it has on consumer perceptions. Consumers perceptions towards visual
merchandising displays are investigated and evaluated in this study. The primary research
question that was posed in this study was to determine the effect of visual merchandising
displays on consumer perceptions. Explorative research was performed and qualitative data were
collected by means of focus groups and nae sketches. The data was analysed by means of a

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thematic analysis process. The main conclusions that can be drawn from this research is that the
perceptions of visual merchandising displays are subliminal in creating an interest and desire to
further peruse the merchandise and aesthetically to beautify the store.

In today’s keen competitive environment store image and atmosphere are recognized by retailers
as important factors influencing customers’ decision making processes (Hartman and Spiro,
1995)

Kotler (1973, p.50) was the first to define the term atmospherics as

“… the conscious designing of space to create certain effects in buyers. More specifically,
atmospherics is an effort to design buying environment to produce specific emotional effects in
the buyer that enhance his purchase probability”.

Moreover, the term atmospherics refers to the stimuli in the store environment which have a
direct influence on customers purchase behaviour. (Akther et al., 1987). Espinoza et al. (2004)
(cited in Mayo de Juan & Gültekin, 2009) argue that a pleasing store atmosphere is more likely
to increase customers’ willingness to purchase.

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Mc Goldrick (2002) stated four dimensions of store atmosphere i.e. visual (sight), aural (sound),
olfactory (smell) and tactile (touch), which are significant in customers’ choice of products. As
presentation of goods is often the most crucial factor in decision-making (Oakley, 1990),
retailers place more importance on visual merchandising in order to differentiate their offers
from others due to the similarity of merchandize nowadays.

Basically, visual merchandising can be described as “everything the customer sees, both exterior
and interior, that creates a positive image of a business and results in attention, interest, desire
and action on the part of the customer” (BastowShoop et al., 1991, p.1). Mills et al. (1995)
suggests that “visual merchandising ranges from windows/exterior displays to interior displays
including form displays and floor merchandising along with promotion signage.” Many authors
state different visual merchandising techniques in the existing literature.

Besides, visual merchandising is also a powerful marketing tool as an external motivator in the
consumer’s impulse buying behaviour. Indeed, impulse buying is significant for sales revenue; in
fact it represents a substantial volume of goods sold Page 2 every year (Bellenger et al., 1978;
Clover, 1950; Cobb and Hoyer, 1986; Kollat and Willet, 1967) (cited in Supriya M. Kalla and A.
P. Arora 2010)

Generally, impulse buying can be defined as “any purchase that a shopper makes and has not
been planned in advance” (Bellenger et al., 1978; Stern, 1962) (cited in Supriya M. Kalla and A.
P. Arora 2010). Although, a difference has to be made between “impulse buying” and
“unplanned buying”, but will be explain in further details within the definition section

Many authors have actually studied the effect of store atmosphere on consumer behaviour
(Solomon et al. 2004, Espinoza et al. 2004) but only a few of them (Rostocks, 2003) (cited in
Supriya M. Kalla and A. P. Arora, 2011) emphasized on visual stimulation as one of the factors
that motivate impulse buying. Therefore, this research aims to be a complement to the existing
studies on this area.

Visual merchandising displays are defined as visual features that create attention or pleasure in a
store with the aim of enhancing the shopping experience of the customer (Mathew, 2008). These
displays are also known as feature areas. In essence these displays or feature areas are used to
decorate and beautify a store by adding additional fixtures, props, posters, materials, colours,

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frills and objects to a store in order to enhance the appeal of the merchandise or products on
offer.

The visual merchandising display process is often referred to as the “silent salesperson” by
providing the consumers with information through visual mediums as well as by suggestive
selling (suggestions to add items to a consumers' original purchase) (Bhalla & Anuraag, 2010).
These visual merchandising displays make use of creative techniques in order to save the sales
person’s as well as the shopper’s time by making shopping easier and faster.

The retail industry has changed significantly over the years and this has posed (and continues to
do so) a number of challenges to retailers in the form of visual merchandising displays. New
formats translate into new ideas and creativity. For example, Pegler (2010) pointed out that due
to the size of super stores and department stores, they need to be “warmed up” by using the
correct lighting and display techniques

Visual merchandising displays are frequently used to introduce new products or brand extensions
to consumers as well as to decorate a store. This is a planned and systematic approach to display
the stock that is available in the store. According to Bhalla & Anuraag, (2010) and Pegler, (2010)
visual merchandising displays is:

• a tool by which sales are met and targets achieved.

• a method by which to improve the appeal of merchandise on the floor.

• a mechanism to communicate or ‘talk’ to a consumer and influence his or her decision to

purchase a product or service • used for special occasions and seasons such as mother’s day,
Easter, or to introduce new arrivals to consumers for a new season such as summer ranges.

• a method of educating the consumers about the product or service in an efficient and
imaginative way, for example using lifestyle graphics to inform consumers how products could
be worn together.

• to establish an inventive medium to display merchandise in a 3D environment, allowing long

lasting impact and recall value.

• to set the company apart from others.

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• to establish relationships between fashions, product design and marketing by keeping the
product in key focus.

• to combine the creative, technical and operational features of a product and the store.

Visual merchandising displays is used to great effect in retail outlets to perform different
functions such as to support sales, to support the retail strategies, to communicate with
consumers and to assist in communicating the fashion retailers’ brand image (Levi & Weitz,
2009 and Bell & Turnus, 2008). It is the aim of the retailer to use visual merchandise displays to
attract customers in the store by means of window displays and then by means of visual
merchandising displays to generate or increase sales. Retailers realize that the way in which they
use visual merchandising displays has the power to create images about the products in the mind
of the consumers – images that will affect future patronage and perceptions of the product and
brand. Visual merchandising displays are now a significant tool for retailers in order to attract
and entice consumers into their stores.

Many elements can be used by visual merchandisers in creating displays, including colour,
lighting, space, product information, sensory inputs such as smell, touch, and sound as well as
technologies such as digital displays and interactive installations. The main principle of visual
merchandising is that it is intended to increase sales. Visual merchandising is one of the final
stages in trying to set out a store in a way that customers will find attractive and appealing and it
should follow and reflect the principles that underpin the store’s image. Visual merchandising is
the way one displays ‘goods for sale’ in the most attractive manner with the end purpose of
making a sale. “If it does not sell, it is not visual merchandising.” Especially in today’s
challenging economy, people may avoid designers/ visual merchandisers because they fear
unmanageable costs. But in reality, visual merchandisers can help economize by avoiding costly
mistakes there by saving time and money. It is important to understand that the visual
merchandiser is there, not to impose ideas, but to help clients articulate their own personal style.
Visual merchandising is the art of implementing effective design ideas to increase store traffic
and sales volume. VM is an art and science of displaying merchandise to enable maximum sale.
VM is a tool to achieve sales and targets, a tool to enhance merchandise on the floor, and a
mechanism to communicate to a customer and influence his decision to buy. VM uses season
based displays to introduce new arrivals to customers, and thus increase conversions through a

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planned and systematic approach by displaying stocks available. Recently visual merchandising
has gained in importance as a quick and cost effective way to revamp retail stores.

Apparel Industry
The influence of fashion clearly, fashion has also played an important role in shaping apparel
consumerism. As lifestyles change, fashion in India is becoming more stratified, as in the West.
Technology, ideas and lifestyles are moving concurrently, and quickly. Companies and brands
that offered monotonous, mundane products for years have now tripled their product ranges and
new appealing shapes and forms are being launched each season.

Top-notch fashion professionals came together four years ago to form the Fashion Design
Council of India. Under the aegis of the Union textile ministry and in tandem with National
Institute of Fashion Technology, FDCI now provides professional inputs for designing labels and
is now working towards developing the fashion supply chain through backward linkages with
suppliers and mills, and forward linkages with the retail and distribution network.

The boom in domestic apparel, nevertheless, tells only part of the story. India has huge potential
as a market for foreign clothing, given its large population and growing household incomes. A
few significant foreign players-such as Levi Strauss, Benetton and Lacoste-have been selling
their branded apparel in India for a number of years. But now, just like their Indian counterparts,
global apparel brands are setting up their own apparel outlets, instead of just selling through
departmental stores. Ralph Lauren, for example, has a limited range exhibited in generic
department stores located in metro cities. Yet it has now set up its own stand-alone stores, which
showcase all the company’s brands.

Now, with the government’s proposal to let in branded retail players- brands like Benetton and
Lacoste currently sell mostly through the franchise route-investments in India’s apparel sector
are likely to go up substantially.

Indian Apparel Industry- an Overview:

The apparel industry is one of India’s largest foreign exchange earners, accounting for nearly
16% of the country’s total exports. The 1996 Indian textile exports approximately amounted to
Rs.35,000 crores of which apparel occupied over Rs14,000 crores.

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Source: http://apparel.indiamart.com/lib/garments/indian07251998.html

It has been estimated that India has approximately 30,000 readymade garment manufacturing
units and around three million people are working in the industry. Today not only is the garment
export business growing, enthusiasm in the minds of the foreign buyers is also at a high. Today
many leading fashion labels are being associated with Indian products. India is increasingly
being looked upon as a major supplier of high quality fashion apparels and Indian apparels have
come to be appreciated in major markets internationally. The credit for this goes to our exporter
community.

Consistent efforts towards extensive market coverage, improving technical capabilities and
putting together an attractive and wide merchandise line has paid rich dividends. But till today,
our clothing industry is dominated by sub-contractors and consists mainly of small units of 50 to
60 machines.

India’s supply base is medium quality, relatively high fashion, but small volume business.

