The 5 display flaws that are costing your retail business sales
Not sure why you aren’t making the sales you expected? It could be down to common retail display mistakes. How you present your products influences purchasing decisions, drives loyalty, and boosts impulse buys, yet over 70% of consumers aren’t happy with the way shops display their products.
As a business owner, this creates an opportunity for your shop to stand out. By identifying display flaws – and knowing how to fix them – you could gain a competitive edge and boost your bottom line. To learn more, let’s start with 5 retail display flaws and the tips to turn them around.
1. Unappealing Window Displays
Out of all visual merchandising techniques, over 40% of consumers rate window displays as the most important. If yours isn’t up to scratch, it could harm your business, reduce your foot traffic, and cost you sales.
So, what makes an unappealing window display? Key characteristics to avoid include:
- Dull or faded colours
- Too many products (a cluttered display)
- Dirty windows and peeling paint
- Themes for an event or season that’s been and gone
- Poor visibility from different angles
Treat your exterior display like the cover of a book, knowing that – despite the saying – your potential customers will judge you on it. Use your display to showcase items or images that reflect your brand identity and create positive expectations. Update it regularly to suit changing seasons and new products, and ensure the surrounding shop front is in good condition.
If you need a little extra help creating an engaging window display, consider teaming up with a visual merchandiser. Their role is to curate displays catered to your target audience, using a blend of psychology and design for effective marketing.
2. Poor Lighting
Lighting in your shop can be tricky to get right. It needs to be bright enough to highlight your products but not so bright that it becomes uncomfortable for your customers. Issues like harsh sunlight, glares, and shadowy corners can all ruin the ambience you’re trying to create.
Rather than leaving this up to chance, take control of your lighting. Utilise products and tools that allow you to tone down the light or boost it depending on the time of day and the weather outside.
A good set of commercial blinds, for example, can help you minimise harsh light on sunny days without blocking out the light completely. They’re also great for creating privacy when changing window displays or carrying out stock takes, making them a must for high-street shops.
It’s also smart to install multiple lights around your shop rather than one singular light source.
Lamps, for example, are ideal for improving visibility in darker spaces without making the entire shop too bright, and can add a cosy atmosphere to make customers feel more at home. Use spotlights in display cabinets and consider warm uplighting in your window display to highlight products and add a little drama.
3. Cluttering Your Displays
Cluttered shop displays signal to your customers that your shop is messy and poorly maintained. This can damage your reputation and harm sales, with potential shoppers turning away before they’ve even started to browse.
It also reduces the impact of your displays. Too many products make it hard to see what the focal point of your visual merchandising is, watering down the overall effect. That’s not even to mention the potential safety hazards of too much clutter!
To prevent these store display problems, group fewer items together purposefully based on similar themes. In a home shop, for instance, you might create separate displays for kitchen, bedroom, and living room items, enhancing the flow of your space and making it easier to browse.
Use your entire space, too. Rather than having your products at one level, use hooks and shelving ideas to elevate items. This will keep pathways clear, helping customers navigate your store and see all of your items.
Don’t keep your entire inventory on the shop floor, either; customers don’t need to see 20 of the same item. Instead, place a few out for display and replenish frequently as they sell.
4. Inconsistent Branding
Customers who feel emotionally connected to a brand have a 306% higher lifetime value, highlighting a direct boost to sales. However, visual merchandising errors and unclear branding can make it difficult to forge long-lasting relationships, leaving customers feeling more confused than connected.
Some of the signs your displays might not have a cohesive brand image include:
- No clear colour palette
- Inconsistent fonts
- Mismatched styles and themes
- Off-brand props and mismatched products
To improve your branding, start by focusing on consistency. Create design guidelines that outline a set font, colour palette, signage details, and logo to be used across displays.
Add a brand profile that highlights your business image and how your displays can be used to consistently reflect your unique selling point (USP) or values.
For example, a zero-waste shop’s branding guidelines might include:
- Using natural materials, like wicker baskets and wooden trays, to display products
- Limiting decor to renewable and biodegradable items, like flowers and dried grasses
- Labelling products using recycled cardboard tags attached with natural twine
- Using chalkboards rather than single-use signage to promote offers and new products
Whenever there are in-store display issues, your team can refer back to your branding guidelines to restore consistency.
5. Ignoring Customer Behaviour
Have you considered how your customers move through your store? This is an essential aspect of retail merchandising that can have a significant effect on the number of browsers who convert into paying customers.
Poorly planned layouts lead to confusion, frustration, and lost sales. Customers might struggle to find what they’re looking for, while too many dead ends, blocked aisles, and confusing product placements interrupt natural browsing rhythms.
At the crux of the problem is a lack of knowledge on customer behaviour. To create layouts and displays that meet target audience expectations, you need to understand how people want to explore your shop and engage with your products.
Spend time collecting customer feedback and analysing patterns to better understand how your displays can reflect customer behaviour. Is there a logical route that encourages them to see your bestsellers? Is there enough room to comfortably move, especially during busy periods?
Look at the best spots for impulse purchases, too, such as next to your tills and hung on the ends of aisles, and give your sales a quick boost.
Final Thoughts
Understanding retail display mistakes and how you can fix these issues is your first step to boosting your sales. Hopefully, this article has given you all the tips you need to optimise your visual merchandising.
