By: Kathy

I am very fortunate to have a team of employees that are awesome at visual display merchandising. They recently spent many weeks at our various permanent showrooms, resetting them for the summer show season. I can’t wait for you to see what they have done. We enjoy gathering props and planning how we can best display our new product offering. I hosted a training session with my team before they set out on their journey to rework our showrooms. We call these trips “work parties”, which is somewhat ironic as there’s not too much of a party as it is super hard work, but always an awesome accomplishment that we are so proud of! Below is my list of key words to apply to each of our PBK displays. See how this could apply to your own store… are you applying similar guidelines in your own displays?

• Be aware of visibility from glass hallways or windows. Displays should not be too tall or too solid that you can’t see through or beyond to what is behind. Pay attention to the angles of how your island is set… walk out in the hallway to see what the customer will see. A simple shift of a display angle or an adjustment to the height will create a better visual story from the hallway. You never know what a customer is searching for, and the more you can give them sneak peeks of everything from the hallway, the better. Also, as we all know, a crowd feeds a crowd. So, the better the flow of our space, the more the aisle customers see the crowd, the more success we will have.
• Product is best shown when sized right to the display. Know what product is going on the display before you start to build its home. If the display is too large, collections look sparse. If too crowded, it is difficult to see all and sell it well.
• A product’s best features must be able to be seen. If you have double-sided, soft pillows, don’t put them out of reach where the customer can’t handle them and see the back side and the softness. The sales people will be talking up the selling points and will need to show effectively.
• Keep LIKE collections grouped together on one display. Using beach as an example, within beach display, each artist or style should be gathered and displayed together. Such as: Chalk Art, Hand-Lettered, Box Signs, etc. This also applies to categories: pet, alcohol, love, etc.
• Best sellers should be at eye level view. Pay attention to your best sellers; keep these items as central and easy to feature and sell. Don’t put them too high or too low.
• New collections should get most exposure. As you know, everyone wants to see what’s new. Show off what you are excited about! Grab their attention to stop them in the hallway!
• No product should be below 12” from the floor. Who wants to bend down to see a price point? No one! Keep everything up at least 12” off the floor.
• FLAT is boring! Build height and depth into your displays. You should incorporate both changes in heights as well as depths into the display. Pop product off the walls, cabinets and shelves.
• Use props that match the theme. The props you choose should match the theme and help tell the story of the product you are displaying.
• Soft goods are important to warm the display. Add something with interest to each display such as branches, greens, twinkle lights, fabric, burlap, hay, snow, sand, seashells, fishing nets, etc. These “fluff” soft goods can often be repeats of products that will assist in upselling, such as greens that you carry.
• Spot Lights – Make sure there is light spotted on the display when you are finished!
• Use fill such as Kraft paper, burlap, fabric or paper grass in the bottom of cheese boxes, baskets and small containers displaying notepads, ornaments and small items.
• Make sure all pricing labels are visible on the product.
• When creating window displays, make sure that the back of the product is not visible from the window. Also be aware of what is showing on the back of island displays. Be sure that the display on the back covers any unappealing back side of product.

Visual merchandising is the hook that draws the customers into your store! Work with your team to teach them these considerations as you build YOUR store displays. Remember that confidence is key for displays to be constructed timely. Constructive criticism should ALWAYS leave people with the feeling that they have been helped. Patience and perseverance, careful criticism, and generous compliments will build a confident dream team of visual merchandisers that will help make your store the absolute best it can be! I am very blessed to have a great team that creates award winning displays for PBK. I wish you the best in your journey to make your store the best it can be!