Recent recession in Europe and the South Asian currency crisis have also contributed their own
bits to the decimating Indian exports. Though these are expected to fizzle out soon, there is no
reason for complacency on the part of Indian exporters or of the garment industry. The industry
will be soon faced with open competition shorn of quotas or tariffs. Thus the need of the hour is
to enlarge both manufacturing as well as the marketing base. Inculcation of a spirit of innovation
by way of research and development and tapping new markets especially in South Africa,
Central Africa, CIS, East European countries, Latin America and Australia is also mandatory for
export growth.

In India, clothing retail accounts for 36% of organized retail business. It is the largest sector.
Ready-made apparel accounted for an estimated 20% of domestic clothing sales in 2005. With
growing working women wearing western wear to work, and pressed for time, market for good
readymade clothes is likely to grow. India is a film-crazy nation, and the largest producer of
films, with more than 1,000 every year. They provide entertainment and an escape from reality
for India’s masses, and set the popular fashion trend. Bollywood fashions have become pan
Indian. They affect various sectors of the market including clothing, footwear, weddings and

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fashion accessories. With the advent of modern format retailers and the growth of plastic cards,
affluent urban Indian women are shopping like never before. Source: www.ibef.org

They spend mornings browsing in stores looking for deals or latest styles. There are designer
clothes that incorporate Indian motifs, ethnic fabrics and are a fusion of western and Indian
styles. In the large urban centers, apparel retailers, like Shoppers Stop, Westside and Pantaloon

have popularized their private labels, which have attracted urban shoppers. Westside carries only
its own private labels, while for the other stores, 20-30% of their apparel turnover is from private
labels. Customers have loyalty to a store rather than any particular garment brand. This has led to
a thriving unbranded or local brand market for ready-to-wear clothes leading to severe
competition. Hence organized retailers like Lifestyle, for instance, has a loyalty programme
called `The Inner Circle’, while Pantaloons offers a `Green Card’ Rewards programmes,
Westside has `Club West’ to Woo the customers. Customers look to design and fit of the clothes,
and use the shop’s name as a quality standard.

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 SCOPE OF STUDY
Visual merchandising has been called the silent salesman and retailers will be wise to use this
silent salesman to enhance their total offering. This makes the in-store environment the perfect
tool for fashion retailers to create a competitive advantage that other retailers might not have.
The main research objective of this study was to explore if visual merchandising displays can be
utilized to create a competitive advantage in fashion retail stores

OBJECTIVE OF STUDY

 To study the visual Merchandising of the stores covered under my research. (Max,
Globus, Pantaloons, Allen Solly, Bizarre and Kazo.)

 To analyse the efforts put in by the stores in Visual Merchandising.

 To check the effectiveness of their current visual merchandising on the customers.

 To propose a new or modified Visual Merchandising for the store that has least effect of
VM over its customers.

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 CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Visual Merchandising

Ravazzi (2000) explain the VM as natural component of modern point of sale (POS) which
facilitate contact between clients and merchandise. The VM helps the customers to come across
the product visually, physically and intellectually before touching the product offered by the
retailer. The role of visual merchandising is very crucial in sales of offline retail stores.
According to (Matthysz, 2003), “Visual merchandising involves everything the customer sees in
approaching the store and after entering it. This includes the exterior appearance of the store, the
store sign, display windows, interiors décor, store layout, fixturing, lighting, and the way the
merchandise is presented and displayed within the store. Visual merchandising also includes
activities that appeal to the customer’s senses other than the visual, such as music or fragrance.”

Gormon (2006), stated that VM enhances products, facilitate brands, increase customer footfall
and sales of the products. It increases visual appeal of products displayed for the purpose of the
sale.

Mathew (2008) posited that “Visual merchandising display is the presentation of merchandise at
its finest. VM Display is the glamour, the spark, the stage, and sparkle that surrounds a store and
makes the consumers stop, look, and buy what has been placed together with care and presented
with skill.

Levi and Weitz (2009) postulated that the VM assists and motivates the customers to make their
planned, unplanned or impulse purchases. They further stated that the VM provides joyful
buying experience for customers. Garvey (2010) posited that “Visual merchandising
encompasses all aspects of total visual impact of the store and its merchandise. Visual
merchandising has come a long way from stock piling a table in front to live models posing in
windows. Individual creativity, innovation, improvement in technology and artistic flair has
played a major role in merchandise display.” Bhalla and Anuraag (2010) stated that VM displays

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make shopping effortless for customers by creatively depicting merchandise. They considered
efforts of VM as silent sales persons.

VM provides an environment for the customer to select the merchandise as experience shopping.
In modern retail, the visual merchandiser gives the merchandise a look & feels that appeals the
customer to purchase even when the customer enters the retail outlet with no prior plan to
purchase. Many of the displays of VM are seasonal, occasional and creative ones. The purpose of
the VM displays is to add visual advantage to the products which appeals the customer to buy.

VM construct is made up of different elements. Wanniachchi and Kumara (2016) classified

visual merchandising elements into two categories of exterior and interior elements. The
elements as such signs, marquees, entrance and window displays were reckoned as exterior
elements while mannequins, color’s, lightings, cleanliness, music, interior signs, space &
layouts, creative display, video display, focal points, and fragrance were considered as interior
elements.

Many authors proposed various definitions to the term “visual merchandising”; Walters & White
(1987) define visual merchandising as the” ... activity which coordinates merchandise selection
with effective merchandise display.”

Ebster and Garaus (2011, p.77) define visual merchandising as “the art and science of presenting
products in the most visually appealing way”, emphasizing on the communication with the
customers through images and presentations.

Bastow-Shoop et al (1991) define this term as “everything the customer sees, both exterior and
interior, that creates a positive image of a business and results in attention, interest, desire and
action on the part of the customer”.

Diamond & Diamond (2003) emphasize on the purpose of visual merchandising in their attempt
to define the concept visual merchandising. The authors state that visual merchandising can be
defined as the presentation of a store and its merchandize in ways that aim to attract the attention
of potential customers and motivate them to make purchases.

An effective visual merchandising helps boosting the sales of products that will almost sell
themselves. Retailers pursue through visual merchandising the basic objective of attracting

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customers in order to sell merchandize (Bastow-Shoop et al., 1991). Visual merchandising is
therefore concerned with both how the product and/ or brand are visually communicated to the
customer and also whether this message is decoded “appropriately” (Wanninayake & Randiwela,
2007).

The role of visual merchandising as stated by Schimp (1990) (Cited in Gajanayake, Gajanayake,
& Surangi, 2011) is to:

• create awareness among customers about a product and provide relevant information about it;

• remind customers about the benefits of a product and of its availability;

• encourage customers to buy a particular product or brand;

• maximize the utilization of space, while at the same time making the buying experience as easy
as possible for customers;

• reinforce the retailer’s communications campaign;

• assist the customers in locating, evaluating and selecting a product.

Visual merchandising ranges from interior to exterior presentation; according to Mills et al.
(1995), it includes window – exterior displays, interior displays such as form displays, floor –
wall merchandising along with promotion signage.

Omar (1999) suggested three different kind of interior displays: merchandise display, point-of-
sale display and architectural display (Cited in Kerfoot et al., 2003)

ther visual merchandising techniques and aspects are also mentioned in the literature such as
space-floor layout, merchandise presentations, shelf space techniques, lighting, colour,
cleanliness, (Harris, 1998 (Cited in Young et al., 2007); Kerfoot et al., 2003; Agnihotri &
Oburai, 2009; Gajanayake et al., 2011)

Window display is an important visual merchandising technique and marketing tool that has a
big impact on the customer’s decision to enter the store. This technique is defined as “Any kind
of visual presentation of merchandise in the façade level in order to attract attention and
ultimately to enter the store (Jiyeon, 2003, p. 5).

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Bustos (2004) argues that retailers often neglect their window presentation while designing their
store. He also states that using mannequins, creative flooring, fixtures and backdrops can
enhance the power of attraction of window displays (Cited in Iqba et al., 2011).

One particular type of display is the form display or the so-called mannequin display. This kind
of display allows customers to visualize outfits and gives an idea about how it will look like on.
Moreover, mannequins enhance the visual appeal of displayed products which is an important
factor stimulating purchases (Iqba et al., 2011; Kerfoot et al., 2003; Kotler, 1974 (Cited in
Kerfoot et al., 2003)).

Some authors consider the cleanliness of a store as an important store attribute that projects an
image of luxury that attracts customers, creates a pleasant atmosphere and retains them in stores
(Yun and Good, 2007 (Cited in Gajanayake et al., 2011))

According to a study carried out by the M/A/R/C® Research and National In Store, 14 per cent
of the surveyed claimed that they will stop visiting a store if the level of cleanliness is not as
expected.

Store cleanliness impacts the willingness of customers to shop, the frequency of shopping and
the length of time customers are keen to shop. (Carpenter and Moore, 2006 (Cited in Gajanayake
et al., 2011); Ebster & Garaus, 2011)

Furthermore, store components such as lighting and colours are also considered as part of the
visual merchandising techniques. For instance, several researches have studied the psychological
and physiological effects of colours. One finding is that warm colours such as red are associated
with increased blood pressure, high respiratory rate (Gajanayake et al., 2011).

Moreover, Bellizzi et al. (1983) undertook a laboratory-based experiment in order to study the
effect of colours upon attraction to displays and store image. Researchers found that warm
colours would be more appropriate for store windows, entrances and environment or department
triggering unplanned purchases.

However, warm colours could create an unpleasant environment where an important buying
decision is likely to be made (Cited in McGoldrick, 2002).

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Regarding the lighting point of view, Summers and Herbert (1999) state that better-illuminated
merchandize may encourage customers to shop around, and increase the probability of making a
purchase (Cited in Gajanayake et al., 2011).

