Visual Merchandising

 TYPES OF OUTLETS  TYPES OF GOODS  INFORMATION ABOUT HOW THREE DIFFERENT RETAIL OUTLETS APPLIED VISUAL MERCHANDISING TECHNIQUES TO GOODS

1. JOHN LEWIS 2. CURRYS PC WORLD 3. TOPSHOP

Types of Outlets  Supermarket. It is a large retail market that sells a wide variety of food and other household goods. Statistics shows that there are 569 Morrisons stores, 1,304 Sainsbury's stores and Tesco has 3,493 stores in UK. As we can see Tesco is the biggest supermarket in UK with many stores. Here is a pie chart of Market share in 2014. 

Convenience. is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, tobacco products, over-the-counter drugs, toiletries, newspapers, and magazines. There are 2,018 Londis stores, 2,312 Spar stores, 2,547 Coscutter stores and Best-one has 2,904 stores in UK. These statistics are from 2014, it shows that Best-one was the leader convenience store by that time.

 Co-operatives. a retail store owned and managed by consumercustomers who supply the capital and share in the profits by patronage dividends. There are more than 7,000 locations in UK.  Hypermarket. It is a full-service supermarket combined with a department store. Typically covering an area of 5,000 to 15,000 square metres, they generally have more than 200,000 different brands of merchandise available at any one time.  Discounters are large businesses that sells goods or services at less than the usual price. There are many discounters in UK, for example: Poundland, Poundworld, Tiger, Quality save, 99p stores, etc. The leading discounter shop in UK is B&M with 500+ shops.

Here is a bart chart that shows the Market share of Aldi and Lidl from 2013 to 2018.  Online food retailers. It is referred to a grocery store that allows private individuals and businesses to purchase groceries and grocery products online. There is normally a delivery charge for this service. Online grocery delivery is done through mobile apps or Ecommerce websites. Tesco is the leader food retailer in UK its store network as effective click-and-collect destinations. The following bart chart shows the average value of weekly online sales in predominantly food stores in the United Kingdom (UK) from 1st quarter 2010 to 3rd quarter 2017* (in million GBP)  Specialist. A specialist store is a shop that caters to one specific retail market. Examples of specialist stores include camera stores, pharmacies, stationers and bookstores. In other words, a shop that

is specialized in one type of product. For example, Currys PC world which is a company that offers electronics products.  Independent outlets. Independent stores are businesses that operate with a single retail outlet or are structured as a small chain with no more than three locations. Generally, stores of this type are individually owned, owned by a family, or owned by two partners.

There are many independent stores in UK as the economy is good and keep growing every year.  Cash and carry. This type of retail is a wholesale where the core customer groups are hotels, caterers, traders and other business professionals, this retail offer different types of products such as cleaning products, confectionery, catering and consumables. Makro is a good example of cash and carry  Malls. It is also known as shopping center, in which many businesses are located inside a building and customers can walk in to choose any store where they want to shop. Westfield is an example of Mall.

Types of goods  Seasonal goods. These are products that customers can only find in stores when is a certain season of the year for example, some fruits, such as: blueberries or strawberries. Also, some dresses in fashion retailers that are only sale on summer season  Impulse goods. Customers buy products on impulse, this mean without intention of buy it before they see it, these are products that are usually next to the tills. For example, there are usually socks when customers are queuing in a clothing store  Convenience goods. These types of products are usually purchased by customers as these goods are used every day so it easy to find it at stores. For example, shampoos, paper roll, gel...  Specialty goods. These are unique products created by designers or famous people. For example, designer clothes, exotic perfumes, painters...  Complementary goods. These are different products but in the same category that can match so these goods can be find on the shelf as they can complement each other. For example, a pair of shoes with a t-shirt

Use of visual merchandising in three businesses

John Lewis is a department store operating in United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia, which offers a wide range of products in different categories. It is a public limited company with 50 stores.

THE PYRAMID PRINCIPLE

There are three mannequins creating a pyramid, this technique is used to create an impact visual on customers and grab their attention.

Here in this picture from John Lewis store, we can see that there is a triangular merchandise display, this technique is called The Pyramid Principle and is used as visual merchandising technique to create a visual impact on customers by placing the dummies. They created a pyramid with the dummies placing a dummy up in the centre and then the other dummies on the outside. This pyramid ensures a variety in surface, meaning that the display will not ever be flat or boring. This type of visual merchandising technique attracts customers because the products seem to cascade down to the customer.

USE OF MICRO-MERCHANDISING

There are some bags and wallets displayed on the table, these goods are placing together and making the table look full customers would walk direct to the table as it is grabbing their attention

On this picture there are accessories products represented on a table from a John Lewis store, this picture looks attractive because of the order of the products. It is important that products are front facing on the shelves or in this case, on the table and making the display look full. The table is placed on the middle of the store to grab more customer’s attention.

The micro-merchandising technique is used here, the products showed on this picture have something in common, and it is that all these products are from the same category. The handbags and wallets are goods from the same category, they are arranged together on the shelves to match consumers shopping habits, so it makes easy to costumers find what they are looking for.

C urrys PC World is a British specialty store operating in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. This company specialises in selling home electronics and household appliances. There are 295 superstores and 73 high street shops

POWER OF THREE

There are TVs on the wall in a set of three, this is designed to stick on people minds so they can easily remind these products

At a Curry PC World store, there are three similar televisions on a wall, but each one has different features. The televisions are grouping together in sets of three, this is what is call power of three technique. This technique allows customers to remember the goods more easily, people respond better to groups of three than a just a single item. The power of three will encourage more sales, when a customer comes across these three televisions in the store, that person will remember it, it will stick on his or her mind.

USE OF TECHNOLOGY These are luxury goods as it is the latest technology on apparels, some stores attract customers by giving the chance to customers interact with these products

There is a zone which is call new Experience Zones in some Currys PC World stores. These zones are created for customers to give them the opportunity to interact with new technology apparels such as Smart TVs or Smart Living appliances. The goods are displayed on textured walls cladding and simulated concrete parts of a house. This is an exciting retail space where customers can enjoy of the latest technology and try them. Experience Zones at the stores can increase the number of customers, if they like the products and enjoy the experience, they would return to the store and buy the product, meaning an increment on sales.

Topshop is a fashion retail store from England which provides clothing, shoes, make-up and accessories. There are around 500 stores worldwide which some 300 are based in UK. USE OF GRAPHICS On this picture from a Topshop store, we can see how they are using a colourful graphic with the name of the store to grab customer’s attention.

It is making a visual impact and is easy to read from a far distance.

Colour is essential in visual merchandising. Use of colour can have a big influence on customers and evoke different reactions. This big graphic on top of the products, is creating a contrasting background to the products on display.

Topshop is using a big graphic which is placed at the top of a clothes section, this big graphic emphases and give more presence to the section

STORE LAYOUT It is important to choose well the products on the shelves and the way of arranging them to make a good presentation of the goods and attractive for customers. This store layout represented on the picture from a Topshop store, offers a wide range of products such as t-shirts, shoes, hoodies and bags. The design needs to ensure a maximum merchandise space. A store layout with a higher regard for space can increase customer pleasure. The benefit for staff is that this reduce the amount of time spend organising the store.

There are complement goods represented on the picture such as, shoes and t-shirts that can match together. Stores display these types of goods together and give customers an idea about how to combine clothes.