Getting your display ‘right’ in-store; to engage with customers, create a positive brand image and ultimately maximise sales – is no easy task. Months of planning and research by busy design agencies, enthusiastic marketing teams and store planners can all be wasted in seconds if the display is not installed at maximum compliance levels. But what can go wrong?
Over 25 years of experience has proved that there’s much more to the science of compliance than simply installing a display and walking away. As customers become savvier so must display installation solutions, which is exactly what CJ Retail Solutions do every day. By finding innovative bespoke solutions to the increasing pressures placed on brands and retailers we are working closer than ever and earlier in the process at the concept and planning stages. Our expert knowledge in a recent project saved a customer over £40,000 just by changing 1 simple bolt in a display, making the display fold in a different way meaning more units could fit on a vehicle, reducing transport costs and reducing the number of men required to install the ‘now more manageable’ displays.
There are many steps to ensuring maximum display compliance and we’ve found nifty, unique, solutions for each step along the way…
Understanding your estate
We believe that understanding what is happening within your store estate has never been more important. We have identified areas where we believe retail audits can improve in-store performance:
- Financial Efficiency
In today’s economic climate, carefully controlling financial investment is crucial. All too often, a lack of in-depth analysis of the retail estate results in the over-production of in-store equipment, or the supply of inappropriate equipment into stores. Both are unnecessary financial cost to retailers.
- Asset Management
There is a growing need for retailers to keep track of their valuable in-store assets. Tracking and retaining control over fixtures and fittings in-store is a continual challenge for head office when trying to plan in-store activity. Store teams will often move equipment around themselves, with the result that even similarly graded stores may sometimes not have the same fixtures within a specific category.
- Improving Compliance
Whilst in the past, many in-store activation duties (including seasonal aisle and hanging signage changes, as well as fixtures and fittings management and maintenance) would have been carried out by retail teams; the pace of development and growing demands by retailers and shoppers on promotional cycles now makes this an increasingly difficult task. No matter how much time and effort retailers continue to put into creating policy and standards, the reality is that the focus of retail teams’ often has to be prioritised on customer service and sales.
- Channel and Category Management
Retail Audits also provide an opportunity to respond to what is happening within a channel or category. Resulting insight can often reduce out-of-stocks and identify new shelf fixture and SKU opportunities in-store.
When was the last time you objectively looked at how your campaigns are actually appearing in-store? Are they being implemented as you’d intended? Could hidden installation issues be having a negative impact on what could otherwise have been a hugely successful campaign?
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Make installation integral to design
Installation specialists may not be creative designers. But we certainly know a thing or two about how to design a POP display. We’re not talking visual aesthetics – more form the function. All too often the focus can be on creating something that looks stunning to the eye, at the expense of considering how it’s going to be put together. Or whether it’s up to the job it is intended to perform. By involving installation specialists during the early stages of POP display development, you’ll end up with a finished solution that could potentially be more fit-for-purpose and easier to assemble – saving time, and money – but also more cost-effective to ship.
It’s about effective POP implementation and maintenance. That means working closely with third-party suppliers as well as retailers to ensure that availability of product on the shelf and POP installation go hand-in-hand. Lack of stock is a key driver of poor display compliance. It’s why some brands are turning to a turnkey POP solution, where product and POP collateral is housed in secure warehousing before being delivered into stores at the same time. After all, if shoppers can’t find the product, they won’t buy it – no matter how compelling the creative and message displayed at the point-of-purchase.
- Get a clear picture of progress.
There is a wide range of tools available to retail marketers these days, such as real-time reporting, visual evidence and digitally recorded store management sign-off signatures which make tracking the progress of a POP installation from the comfort of the head office easier than you might think. That way, you can see for yourself that planned in-store activity is working properly, and not poorly installed or languishing in the back of a store. And once an installation’s complete, don’t forget to review. Find out what worked, what didn’t, and why.
- Give your installation sustainability.
Some displays are difficult to disassemble after a campaign has ended. As a result, not everything that could be recycled can be recycled. There is a drive towards getting installation specialists more closely involved in the POP development process to produce more environmentally credible ‘cradle to grave’ solutions. And we’re all in favour of that.
Maintenance Protection
From huge-scale FMCG brands to hi-tech electronic and digital products, our retail maintenance teams ensure that our clients’ in-store fixtures and the merchandise they hold are fully operational, working and effectively promoted to maximise all sales opportunities.
It doesn’t matter how much time and effort you have invested in developing an impactful POP display, the reality is that if your fixture is poorly maintained, brand performance will be affected.
- Protecting your Brand
If your product isn’t on display or is poorly promoted it won’t sell. We can assist with retail management of your retail estate to not only protect your expensive equipment and units but, as importantly, protect your brand image and equity.
- Delivering the Detail
Our retail maintenance & retail management teams are fully trained to undertake specialist work on any product and fixture imaginable. Work such as replacing damaged or lost equipment, repairing interactive and digital display units, replacing bulbs, batteries, cables and security devices as required, updating demos and samples and undertaking PAT testing is commonplace. In fact again, here’s another CJRS solution – unique yet simply perfect, we train our teams to be multi-skilled installers, auditors, maintenance, principal contractors. This reduces the need for multiple suppliers, time efficiencies and cost savings are made
- Maximising a genuine Return on Investment
The unique way in which we apply a dynamic resource model to our retail maintenance contracts ensures that we are constantly updating our store visit schedules to ensure you are fully maximising your Retail Maintenance budget.
The benefits of using a POP Installation specialist to deliver your in-store campaigns can make the difference between the success or failure of your costly, well thought out plans. Talk to CJ Retail Solutions now to discuss a bespoke solution for your in-store needs and challenges, challenge us to find the right science of compliance for you.
Tel : 0800 009 4189
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