Rook (1987) claimed that bright lighting in stores could trigger impulse purchases. Besides,
Markin et al. (1976) propose that softer lights may induce examining merchandize (Cited in
McGoldrick, 2002).

On the other hand, Areni and Kim (1994) noticed that bright lighting stimulates product
browsing in a wine store but not especially, affecting the sales level. Thus, customers handle and
examine more items under brighter lights than softer lights (Cited in McGoldrick, 2002).

As to the remaining visual merchandising techniques, they will be described in more details in
the frame of reference i,e store layout, in-store product display, promotion signage and product
shelf presentation.

Those different techniques are being implemented depending on the type of store and product
displayed. Thus, some of them may not be used in a certain store settings; for instance, clothes
and apparel are presented using different techniques than those used for vegetables in
supermarkets (Ebster & Garaus, 2011).
According to a survey carried out by Display and Design Ideas (DDI) magazine investigating the
retail industry in 2011, more than 80 percent of the respondents claimed that the value of the
design, planning and visual merchandising or components in retail has grown compared to five
years ago. Moreover, half of the respondents stated that nowadays those elements become much
more important.
Moreover, a previous survey conducted in 2005 by DDI magazine about the VM industry have
mentioned the biggest challenges for visual merchandising as seen by respondents:
• Rising costs of materials
• Shakeout from the merger/
• consolidation of major retailers;
• lots of displaced talent
• Staffing—attracting creative talent
• Developing meaningful content for
• the digital medium

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• Evaluating the viability of technology
• Budgets, especially for technology
• Properly trained personnel
• Lack of available talent
• Price wars via signs
• Being creative within budget confines
• Narrowing field of vendors

As up to 90 percent of the cues issued by the environment are perceived by sight (Edwards and
Shackley, 1992) (Cited in Kerfoot et al., 2003), retailers are aware of the importance of
providing efficient visual communication through interior and exterior presentation. Thus, visual
merchandising is a major concern and factor in the success or failure of a retail store.

Visual merchandising is an important element of a store setting. It enables stores to attract and
motivate customers to spend more time in the store, help them finding and selecting products
they are looking for, encourage them to purchase items planned or unplanned as well as
projecting a good overall image of the store (Bastow-Shoop et al., 1991; Gajanayake,
Gajanayake, & Surangi, 2011).

Regarding the different existing techniques of visual merchandising partly stated in the previous
section, only the following selected techniques will be described and investigated through this
thesis.
- Store layout
- In-Store product display
- Promotion signage
- Product presentation

Store layout

Store layout, also known as floor layout (Davies & Tilley, 2004), refers to how the different
sections and aisles of a store are organized with the basic and simple objective of getting
customers shop longer and buy more.

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Shoppers make most of their purchases decisions based on visual influences (Davies and Tilley,
2004). Therefore, designing a store layout which can have positive impacts on customers’
decisions is important. Nowadays retailers benefit from computer software to plan their layout
more efficiently and maximize turnover.

Many different types of layouts exist and retailers’ choice is often made considering first the
merchandize type (McGoldrick, 2002). The most common layouts retailers chose to implement
in their store are the grid pattern layout, the free-flow layout, forced-path layout.

The grid pattern layout is a layout traditionally favored by supermarkets, drugstores, … This
store setting is characterized by long aisles, rows of parallel fixtures arranged in a rectangular
pattern.

The grid pattern layout increased the exposure of products consequently by forcing customers to
walk around the store. As a result, products such as meat, fish and dairy products are usually
placed at the back of stores in order to increase the customer flow inside the store and the
exposure to a wider range of products.

By its arrangement it also allows a better coverage of the store where little space is not covered.

Moreover, the grid pattern layout has several advantages such as efficient usage of floor space,
simplification of the inventory control and ease of product finding (McGoldrick, 2002; S.Ong,
2002)

The free-flow layout is characterized by aisles, displays and shelves placed in a freeflowing
pattern. Hence, more freedom of movement is allowed to customers who can walk around
different fixtures of a store. Unless the grid pattern layout many fashion stores use a free-flow
layout.

In-store product display

Interior or in-store displays can be put into three different categories as suggested by Omar
(1999) (Cited in Kerfoot, 2003): merchandize display, architectural or artistic display and point-
of-sale display generally located where the customer is about to pay for the purchases, usually
near the checkout area.
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Merchandize display, mostly gondola for the case of grocery stores and supermarkets, whose
purpose is to guide and coordinate customers’ merchandise selection (Khakimdjanova and park,
1995) will be described in more details in the section: product presentation.

The purpose of in-store or interior displays is to create desire for the merchandise as well as
promoting both planned and unplanned buying (BastowShoop et al., 1991)

The importance of having good, attractive displays can be crucial for retailers. In fact, customers
will be attracted to a display within three to eight seconds which is the time needed for them to
determine interest in a displayed product (Ibid).

The elements considered in designing a display include balance, proportion, rhythm, emphasis,
color, lighting and harmony (Ibid).

Product placement has been identified as in-store stimuli influencing impulse and unplanned
buying (Abraham & Goodey, 1990). Stern (1962) quoted store displays as determinant of
impulse buying (Cited in Asim & Saf, 2011).

Nowadays retailers are keen to increase the magnitude of impulse and unplanned purchases in
stores through product and store displays and product mixtures. (Hoyer and MacInnis, 1997;
Jones et al., 2003; Gutierrez, 2004; Michon et al., 2005; Schiffman and Kanuk, 2007; Lee and
Kacen, 2008; Tendai and Crispen, 2009) (Cited in Ibid).

According to Davies and Tilley (2004), more than 50 per cent of purchases made by shoppers in
supermarkets are pre-planned and the remainder is mostly influenced by stimuli sent by product
displays which are one of the most influential factors on unplanned purchases.

According to a study (Table 2) investigating the short-term effectiveness of displays located in

four different locations, the displays placed at the entrance of the first aisle achieved the most
effects, leading to an increase of 363% upon normal sales (Dyer, 1980) (cited in McGoldrick,
2002)

Gaynor Lea-Greenwood, (1998) in his paper “Visual merchandising: a neglected area in

UK fashion marketing?” outlines recent research which demonstrates that the re-naming of
display as visual merchandising has led to centralization and professionalism of the function.

21
Centralization of visual merchandising has given the function a strategic profile which has to
date been neglected within the literature. The move towards centralization and therefore
increased professionalization and sophistication of the creative process is discussed and includes
the following benefits outlined by the respondents: (1) communicating a cohesive brand image;
(2) differentiating the offer from the competition; (3) integrating promotional effort across the
brand; (4) increasing availability of technology to facilitate the process. The paper concludes
with future research avenues and recommendations.

The article in Fibre to fashion on The art of visual merchandising talks about Visual
Merchandising is the art of displaying merchandise in a manner that is appealing to the eyes of
the customer. It sets the context of the merchandise in an aesthetically pleasing fashion,
presenting them in a way that would convert the window shoppers into prospects and ultimately
buyers of the product. A creative and talented retailer can use this upcoming art to breathe in new
life into his store products. Passion for design and creativity are essential to be a good visual
merchandiser. A perfect design process and the ability to create ideas that are different are
required. Awareness of happenings in fashion world is needed so as to keep up-to-date with the
dynamics of the market constantly.

Components of Visual Merchandising:

Make merchandise the focal point

Right choice of colours is vital

Display themes to appropriately support the product

Thus visual merchandising is all about how to attract the customer to buy merchandise.

Jerry Gelsomino in his article on Basic Tips for Better Visual Merchandising states that Great
store presentation and product merchandising is like a good book. It’s got an alluring cover to
entice, an interesting first chapter to tell the reader they’ve made the right choice, and a
satisfying conclusion to get the audience to want more. The tools used to achieve these attributes
are based on creating the most satisfying experience for the shopper, turning browsers into

22
buyers. Storefront Identity and First Impressions – the entrance reflects the personality of the
store and gives a glimpse of the merchandise available inside. Design a distinctive store logo that
communicates your mission. The way merchandise is displayed in show windows also has a lot
to do with enticing the guests into the store. Whether you have a store in the mall or on the street,
the customer has only a few seconds to view and be attracted by your displays. Your visual
philosophy should replicate a billboard: make it bold, colorful, and simple. Store Layout – In
developing an effective store design, a most critical element is how the store is organized for a
logical unfolding or discovery of merchandise by the browser. Is your store easy to shop?

In this article on The importance of Visual Merchandising posted in Financial Express (2

November, 2002) it talks about the importance of VM in stores. It majorly focuses on aspects
like:

Walls

Layout

Shelving

Colour

Lighting

Space

Odour etc.

Visual merchandising is the activity of promoting the sale of goods, especially by their
presentation in retail outlets. This includes combining products, environments, and spaces into a
stimulating and engaging display to encourage the sale of a product or service. It has become
such an important element in retailing that a team effort involving the senior management,
architects, merchandising managers, buyers, the visual merchandising director, designers, and
staff is needed. This information on VM also contains:

23
History

Plano-gram

Window Display

Merchandising etc.

Bill Gerba (19 October, 2006) In his article on Five visual merchandising tips for your in-store
network the author explains Merchandising, as commonly used in marketing, means the
promotion of merchandise sales, as by coordinating production and marketing and developing
advertising, display, and sales strategies to increase retail sales. This includes disciplines in
pricing and discounting, physical presentation of products and displays, and the decisions about
which products should be presented to which customers at what time.

