Visual merchandising, or VM if you want to sound fancy, can have a massive impact on how much people actually buy in your store.
And no, I don’t mean making everything look “pretty”.
Good VM helps customers understand what to look at, what goes together, what’s new, what’s worth noticing and, very importantly, what to buy next.
Alongside having the right product mix, great customer service and a store that is easy to shop, visual merchandising is one of the quickest levers you can pull to increase sales.
Here are five things I’d look at first.
1. Change. Regularly.
Your window should not look exactly the same for three months because you “just haven’t had time”.
People stop noticing things they’ve already seen.
Change your window monthly at an absolute minimum, or fortnightly if you have enough product and foot traffic to justify it.
That doesn’t mean you need to completely reinvent the wheel every two weeks either.
Rotate categories.
Feature something new.
Build a colour story.
Show a gifting idea.
Make one product the hero.
And please, resist the urge to cram every product you sell into the window. Sometimes less really is more.
You want people to stop and think:
Oooh, what’s that?
Not:
Jeez, where do I look?
One slightly unexpected element can also work beautifully. Something oversized, off-centre, brightly coloured or a little bit weird can be enough to make someone stop in their tracks.
Teapot, anyone?Your window display should change regularly. Whether that is once month or every fortnight it needs to look completely new. Keep it simple though. Sometimes less is more.
(i.e – add something left of centre to your window display so it grabs attention and makes people stop in their tracks…).
2. Find the money zones in your store
Every store has areas that naturally get more attention than others.
Your entrance.
The first place customers stop.
The path most people naturally follow.
The counter.
The fitting room area.
That dead corner where apparently no human has ventured since 2019.
Start paying attention to how people actually move through your space.
Your best real estate should be doing some heavy lifting.
Use those high-traffic areas for new arrivals, high-margin products, best sellers, seasonal stories or products you actively want to move.
And group things intentionally.
Not just because they “look nice together”.
Think:
What does this customer naturally buy together?
What could increase the basket?
What would make this product make more sense?
Your display space is valuable. Treat it that way.
Source: Homemydesign
3. Use odd numbers, but don’t get weird about it
The old visual merchandising rule of 3s and 5s still works.
Three mannequins.
Three vases.
Five candles.
Three products at different heights.
Odd-numbered groupings generally feel more natural and visually interesting than perfectly symmetrical pairs.
But the bigger point is this:
Create a focal point.
Your customer should immediately understand what they’re meant to look at.
Use different heights, shapes and textures so the display has movement.
And give the products some breathing room.
If everything is fighting for attention, nothing wins.eye.
Image source: Nikau Store
4. Signage and pricing. Make it ridiculously easy to buy.
Pricing and signage sound boring until you realise how many sales they quietly kill.
Every product in your store should have a clear price.
Every. Single. One.
Your customer should not have to hunt down a staff member and ask:
“How much is this?”
Some will.
A lot won’t.
They’ll just put it back.
And while we’re here, your signage matters too.
Please retire the faded sale signs, random pieces of paper and handwritten signs that look like they were made five minutes before opening.
Unless beautiful handwritten signage is genuinely part of your brand, make it look intentional.
Use signage to help people shop.
Think:
NEW
BEST SELLER
GIFT IDEA
LOCALLY MADE
2 FOR $XX
PAIR IT WITH…
STAFF FAVOURITE
You are allowed to guide the customer.
In fact, please do.
Source: PPTinterirismo
5. How good is your store lighting? Your lighting should make the product look better, not like it’s waiting for a dental procedure
Lighting is one of those things people don’t notice when it’s good and absolutely notice when it’s terrible.
Have a proper look at your store.
Are there dark corners?
Are your windows well lit at night?
Can customers actually see colour properly?
Are feature products being highlighted?
Does everything feel warm and inviting, or cold and flat?
Use a mix of ambient lighting and more focused lighting where it makes sense.
And think about what you sell.
Fashion.
Jewellery.
Beauty.
Homewares.
Food.
They all need slightly different treatment.
The goal is simple:
Make the product look as good in-store as you know it can look. them off.
Source: The Design Files
And one more thing, stop merchandising purely by instinct
Because yes, good retail is creative.
I love the creative part.
I can happily spend an entire day moving tables six inches, regrouping product, changing sightlines and obsessing over whether three things should become five.
But the best visual merchandising decisions are also commercial.
Look at what is actually selling.
Look at what has stock depth.
Look at what gives you a good margin.
Look at what people buy together.
Look at what’s sitting there gathering dust.
Look at what you want to sell more of.
Then merchandise around that.
Your store should look beautiful.
But it also needs to make money.
That bit matters.
Counter displays are a perfect example.
A great counter display can add serious dollars to your average order value because you are putting easy add-on purchases directly in front of someone who has already decided to buy.
Group similar products.
Create small gifting moments.
Show easy add-ons.
And consolidate stock properly.
One of my absolute pet hates is seeing the same category spread across ten different areas of the store.
Soaps on one shelf.
More soaps near the counter.
Random soaps in the window.
One lonely soap hiding beside a vase.
No.
Group it.
Make the category feel stronger.
Make it easy to shop.
Make it obvious what the customer has to choose from.
Make a few changes this week and then actually watch what happens.
Do people stop?
Do they pick things up?
Do they move deeper into the store?
Does the product sell faster?
Does average order value increase?
That’s the part people forget.
Visual merchandising isn’t just decorating. It’s selling.
And if changing your displays is only one of about seventeen things you’re currently trying to improve, this is where I help.
I’ve spent more than 25 years working across retail, wholesale and product businesses, as a retailer, brand owner, buyer, lecturer and coach.
These days I help product business owners work out which sales and profit levers actually deserve their attention, so they can stop throwing random strategies at the wall and hoping something sticks.
If your business is doing under $10K a month, the Product Business Growth Club is where I’d start.
It’s for product business owners who want more consistent sales, better margins and a clearer plan for what to focus on next.
If you’re already doing $10K+ months and you know the business has more potential but you can’t quite see what is holding it back, ScaleMM is the next step.
That’s where we go deeper into the numbers, sales channels, profitability, conversion, team and strategy to find the actual bottleneck and build the next stage properly.
And if you make some VM changes after reading this, send them to me.
I am genuinely obsessed with a good before and after.
Melissa xx
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