VISUAL MERCHANDISING can be likened to that of a house. When thinking about building a house, first the foundations are planned then other important decisions such as the location of the kitchen, bedrooms and garage are made. As the owner of the store you must look to create the strongest foundations possible in your store and plan where everything will go. This provides the customers with a comfortable shopping experience. Additionally, the logical flow of items keeps them shopping instead of trying to work out where everything goes. Most importantly, as the owner of the store, you are in total control; you control how a customer shops your store through strong visual merchandising.
Product positioning When thinking about pool shops, it’s important to look at the nature of the products and the role they play to your customer. If I think about products such as pool chemicals, pumps, filters etc, these items are very functional and a customer needs these items to maintain their pool. This being the case I would not feature such items at the front of a store. Therefore, use the location of such items to force your customer to shop your entire store. Similar to supermarkets with their bread and milk strategy, you will never find these two items merchandised together or at the front doors. Pool toys and accessories are a great way to create a fun, colourful and playful atmosphere in your retail or showroom space. Make these items the first visual impression that greets the customer as they enter your store. Such display points located at the very front of a pool store get customers excited and emotional about their potential purchase. As for the chlorine, they most likely need to buy that anyway, so let’s not make a feature of it at the front door. When it comes to showrooms, the more display pools and spas that are on show the better. Customers will always respond better when they can see, touch and feel their potential purchase. If this is not achievable, posters and brochures are your next best bet, but make sure the merchandising and display of the brochures is consistent and, most importantly, not the feature overshadowing the pool or spa on display. Step back and look at your area and ask yourself, am I selling a pool/spa, or is it just a whole bunch of posters and brochures on display? Another idea is to use TVs or iPads with rotating images to advertise the products you sell.
Shop windows There are a few key components to creating an effective shop window. Firstly, ensure that the space dedicated to the shop window display is somehow blocked off from the rest of the store. It’s important to physically define the window space area, otherwise you could finish up with a window display that bleeds into your product display in-store and this will only lose visual impact with customers. The next component for consideration is what’s the story behind the window display? Do you have a promotional offer, a new product arrival, a new season to celebrate? Whatever the message is, make sure it’s clear and concise. Finally, be careful not to over merchandise your windows with a million products and messages - this only confuses the customer, presents as clutter and fails to create any impact.
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March/April 2014 POOL + SPA
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