Five tips:

Don’t bother force-feeding your network name to consumers:

Do promote your host retailer’s brand and core values:

Do work closely with the retailer’s store marketing department

Do use your displays to complement the retailer’s other marketing strategies

Do make your content valuable to shoppers

This article on Retailing (2006) talks about the attitudinal shift of the Indian consumer in terms
of “Choice Preference”, “Value for Money” and the emergence of organised retail formats have
transformed the face of Retailing in India. With a growth over 20 percent per annum over the last
5 years, organised retailing is projected to reach US$ 23 Billion by 2010.The Indian retail
industry though predominantly fragmented through the owner -run ” Mom and Pop outlets” has
been witnessing the emergence of a few medium sized Indian Retail chains, namely Pantaloon
Retail, RPG Retail, Shoppers Stop, Westside (Tata Group) and Lifestyle International. Given the
attractiveness of the Indian retail sector, foreign retailers like Wal-Mart, Carrefour SA, Europe’s

24
largest retailer and Tesco Plc, the UK’s largest retailer, were keen to enter this growing market,
despite the Indian retail sector being closed to foreign direct investment (FDI).

Himanshu Vaidya in her report on Visual Merchandising – Concept and Concern talks about
various aspects in VM and their importance Also the points where attention needs to be given.

Some of the areas discussed are:

Aim of VM

Effect of VM

Merchandise Seasons-Plans and schedules

Life expectancy of Visual Displays

Types of Visual Merchandise Displays

VM problem in India etc.

Preeta H Vyas in his IIMA journal (2 November, 2007) on Sales Promotion Practices in Apparel
Retail Sector and Challenges Ahead, clearly explains that Indian organised retail industry is
poised for growth. Apparel sector in particular has a great opportunity with alignment of Indian
economy to globalised markets. With the widespread use of sales promotions- short term
activities which provide material inducements to consumers and trade it becomes imperative for
managers to understand such practices and understand challenges. This study investigates sales
promotion activities of six apparel stores in Ahmedabad market and compares them on various
dimensions. It presents major findings and provides insights on consumer behaviour.

Ulla Harrison, Sebastien Retaillieux,, Laurence Hugon &Ellen Verburg in their article on Visual
Merchandising: Seeing is Buying (2008), talks about the various modes of visual display in
apparel sector, it also gives a basic idea regarding:

25
Window Display

Entrance of a store

Props and its use

Types of displaying the merchandise:

By family

By colour

By Product group etc.

Zilka, Carlain their article on Dressing Down The Business Model; The apparel industry has
been hard hit during the recession, and the industry’s cost-cutting measures may be out of
fashion(17 April, 2009), they state in detail the condition of the apparel sector and the exhausted
strategies of cost cutting measures used by them and suggests new measures as well. This article
answers the question as to how can companies truly understand their organization’s “health,”
especially when visible symptoms may or may not be obvious.

Saini, C., Gupta R., Khurana I. (2015) have studied the effect of Visual Merchandising on
consumers’ impulse buying behaviour and found out the key elements of Visual Merchandising
contributing the most for impulse buying. The study found that visual merchandising practices
certainly influence customers’ buying behaviour and leads to Impulse buying as well. The results
suggest that the themes that linked most strongly to purchase intention were: merchandise
colours, presentation style, awareness of fixtures, pathfinding, sensory qualities of materials and
lighting.

Kaur, A. (2013) proved that there was a relationship between customers’ buying behaviour and
in-store form/mannequin display, promotional signage and window display. The study also
provided insights about types of visual merchandising that can influence customers’ buying
behaviours. Three most important factors of visual merchandising namely attractiveness of
window display, innovative assortments and cleanliness and neatness of store/ store environment

26
have been identified. The conclusion of his research is that the visual merchandising has a direct
relation with the sales performance. Customers get attracted, hence increasing the store's footfall,
which ultimately has a positive impact on the sales figures.

Jadhav R.A., Chaudhary P.V. (2014) research study was focused on determining the important
factors of visual merchandising which influence consumers' perceptual process, buying
behaviour and in-store promotion activities. Various visual merchandising techniques had been
considered and studied their impact on the buying behaviour of the customers and also tried to
understand and explain the relationship between impulse buying and visual merchandising.
Visual merchandising served as a significant influence on the retail experience and the shoppers’
decision-making process. It provides a competitive advantage and helps in building the overall
image of the store.

Madhavi, S., Leelavati T.S (2013) presented the results of an initial investigation on “visual
merchandising” and its effects on purchasing behaviour. The scope of the study was to study the
influence of visual merchandising, especially the one related to the shop-windows, on consumer
buying behaviour according to store attributes most valued by consumers. The themes that linked
most strongly to purchase intention were: merchandise colours, presentation style, awareness of
fixtures, pathfinding, sensory qualities of materials and lighting. The study proved sufficient
evidence that retailers can utilise visual merchandising to increase the desirability of products
and to help customers to be aware of the products as well as to create favourable attitudes.

Makhal, A.B (2015) found that there is an interaction or relationship between the type of shopper
and the visual merchandising elements. The Estimated Marginal Means for both fixed factors
confirm the same. The Posteriori Tests reveal that in terms of scores, shoppers have given
maximum importance to Set 3 elements-music, aroma, arrangement of merchandise, aisle space,
lighting and store cleanliness; followed by Set 2 elements- flooring and in-store signage; and
lastly Set 1 elements- wall color/texture and store exterior; in respect of lifelong customer
loyalty.

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CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR IN RETAIL

Consumer buying behavior (CBB) is a widely researched construct. The study is confined to
consumer decision making process in the offline retail store only. Generally, the customer feels a
need to be fulfilled and goes to the retail store to satisfy the needs. But now the scenario for
consumer decision making has been changed due to growth of middle class, increase in the
disposable income of the customer, availability of choices and increase in the standard of living.
Generally, customer makes purchases in planned and non-planned way. In both ways VM plays
an important part. In planned purchases, VM helps the customer to select desired products by
VM displays. While in non-planned purchases, VM reminds and compels a customer to make
purchase. The effectively implemented VM strategy triggers a customer and results in an impulse
buying behavior of customer and adds to overall sales of the product. Khaniwale (2015)
explained the consumer behavior as how customer choose and utilize the products and services
to fulfill their wants.
Greenwood (1998) concluded that VM elements impact the customer buying behavior. He stated
that there was significant positive relationship found among promotional signage’s, in store
displays and consumer buying behavior.
Turley and Milliman (2000) researched on store atmospherics and its effect on consumer buying
behavior. They found that the visually appealing store atmospherics has direct effect on
consumer behavior and he spends more time in the store.
Age (2004) conducted a research to understand effect of store atmospheric on consumer
shopping behavior. He found that store atmosphere is directly relate to customer buying behavior
and compels the customer to spend more time in store. The findings of the study revealed that the
customers who were impressed by store atmosphere, spent more time & money in that store.
Kim (2012) conducted a research on college going students to understand the impulse buying
behavior of them. He found that there exist a significant relationship among impulse buying and
promotional signage & in-store displays. He also found that as far as college students are
concerned window display and floor merchandise were not found significantly relevant to appeal
the students to go for impulse purchase. Yet, he found that all the elements of VM are
interrelated and collectively become cause for impulse purchase among college students.

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Pillai, Iqbal, Umer, Maqbool and Namrata (2011) conducted research on VM and found that the
brand image is enhanced by visually pleasing displays at retail stores. They also found that the
customer considers VM elements as most rated factors which compel him to go for real shopping
in place of window shopping
Kouchekian and Gharibpoor (2012) highlighted that VM elements as such store design, lighting,
store layouts, colors, height of shelves and cleanliness are most contributing factors in insisting
customers to reach to purchase decision.

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 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter provided methods that was used in data collection and they include; Research
design, Survey population, sampling design, Sampling size, Sources of data, Tools and methods
of data collections and probable problems to be encountered during data collection.

Research design:

A research design is the arrangement of condition for collection and analysis of data in a manner
which may result in an economy in procedure. It stands for advance planning for collection of
the relevant data and the techniques to be used in analysis, keeping in view the objective of the
research availability of time.

There are three types of research designs. They are,

 Exploratory research design.

 Conclusive research design.
1. Descriptive research design.
2. Causal research design.

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 CHAPTER 3
GENERAL OVERVIEW OF AREA

Visual Merchandising and its Significance in Retailing

Retailing is one of the most effective selling channel for apparel business. The business of
buying clothes from the manufacturers and selling them to the end customers is called retailing.
After buying clothes from the manufacturer a retail merchandiser must place their product at
boutiques, departmental stores, chain shops or any other online platform for sales. By this a
customer can know about the products and brands and select their expected goods to make
purchase decisions. When a customer enters a retail store no matter he buys or not, it creates
brand awareness that helps in promoting the products. Nowadays retailing is getting innovative
day by day as the demand of the customers are becoming more and more complex. So it is a
tough task for the retailers to attract more customers and retain them.

Novel combination of colour and display in an apparel retail shop

Today, retailers design their departmental stores or retail outlets in innovative and unique ways
to attract customers. In fact, it has become now an art and an essential element of apparel
retailing. Today visual merchandising has become as significant as production merchandising in
apparel and fashion business.

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Visual Merchandising

Image: Fashionable ladies wear show-room designed with catchy white background and
texture

Visual merchandising (VM) is a very effective marketing idea in present day. VM is the way that
the product is displayed in order to make appealing for the customers to walk in and buy the
product. Visual merchandising plays vital role in retail store success. How your products are
displayed on your floor, what makes customers fall in love with them. This ultimately drives
sales. Both goods & services can be displayed to highlight their features and benefits. The main
purpose of visual merchandising is to attract, engage and motivate the customers towards making
purchase. Visual merchandising is the stages that full-fills customers wants and services in the
right place and right time. This process coordinates all advertising display fashion promotions
and merchandising activities to all merchandise and service. The main objective of visual
merchandising is to maximize efficiency by creating an enjoyable shopping, effective store
design and create awareness of different brands. Visual Merchandising create eye catching
product display and store layout to attract the customers.

