Increase profits with good displays

ll, HETHER he realizes it or not, ll everv retailer delivers an unspoken rui"r ptesentation with every product he sells. There need not be a salesman standing next to every item, rattling off its benefits. Merely how a dealer chooses to display his wares has a direct effect on how well they will sell. And with small items potentially bought on impulse, such as hardware, displays can play an even greater role.

"The display is the lhe thing that sells the merchandise." claims Phyllis Jacus of retail store design and display company Jay Display, San Diego, Ca. "You can have the same merchandise in two different stores and the one with the best display will sell."

Story at a Glance

Ways displays improve retail sales. store design techniques for improving business ... identifying the ideal display ...innovative merchandising systems.

"working" display, in which the product can actually be shown in use in the display. "We just installed an actual shower, complete with enclosure, fixtures and even soap," says Albrecht. "We try to make the products look like they would in someone's home."

But these displays, he admits, are usually reserved for high ticket items, such as in kitchen and bath situations. "For displaying hardware and such, space limitations often cause retailers to resort to the stock display," he says.

Yet Shannon Pearcy, Madix Store Fixtures, Terrell. Tx., sees small items as a primary beneficiary of impulse buying. And what better way to prompt such a purchase than with an eye-catching merchandiser? "For small items like hardware I might suggest a four-way merchandiser. It is a square unit on spinners or that you walk around. The display itself would be very attractive and if you can catch the customer with just a corner of the display, he would more than likely walk around it."

Building Products Dlgest

Similarly. the best displays in Seven Lakes Hardware & Lumber Co., West End, N.C., serve as unpaid workers. "They provide information about the product, showing quantities needed, different ways it can be used and just answer a lot of questions that would normally have to be taken care of by a salesman," says Jimmy Carpenter.

But although most manufacturer's displays do this type bf selling, they can have their drawbacks as well. Explains Albrecht, "The manufacturer's display is usually a stand the dealer picked up at a show. But often they buy it with the products. Some don't sell well and they don't reorder these products. They fill in the open holes in the disptay with other manufacturer's producs. The display has now become ineffective. Or what happens is they leave the holes open and this just doesn't look good. It's worse."

While Seven Lakes Hardware & Lumber stocks their hardware in color-coded bins, Carpenter would prefer a more individualized, detailed system. "lf we had the square footage, we'd have everything on a card that explains what everything is and does. But that takes up a lot of floor space."

Jay Display is one of a growing number of companies that can be enlisted by retailers to come in and redesign the look of the store to improve sales, restructuring everything from traflic flow patterns to signage and displays. Another is Better Living, Milford, De., which concentrates on reorganizing independent home centers to make them more competitive with larger chains.

The perfect display, according to Better Living's Robert Albrecht, is the one custom built for the retailer's requirements. He prefers the

Others visualize the ideal display as an entire "look." Jay Display's Jacus says, "lt would show off and actually enhance the product. It has enticing colors and everything is important, from the ceiling to the walls to the flooring. The square footage, the lighting, everything should be taken into consideration."

And a little redesign can do wonders. According to a Better Living client, Al Sutton, manager of Snow Lumber Co., High Point, N.C., a switchover to a different screw display doubled their business in this area. They now use a Hillman display, which puts little carded drawers out front for the customer. The signs have sizes, prices and everything the customer needs to find what he's looking for, with the actual boxes of the products in back, out ofthe way.

The trend, as identilied by Childs Store Fixtures, Pittsburgh, Pa., is towards bulk merchandising. As a result, the firm has introduced two large capacity shelving lines. Their Double Duty Front Room Shelving combines the versatility of gondola or wall merchandisers with the storage capacity of warehouse displays, while the Back Pack WideSpan Shelving features a self-seating slotting system for solid crossbeamto-column connections.

Stocking as much hardware in as small yet as attractive an area as is possible was also achieved by FrickGallagher Manufacturing Co., Lancaster, Oh. Their circular revolving Rotabin displays turn .dead corners and aisle ends into profil centers, putting merchandise in bulk within easy reach. In response to a hardware dealer who needed a way to differentiate between metric and non-metric fasteners, the company introduced color-coded pans for stocking the products in the Rotabins. The color-

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