Visual Merchandising Elements

Visual merchandising is a workable way to promote company through different elements like
window display, lighting, store layout, color, and even music. Elements of visual merchandising

32
are the tools or techniques used to innovatively design a store or outlet and differentiate customer
experience from the competitors in the market.

Window Display: The window display should be attractive enough since only three to five
seconds of attention is given by the consumers to windows display. It should create visual
appeals, relevance and interest value. Moreover, the window display of an apparel store was
started to be able to show seasonal treads in fashion color and look. Some of the objective
include in window display create impact by image, theme and composition. main types of
window display include: closed, semi closed, open, elevated, corner, island and shadow box.

Open Window Display: In Topshop’s latest window display they worked with Blacks VM to
create engaging visuals. The open back window displays give glimpses further into the store.

Closed Window Display: They took their inspiration from the AW17 Ready-to-wear collection
in which checks make a feature. They created a grid structure which added depth to the display
and sat against a deep green closed display.

Island Window Display: Island window displays are usually found in large department and
flagship stores, where retailers have a huge space to fill but also want to create a sense of focus
on the latest products or promotions.

Semi-closed Window Displays: This type of window display usually consists of a partial screen
or graphic display, that covers the majority – but not the whole – of the window.

Corner Window Displays: Put simply, these are window displays created on the corner of
stores, however, retailers have continued to innovate in their approach to corner window
displays.

Elevated Window Displays: Elevated window displays are commonly used in jewellery and
cosmetic applications, particularly for higher value items where the shopper is likely to only
make a single purchase.

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 Image: Colourful window display reflecting aggressiveness and proactivity

Shadowbox window displays: Shadowbox displays feature heavily in the windows of stores that
specialise in smaller items such as jewellery and accessories.

Image: Shadowbox window displaying small items like jewellery and accessories

Store Layout: store layout and display is another visual merchandising element claimed to be
arranged in a way that the movement of the consumers is guided within the garments. The idea
store layout and design will help to give guideline to increase merchandise and to create interest
in the product from the customer’s perspective.

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Store Design: Store design and interior coverings like selection of the wall covering, carpets,
furnishing, shelves and dividers are suggested to be designed to convey the image which is
required to be projected to the customers.

Color: Color is the most powerful elements of the visual merchandising. It can also create
atmosphere, catch the attention of by passers and attract them to the retail store for purchasing
goods. Green signifies health and freshness, orange emits a feeling of friendship, red inspire
energy, black evokes elegance, blue indicates reliability and yellow.

Lighting: Without lighting visual Merchandising in retailing is not possible. Nowadays

computer software is used for controlling of the window display That can attract the customers.

Shelf Lighting: It instantly creates a luxury feel of the stores.

Change-room Lighting: Change-room lighting should also have lighting incorporated either into
or around the mirror to ensure even lighting of the customer and avoid unflattering shadows.

Image: Variation in lighting can amplify product’s charm to customers

Display Rack Lighting: This technique also creates a luxurious feeling so it is an easy way to
help the customer justify a higher spend.

35
Lower Level Lighting: it is well below eye level, strategically placing some lighting lower to the
ground can help draw attention to it.

Image: Happy Customers at a Cheerful outlet

End Cap Lighting: End-caps can be a perfect place not only to incorporate lighting but also play
with coloured lights.

Music: In fashion retailing house visual merchandising play slow music for customer relaxation.
It can also promote brands and customer spend enjoyable time inside retailing house during
purchasing their selected product.

The type of music you play in your store makes customers subconsciously form an opinion about
your brand even before seeing your products and influences what and how much they are buying
from you. In an experiment, while playing French music, 8 out of 10 people French wine
because it made them feel in a certain way.

You have to figure out how you want the customers to feel while they are in your store and try to
induce those feelings via music. If you have a vintage collection or classic items, playing blues,
jazz and other genres might help you sell those products faster. The same way, if your tore is
mostly for teenage girls and your predominant style is trendy, modern, chic, pop music from
well-known artists is the best option.

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Significance of Visual Merchandising in Apparel Business

The concept of visual merchandising is the activity of presenting products in a manner that
encourage sales. Any apparel store owners want to boost their product by designing and
displaying retail stores that can help to promote their products. Visual merchandising helps
shoppers locate product more easily. When a product is properly displayed it catches shoppers’
attention to buy their product. Visual merchandising makes store more enjoyable to shoppers by
displaying and promoting your product that encourage higher sales and creates an enjoyable
shopping experience. After completing an enjoyable shopping customers will want to come back
again to your store and purchase more products. Visual merchandising attracts thus help in
customer retention and repurchasing by their services. That can promote your product as well as
brand awareness. Today’s market is very competitive. If shoppers feel comfortable to buy your
product from your retail house it will be more effective for your apparel business.

It is really important for each member of VM team in retail stores to be little bit visual specialist
and have a feeling for it. It does make a difference when you are coming to the store which is
tidy, colors and products are matching and looks nice together. Then when you are coming to
some messy store and all products seems mixed together, so you have no idea where to find and
how to find what you need. This is the way how to engage and inspire shoppers, to encourage
them to buy more of their products you want them and of course to increase the sales.

Visual merchandise is not only important for retail but also important for every product. Visual
merchandise is the first step to approach customer. Since, when any customer can see the product
then he’ll/she’ll try to explore more about it even if they are not in planning to buy it. Next step
is touch and feel which make the customer’s mind to buy it.

About the Companies:

Allen Solly
Allen Solly was founded in 1744 by a company called William Hollin and Co Ltd. The brand
was purchased sometime in the 90’s by a new company called Madura Garments which was a
part of Madura Coats. Madura Coats was a big producer of threads.

37
The Vision of Allen Solly:

The company aimed to emerge as a brand which was totally new and did not stick to
conventions. “Friday Dressing” was introduced to give the company a stronghold. Initially the
Indian markets was not open to experimental apparel for men. Friday dressing by Allen Solly
gave Indian corporates an oppurtunity to transform their wardrobes. The new formal wear was
relaxed and not boring. The Aditya Birla Group took over Allen Solly in 2001 .

Allen Solly brings together people from different walks of life and unites them in the matters of
style and attitude. The innovative garments of Allen Solly give people an identity in the work
place, while chilling out.

Max

Max, a part of Landmark Group, is a fashion and footwear retailer in the Value segment. Max
retails its own label clothing for men, women and children, as well as footwear and house ware.
Max is opening around 100 stores across India, is a division of Lifestyle International Pvt Ltd.,
which is a part of US $ 1 billion Landmark Group. Landmarkgroup is one of the largest retailers
in the Middle East with over 500 stores across 8 countries, directly employing 10,000 people.
We have already opened stores in Indore, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi-Rajouri Garden, Agra,
Hyderabad, Lucknow, Mumbai Noida and Delhi – Laxminagar. A good shopping experience and
a great value at Max translate into making customers ‘Look good and Feel good’ to the
maximum

Kazo
Kazo is a young international brand that has made its way into the centre of the fashion industry
within a short span of time. Kazo launched its first showroom in Delhi on 07th july, 2007 under
the directorship of Mr. Deepak Aggarwal. The idea of Kazo came into being with the aim of
amalgamating international trends and fashion at a value that would be affordable for the woman
of today.

The garments designed are phenomenally fashionable with a high wear ability and practicality
quotient.

38
The main asset of the collections is that it is highly affordable which enables customers an access
to the latest designer wear, giving a chance to every woman to feel great in her skin, right to her
soul.

Bizarre
The bizarre label was first introduced in 1987, to fulfill self-expression. They entered this new
age with a change in recent years and a person so assertive, they all have set the women’s sights
glouriously higher. With the buzz of a new girl on the block.

Globus
Launched in January 1998, Globus is a part of the Rajan Raheja group. The company opened its
first store in 1999 at Indore followed by the launch of its second store in Chennai (T-Nagar).

The Globus has a Privilege Club card which is very unique in a way that Members are
immediately rewarded for purchases at any of their stores, in addition to a host of other
privileges such as exclusive tie ups, promotion and special shopping hours. To each his own
individual needs vary. This is why Globus offers 2 different card categories, each with it own
benefits designed to suit the needs of the customers.

Pantaloons
This Company was incorporated on October 12, 1987 as Manz Wear Private Limited. The
Company was converted into a public limited company on September 20, 1991 and on
September 25, 1992 the name was changed to Pantaloon Fashions (India) Limited and in the
same year the Company made an initial public offering. Later they changed their name to
Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited on July 7 1999.

Pantaloons believes in managing customer expectation by offering them all the requirements for
their entire family under one roof is the key to being a successful retailer, and hence have built
their business model around ‘Family focus’ rather than ‘individual focus’.

Pantaloons clearly define Lifestyle products under Private Labels and third party brands.

39
They have a loyalty card programme with a name of ‘Green Card’. It is divided hierarchically
into one star, three star and five star. Every point generated at all the levels is equivalent to Rs.1

It also stays in touch with its loyal customers through Mailers, SMS’s E-mails and Telephone
informing them about the developments and promotions.

40
 CHAPTER 4
VISUAL MERCHANDISING TECHNIQUES

Merchandising is the arrangement and design of goods and retail space to make the buying
experience more attractive and fun for the consumer. Merchandising consists of product
display, pricing, store layout, signage, promotional events and all manner of other sales-driving
techniques aimed at raising the profile and the profits of your small retail business. For all its
advantages, merchandising does bring a few possible negatives to the table.

Advantage: Brings Customers In

Merchandising can increase the amount of customers who notice and enter your store. With
increased traffic may come increased sales and success. Merchandising should start outside,
where customers first see the store and make the decision whether to come in and shop or not.
Bright signage and manicured grounds, a clean parking lot and well-kept retail structure are all
factors that help shoppers to determine if a trip inside is warranted or if the store does not look
like somewhere they would prefer to be. What happens once you get them inside is up to your
interior merchandising, product line and pricing.

Advantage: Increased Sales

Effective merchandising can have a clear and definite positive effect on retail sales and the
bottom line, which is, after all, the goal of any business approach. Pricing, displays, product
packaging and arrangement, sale signs and promotional marketing can all drive sales upward
while improving the shopping experience for your customers. Good merchandising can help
you to get more out of the same retail space without expansion or renovations. Your customers
will begin to associate your attractive merchandising with your store and it may also impact
where they go to shop on a regular basis.

Advantage: Attractive Spaces

Proper merchandising may require the rearrangement of aisles, shelves, display fixtures and the
general layout of the interior retail space. Interior spaces should flow more easily while

41
 directing the consumer to important sale items and significant displays. An effective retail
space brings with it the advantage of flexibility and more usable space. It will also help to
create an environment that can handle more people, more efficiently and makes the overall
shopping experience less of a chore. This is attractive to customers and increases the
perception of your brand.

There are some barriers to introducing visual merchandising techniques within your retail
store. These include:

 Changing layout and space – You may be required to spend time rearranging aisles, shelves,
display fixtures and the general layout of the interior retail space.
 Increased demands on staff – The success of your visual merchandising techniques may mean
you have to handle more daily customers, more sales and more deliveries. There may also be
more customer service issues, longer hours and the need for more staff. An increase in
customers often translates to a necessary increase in payroll. With more people coming in on a
daily basis, more sales and more deliveries comes more customer service issues, longer hours
and a need for more bodies to do the work. More work and more workers are two
disadvantages of successful merchandising.
 Expense – If you install new fixtures, create new signage or improve the appearance of your
retail space, costs can quickly add up. However, overcoming the challenges of planning and
managing visual marketing can lead to profitability and increase customer loyalty.

42
 Merchandising Techniques All Retailers Should Know

If you’re a retailer, there shouldn’t really be any debate about the importance of
merchandising your store. Besides attracting customers, good merchandising can increase
your traffic, increase your sales, and increase brand loyalty. That said, what is up for
debate is the type of merchandising technique you use.

There are a number of different techniques available to you and which combination you
use depends largely on what you want to achieve as a store as well as what products you
offer.

Here are four of the more popular techniques that you can use in your store today.

Vertical Merchandising
As a technique, vertical merchandising is fairly easy to explain. It’s the grouping together
of merchandise in a vertical column or display in such a way as to get your customers to
buy more products.

43
How does this get your customers to buy more? Your customers tend to focus on those
products that are at eye-level. Thus, in displaying your merchandise in a vertical manner,
you’re allowing your customers to stay in one position while they use their eyes to follow
your display of items, from top to bottom.

The result is an easier shopping experience for them since they’ll see more of your
inventory. They’ll also be able to compare your product offerings and prices.

If you do plan on making use of this particular technique, just remember to consider who
your customers are. If they’re adults, ensure that your popular products are at eye level.
Likewise, if you know they’re likely to bring their children with them, place products that
appeal to them near the bottom of the shelf.

Advantages:

1. Improves the appearance and organisation of your store.

2. Presented consistently in vertical columns, a large selection of products will appear

organised, making it easier to shop your store.

3. All brands at eye level will receive equal visibility.

Disadvantages:

1. It can result in over facing SKU’s that don’t require a complete vertical allocation.

2. Your brand impact is somewhat diluted.

3. It makes it harder to display high profit lines exclusively at eye level.

Horizontal Merchandising

In going the route of horizontal merchandising - placing your products in a blocked

horizontal manner - you’re essentially ensuring that all your products are at eye level.

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That's the good part.

The downside is that your customers will need to move from side to side to see all your
products. Since your customers prefer to stand still and scan your shelf with their eyes,
this particular technique can make it difficult to shop your store. That doesn’t mean you
shouldn’t make use of this technique.

If you do decide to make use of this technique, just make sure that the first product they
see is enticing enough to get them to move down your aisle so they can see your other
products.

Advantages:

1. It makes it easier to present more profitable items at or near your customer’s eye
level.

2. If done properly, you can entice your customers to walk through your entire display,
exposing them to more products.

Disadvantages:

1. Your poorer performing brands may not receive enough exposure and could perform
poorly as a result.

2. You will not be able to merchandise by price point.

3. It is difficult to upsell your customers since you can’t display bundles or add-on
items.

Cross Merchandising
Defined as the practice of displaying complementary products from different categories
together, your cross merchandising technique is great in generating additional revenue for
your store .

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How? Since most of your customers are looking for convenience when shopping, you’re
helping them by pairing up products that are indirectly related to each other.

For example, if you sell battery-operated toys, you should consider a display of batteries
next to them. Not only are you saving your customers time, but you’re also given them a
better shopping experience. Another example is if you’re a food retailer, you can place
your spreads near to your in-store bakery.

If you do decide to make use of this merchandising technique, just make sure that you
always have your customer in mind. Any items you choose to cross merchandise need to
offer a solution to your customer.

Advantages:

1. Offers a solution instead of products.

2. It makes it easier for your customers to shop your store.

3. It appeals to your customer’s desire to save time.

4. Your products are organised in a way that your customers use them.

Disadvantages:

1. There could be possible space limitations.

2. Your customers won’t shop your entire store.

3. Your store could be seen as trying to sell off higher-priced items

Colour Block Merchandising

When it comes to figuring out how best to draw your customers into your shop and keep
them in store, you need to consider making use of colour block merchandising.

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At it’s core, this merchandising technique involves the use of colour to display your
products and is usually done in a vertical manner known as colour ribboning. This can be
done both in store and in your window displays.

For example, if you’re looking to attract attention to your store, a window display filled
with bright colours is a good bet. Once in your store, you can follow that up by including
a similar display.

Mind you, just be careful that in picking a certain colour, you aren’t choosing the same as
everyone else, which can result in customer’s not even seeing your store. In that case, a
darker colour could work just as well.

An added bonus is that in using colours, you can also create an emotional and personal
connection with your customers. That is especially helpful when you know who your
customers are so you know which colours will appeal to them most.

Advantages

1. Use a product's colour in a display to attract your customer’s attention.

2. It encourages multiple purchases

3. Your customers will see more of your product selection at a glance.

Disadvantages:

1. It can be difficult to create a desired effect with certain products.

2. It can make shopping your store slower than usual.

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 CHAPTER 5
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Before we can make someone listen to us, we will be judged by how we look. And, it’s the
same with Visual Merchandising. Before someone wants to try our product or service, they
will look at it first and then decide if they want to try it out. That’s how important visuals
are. It is the first level of successful customer experience.

Visuals play a huge factor in the success of making a sale and selling in-store experience,
especially in today’s hyper-competitive market. Like other aspects of business, Visual
Merchandising is an element that needs to be strategically on point. With how the world is
changing rapidly and how it becomes more competitive with brands popping out left and
right, Visual Merchandising becomes even more complicated now.

Recently, I have met someone who has a fashion and marketing background. As a retailer,
Jasmine shared how challenging it was to tell a brand story through Visual Merchandising.
It is not an easy business to translate a brand story through lights, fixtures, textures, and
colors, than simply putting it into words or translating it into photos. Visual Merchandising
has so many elements to be considered. Think about how you need to match everything and
translate your brand story into something tangible. That’s a challenge!

We discussed more of these challenges; I wanted to share some of it with you. You might
learn something from it. This might help you pinpoint your own Visual Merchandising
problems that you need to solve.

1. Limited Display Space

Think of space as a canvas for a painter. It’s where you will translate your ideas into
something tangible. It will have all the colors, shadows, lights, and elements that you have
envisioned. Somehow, it is the playground of your ideas. But also think of this: the smaller
the space, the bigger the problem. There’s a limit to what you can do with a little space. You

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can have all the ideas in the world, but with so little space, you might not be able to execute
everything you have in mind.

Space defines the number of fixtures, lights, and products you must have. It is your starting
point to do your store design. So imagine if you have a grand idea and your space somehow
doesn’t agree with you, your creativity will be challenged. And, it will definitely be a
struggle.

What you want to do when you are faced with this problem is to evaluate first what you
need. These are elements you need to have on your space, or what you might call essentials
for what kind of business you have. Let’s say if you are a fashion retailer, like Jasmine, you
definitely need fixtures that will hold and highlight your clothes. It could be tables or racks.
Those are essentials to have good product placement.

The next thing you need to do is define what you need to accentuate your product and that
can help to beautify your space. For this, lighting always does the trick. It balances the
colors of space and sets up the mood. These could also be decors that can act as finishing
touches. Approaching it this way would be less overwhelming. It will help you find the
balance to maximize your space without seeing it as a problem.

2. Lack of New Technologies

Visual Merchandising is part of brand storytelling, but without the right supply or resources,
it will be hard to paint the picture. And just like painting in a canvas, the picture you are
trying to make would be much easier if you have new tools to use.

My friend emphasizes this—how there is a lack of innovative fixtures or supplies to

improve a store design or Visual Merchandising. For her, fashion Visual Merchandising has
a gradual evolution in terms of innovation. And unfortunately, it is true.

We see the same thing, over and over again. Walk in a mall or on a fashion street, and you
will see the same kinds of mannequins dressed like others, clothes folded the same manner,

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and accessories displayed like its competitors. Nothing is changing. We simply see clothes
that are displayed for the sake of showing something. And it all boils down to the fact that
we don’t see innovative fixtures or available technologies that could entirely change the
game of visual merchandising.

Imagine if you found the right product or technology to help you modernize how your store
looks like and improve your customer experience, that could help you how you will do your
visual merchandising and eventually your sales. And to top it off, you will stand out
compared to the rest of your competitors.

3. Budget Constraints

Budget. It’s always one of the obvious challenges any Visual Merchandiser could have.
Somehow, it defines your whole design. It defines what kind of elements you will have and
how you will use it. It plays a major role in how you will develop your design and how you
will execute a visual merchandising strategy. This is especially problematic for small
retailers. Unlike other giant retailers with a huge budget, small retailers have to improvise
and be more strategic with the budget that they have. Creativity is useful when this problem
arises. This is the time you get to exercise your creative spirit.

Some may agree or not, but you don’t need to have a huge budget to ace Visual
Merchandising. Yes, it could be helpful, but like any other design, visual merchandising is
all about creativity. Somehow, it has its own language — how you play visuals and other
senses to perfect the customer experience you want to achieve for your customers. Knowing
how to creatively manipulate those and being aware who is your ideal consumer, you will be
able to successfully tailor your visual merchandising to your own vision and use it to give
your consumer an experience that will make them enamored with your product or service.

So yes, budget constraints could be a hindrance, but it could also be a way to boost your
creativity and apply your consumer knowledge. All you have to do and remember is the
phrase consumer experience. Work with that in the mind and your creativity will help you
out.

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4 Creative Differences

Visual Merchandising is a collaborative job. It is not only a visual merchandiser’s job.

There are a lot of people who are involved in finalizing a design. Business owners and
marketers could have a say on it. With so many voices to be heard and considered,
sometimes it could be frustrating. During such times, retailers, designers, and business
owners need to remind themselves that they all have one goal—and that is to create a good
customer experience and make a sale. Creative differences happen because of different
visions on how to reach the same goal. And all like collaborative work, it should be settled
with compromise and discussion.

A good collaboration starts with a clear goal. It is something shared by all. Without a
common ground, it will be difficult to set a collaborative voice that will define how you
want to develop and execute your visual merchandising plans. So before you start your
visual merchandising plan, set a goal with your team. Talk about it. Define a specific goal
you want to meet and make a decision based on that goal. And as you execute it, the
collaboration will be much easier and will be all about what is best for business.

5. Traditional Formulas

Is it just me or do you also want to see something different?

Research studies have proven again and again that shoppers make up to 80 percent of their
purchase decisions right in the store and that Visual Merchandising has an impact on their
decision making. There are a lot of reasons for this and different kinds of consumers that get
affected by visual merchandising. For some consumers, they are only simply doing window
shopping, or others don’t have an intention to really buy. Some customers have only a rough
idea of what they want to buy before they enter the store. There are also decisive buyers

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who know exactly they want. And there are the impulse buyers, who decide on the spur of
the moment.

Yet with all these facts and several pieces of research about Visual Merchandising, we still
hold to tradition and see the same thing from one store to another. We read all about these
yet we practice the same old formulas than using all these studies to create innovative ones.

AFFECT IN-STORE SALES

Factors and merchandising techniques that affect the most

#1 Color

Color is considered to be the key component of visual merchandising that can influence
consumer’s choices.

Firstly, it will help your store attract attention and encourage consumers to step into the store
quickly.

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For example, if your store wants to primarily attract customers, then using colors like red and
orange at the entrance tend to stand out and draw the eye, while cool colors like blue and green
will keep your store calm that can be used in the interiors.
Secondly, color can also create an emotional effect on customers, which can portray a good
meaning about the products you offer.
Few tips

 If your store is new in the market or you are looking to increase sales per square foot, use
vibrant colors like red, brown at the entrance – adding some meaningful designs that will
make consumers curious to know about your offering and divert them to your store.
 If you are nature-friendly, willing to create an emotional impact or want to have more
focus on products, use dull light colors like green, blue, or white. This will evoke feelings
of excitement as well as keep consumers’ attention focused on the primary color and
products used in the display.
#2 Fixture and Fittings

Another important aspect of visual merchandising display that affects in-store sales, is the fixture
and fittings. A level of elevation up or down in your fixture and fittings will create a bad effect
on your sales per square foot.

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You may have multiple displays set in your store, but with inaccurate fixtures and fittings may
annoy your customers, which in turn will directly affect sales.
Therefore, it is essential that you first create a theme and then arrange the fixture and fittings for
your store.
Few tips

 If you have an apparel store or a candy shop, then it makes sense when you display
products on shelves that are of eye level or slightly above.

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  This will offer the best position to display the product as it directly catches the
customer’s eye, making them stop to look at it.
 For those who sell products that can be paired up – like shirts, trousers, shoes, it will be
an effective idea to arrange fixtures and fittings keeping them close to each other which
will save customers time and effort to walk around the store in order to complete the
outfit they require.
 You should also focus more on displays located close to the tills, as this can be your
highest sales-generating area. Having a proper display in this area will encourage
customers to add items to their shopping cart along with their initial purchases.
#3 Signage

Signage will act as a salesperson, hence being an advantage it can open doors – bringing in more
sales opportunities for your store.

Infusing proper signage is crucial in your visual merchandising display, as this will allow
customers to comfortably reach their desired destination or location by following the display
given on it.

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By doing this, your customers will not have to wait for a salesperson who may be busy attending
other customers. And, making customers wait, means you will automatically lose sales and
reduce customer service.
Ensure you install proper signage for your store that should attract customers’ attention within 10
seconds since they enter your store.
Few tips

 If you have a store dealing in computer accessories and phones, and if you stock them on
shelves or racks with no display, your customers will have to go to each rack and check
products from close. Now, if they land at a wrong rack with no salesmen available, they
will get annoyed and tired of roaming around your store and, in the end, leave your store.
Therefore, create a theme and organize products infusing proper signage to allow easy
and quick reference to your customers.
 If you are a big store selling multiple products, then without signage, your customers will
get lost. You may be having the product the customers are looking for, but just because
they could not find it, you lose a sale. Ensure that you create proper signage installed at
various parts of your store that will help customers easily reach out to the product they
intend to purchase.
 If you have a store selling creative products handmade pots, then infusing funky signage
at the entrance using creative phrases will attract customers’ eyes and divert them to your
store.
This way, you increase brand value and sales for your store.
#4 Lights

Lighting is the most important aspect of the visual merchandising display. If done correctly, it
will aid in selling the merchandise, and if not, it can create a negative impact, even if they are
worth hundreds of thousands.

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You should maintain a proper proportion of lights and shadow in your visual merchandising
displays because excess in either of those may hide product details or may even change the color
of the products.
This will create an entirely different appearance of your product, and you lose sales.
Therefore, retailers should ensure the use of proper lights (spotlights mostly preferred) to focus
on key areas or key products to make more sales and business for your store.

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Few Tips

 If you want a calm and relaxed generating lighting, then the color fluorescent is an ideal
and cost-effective choice for retailers.They offer the best color rendering effect and are
available in various colors that can generate cool, warmth, or any other desired effect.
 If you have a store selling apparel with dim lighting all over, it may cause retailers to
shop less. This is because your dim light creates stress in their shopper’s mind, who will
not want to wait for long in your shop.
Instead, arranging for spotlights in your display area will throw more focus on the product and
make them look rich, vibrant, and tempting, encouraging the customer to buy the product on-the-
go.
#5 Window display

A store window is ideal for bringing in new customers as well as existing customers, which
allows you to display products that are newly arrived, best-selling products, promotional
products, and even create a brand image.

Ensure you focus more on this aspect of visual merchandising and frequently update them if you
want to increase traffic and sales for your store.
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The smart way is to create different themes for different windows that portray different stories
based on whatever theme is inspirational at that time.
Few tips

 It is always suggested to be unique with your window displays as consumers get attracted
more to the ones they have never seen before.Research thoroughly and, if possible,
consult other retailers having the same interest and come up with a unique one. The best
ideas may come out from what they have tried and tested.
 If you have a furniture shop and arranging a window display that makes it easy for
customers to envision how the same product could be set-up in their own home will allow
you to convert those window shoppers to actual customers in no time.
 If you are selling apparel, then using mannequins to showcase your clothing will give
customers an idea of how they would look in it.
This way, allowing customers a visual using the products will more likely influence customers’
purchase decisions on-the-go.
#6 Conceptualize cool Product Groupings

Inspire your buyers by product groupings.

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Product grouping is the idea of clubbing products that compliment or connect with each other.
For example, a pocket square with a suit. All that coupled with a shoe, an umbrella, and may be a
wallet too.
Keep thinking. Let your dreamy mind take over with a dose of business sense.
Few Tips:

 Use some sort of gimmick for the build-up. Let your customer halt at that point and gaze
it for a while and maybe take selfies too.
 Think with respect to a particular theme. This will help you bring together the stuff you
actually would want in that cluster.
#7 Music - The sensory gratitude

Many retailers do not pay attention to this one. Maybe because it is not Visual. But imagine what
a great EDM, pop, or some particular hook in some song pumps your mood up in no time.

With all the factors above, music can really have a hypnotic affect.

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Few Tips:

 Set your music library concerning the core theme of your store. If you are selling
stonewash jeans or some cool cowboy hats, some country music may help. New age
things may have you playing more Pop and EDM.
 However, beware that you just cannot download any Maroon 5 or The Weeknd chart-
buster and play it. Public performance of copyrighted content may land you up in trouble.
 There are sites where you can buy cool music for your store and play it without any
restrictions. Seek help from your circle to create that freshening playlist.

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 CHAPTER 6
FEEDBACK FROM EXPERTS AND INDUSTRIES

Some of the ones we recommend checking out are the following:

 Design Retail Online

 Smart Retailer

 Pinterest

 Shopify

Remember that People Have Five Senses, Not Just One

It can be easy to focus on just creating visually stimulating product displays and forget about the
other four senses. But the secret to an engaging and immersive shopping experience is to create a
multi-sensory experience, or what's known as "sensory branding." Let's take a closer look at how
you could go about doing just that:

 Sight: There are an endless array of visual cues you can play around with to communicate your
message. From using colors for their psychological triggers, to leveraging lighting, symmetry,
balance, contrast, and focus to direct and control where a customer looks and for how long. It's
one of the fascinating components of visual merchandising.

 Sound: The music you play in your retail store has a profound but subtle effect on how your
customers behave in store. Depending on who you're targeting, you can slow people down by
playing more mellow music, causing them to browse. On the other hand, playing top 40
communicates that you want teenagers in your store.

 Touch: This one's probably the easiest to get right. Retailers just need to remember to give
customers the ability to touch, feel, and try out whatever it is you're looking to sell.

 Smell: Believe it or not, there's an entire science to what's referred to as "scent marketing," with
several studies and real-world case studies of global brands like Samsung, Sony, and Verizon
applying it to their advantage. Smell is a fast-track to the system in your brain that controls both

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 emotion and memory—two very prominent factors behind why we choose one brand over
another.

 Taste: This can work magic if you happen to be in the business of selling consumables.
Giving customers the ability to sample products before they buy is the equivalent of letting
people try on clothes—it's a highly effective best practice.

Show, Don't Tell

Before people purchase something, they typically want an idea of what it will look and feel like.
To accommodate this need, you can set up your product displays so that shoppers could envision
your items in their own home (or wearing them, in the case of apparel).

For example, the sales floor in furniture stores is set up with product displays that make it easy
for people to envision how the same products would look in their own homes. Kitchenware
stores have their merchandise displayed like it might look in a normal kitchen, and so on.

Another prominent way apparel retailers do this is by creating policies that require their sales
staff to wear the clothing they're selling. And of course, the most tried-and-true example of this
would be the mannequin and body form, which you can style with all your latest products.

This tactic gives prospective customers an immediate point of reference. And when customers
can envision using your product, they're more likely to purchase it.

Group Like with Like

Grouping products with other similar items will give your customers additional reasons to buy
more items from you. But grouping products also has a more utilitarian justification: It
saves shoppers time. They don't need to wander around your entire retail store trying to mix and
match things or do a price comparison. It’s one of the reasons grocery stores will put dips right
beside their chips, or peanut butter with jams.

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You can also think of it as creating categories. But you don’t need to limit your creativity there:
you can also create “groupings” within categories. That means having merchandise that might be
the same color, price, size, or type together.

The Rule of Three

In creating displays, most visual merchandisers will often refer to the rule of three, which means
that when creating a product display, try to work in sets of three. Based on how you’re arranging
your products, you’ll want to have three of them side by side instead of just one. For example, if
you were arranging things by height, you’d have items that were short, medium, and tall.

Our eyes are most likely to keep moving when we’re looking at something asymmetrical because
when we see some symmetrical or balanced they stop dead in their track. The Rule of Three will
keep your customers' attention longer on your product displays.

This also alludes to the "Pyramid Principle," where if you have one item at the top, and all other
items “one step down,” it forces the eye to look at the focal point and then work it’s way down.

Let Light Dictate Mood and Attention

This again ties into engaging your customer’s senses (see above) and guiding them to experience
different moods and emotions based on your store’s lighting. Whether they feel like they’re in a
nightclub, a fashion runway, or right at home will depend largely on how you decide to use
lighting.

Using spotlights to highlight certain products is also a surefire way to direct attention and make
sure people pay attention to your top products.

For more information on how to use lighting to highlight your product displays and visual
merchandising, read our guide to retail lighting design.

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 Don't Forget to Change It Up

Remember that when trying to optimize your square footage for the most sales, a scientific
approach of formulating a hypothesis, executing on your idea, and then testing for results will
put you in the routine of trying out new ideas and sticking with what works.

With these tips in mind, go out and give these visual merchandising tactics a try to see for
yourself how you can increase sales through product displays.

Visual Merchandising Dos and Don’ts

While memorable visual merchandising is the goal of your merchandising strategy, you want
customers to remember your brand for all of the right reasons. Keeping in mind the techniques
listed out above, it is important during execution that your team isn’t going overboard or putting
too much emphasis on the wrong components of a retail display. Here are a few dos and don’ts
for balanced merchandising:

 Do make constant check-ins to your displays after they are established. A merchandiser’s job
does not end at simply putting the products where they need to be; it extends far beyond the
initial set up. Periodic check-ins will help ensure retailer compliance.

 Don’t go overboard on visuals. While you certainly want to captivate the attention of your
audience, you don’t want them to be overwhelmed by your displays. Tying in too many colors or
elements to a visual display can distract customers from the actual product and miss the point of
your merchandising efforts.

 Do test before you invest. When it comes to creating novel merchandising, there is a lot of time
and money that goes into any campaign. Before making the jump into something that may not
provide the ROI you expect, start small by testing a display in one or two locations before
deciding to spread it into all of your stores.

 Don’t give shoppers information overload. If you include words on your displays or signage, try
to use minimalist messaging by only addressing the most important things you want to get across

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to the consumer. Chances are, you’ll have a lot of shoppers that only momentarily glance at the
text as they walk by, so having too much of it can create missed opportunities for engagement.

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 CHAPTER 7
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Most of the visual merchandisers and retailers think that visual merchandiser is socially and
ethically responsible towards customers, shoppers and general public. According to them a visual
merchandiser is highly concern about the responsibility which he shoulders while creating a
display. Whatever displays a Visual merchandiser or a retailer plans for they make sure that the
customers are feeling happy and satisfied about it and at the same time it is socially and ethically
accepted by the society. A retailer and a dealer also make sure that the display or any technique
of visual merchandising do not hurt any religious sentiments or is not biased with any section of
the society. Retailers and visual merchandisers always make an attempt to bring out positive
ideas which are socially accepted. Visual merchandisers and retailers need to take care of every
minute detail which might affect the young generation or the kids in a negative manner. They
need to avoid nudity and violence in their displays for e.g. Simple thing like while dressing up a
female mannequin which is so similar to a human body the display designer needs to make sure
that before wearing the garments on it an inner wear is put up on it just as similar to how a Indian
women dress up decently

Apart from the social front most of the visual merchandisers, dealers and retailer also agree that
the displays should be made out of eco-friendly materials and there needs to be reusability of the
visual merchandising displays. 361 Most of the retailers, dealers and visual merchandisers agree
that the visual displays and the information signages should be ethical by giving the right
information and not misleading the shoppers.

Most of the visual merchandisers and retailers believe that there needs to be ecoconsciousness in
the materials they use for displays plus the display material should protect the consumers from
health adversities and save the consumers from pungent odor and reduce health risk such as
headaches, nausea, respiratory disorders, burning sensation in the eyes, nose and throat etc. by
avoiding chemicals in their paints while using different colors paints in the store. Also most
companies are deciphering ways to make graphic prints safe and environmental friendly for
instance using the Bio-Vu ink (solvent ink made completely from renewable sources where the
solvent is derived from corn. The retailers and visual merchandisers are trying to use materials

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which are also cost effective and yet ‘green’ in nature. Most of the retailers, dealers and visual
merchandisers agree that they all need to join the green movement.

Visual merchandising as a profession is trying to display with a sense of social

responsibility by not putting a bad impact in the minds of young generation, not hurting
any ones religious and national sentiments, not violating the cultural norms and trying to
be more and more eco-friendly.

The retail industry evolves every day, and there are numerous ways in which female customers
can shop for apparel. Only a few years ago, in-store shopping was the shopping preference of
consumer. However, with advanced technologies and online retailers, there has been a drastic
shift in shopping behaviors. It is vital that brick and mortar retailers can differentiate themselves
from online retailers that pose competitive threats, and create a personal and desirable shopping
experience for female consumers.

For stores to do this, they need to provide an all-around unique and memorable experience, by
using atmospherics to invoke environmental stimuli. One of the most significant ways stores can
pull female shoppers in, is to utilize the concept of visual merchandising. Visual merchandising
refers to the development of effective displays- i.e., displays that attract, engage and motivate
customers. The purpose of visual merchandising is to create a pleasurable shopping experience
and to enhance the value that motivates customers to make planned or impulsive purchases (Jain,
Takayanagi,& Malthouse, 2014). Understanding visual merchandising strategies and the use of
atmospherics within stores is key to enticing customers first to enter the store, second to elicit an
emotional response, and lastly, to encourage purchases.

Although visual merchandising and the proper use of store atmospherics is vital to ensuring the
differentiation between competition, stores need to understand their demographics and how they
position their brand in customer’s minds. Therefore, understanding why women shop the way
they do and what entices them to enter a store is necessary to create an overall positive
experience. Regardless of the retailer, it is important that all stores stay up to date with the latest
visual merchandising strategies and understanding their female clientele.

Visual merchandising and store atmospherics will directly impact female consumer shopping
behavior. The need for unique interior and exterior visual merchandising within retail

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environments is critical in promoting sales and creating a positive brand image in customer’s
minds. Additionally, the importance of understanding a retailer’s target market is highlighted
within the examined studies to ensure that visual merchandising will evoke a positive, emotional
response from the consumer, which will lead them to purchase merchandise. As the world of
retail expands, it will be interesting to see how brick and mortar retail stores will continue to
improve their visual merchandising strategies to stay ahead.

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 REFERENCES

1. Saini, C. (2015). Visual Merchandising and Impulse Buying Behavior: A Case of Retail
Industry. International Journal of Advance Research in Science & Engineering, Vol.4, Issue: 2,
pp.621-627.

2. Kaur, A. (2013). Effects of Visual Merchandising on Buying Behavior of Customers in

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