Maxium Profits from proper store fixture displays

When creating the layout and visuals for your retail location, you must remember that every surface in the store is an opportunity for valuable product promotion. Any medium-sized boutique store or larger will probably require some sort of aisle structure in its layout. This is simply the most efficient way to direct traffic, utilize space, and organize merchandise. If you are using any aisles in your layout, you should consider the "end-cap" space. Unfortunately end-caps tend to summon visions of supermarkets, with mountains of cereal boxes piled high on every end-cap to promote the daily special. You may be thinking that this marketing technique is effective enough for the grocery store, but you are looking to create a more sophisticated atmosphere in your retail location. However, end-cap displays need not appear so base.

The end-cap of an aisle is an ideal place to feature select merchandise. Any new product or new information can be attractively, stylishly introduced to your customers when you create an end-cap display. Recently, super-retailer Wal-Mart set an extremely ambitious sales goal for a certain type of light bulb. Consumers don't tend to receive their information about light-bulbs from advertising or news, they just buy what they've always bought. Wal-Mart needed an innovative way to introduce new information about this product, and convince people to give it a try. They abandoned the typical mountain-of-cereal-boxes model and created a diorama for the end-cap of the light bulb isle that prominently displayed this certain type of light bulb and gave valuable information about the product. As a result, they saw a jump in revenue. A similar approach can be used to increase information about any variety of products--from cookware to blue jeans, from cologne to shampoo. Don't let this valuable surface space go to waste in your retail store--with directed visual merchandising end-cap displays can be stylish and informative, and will definitely boost sales.

Barnes Newton is a professional retail display specialist and teaches store owners how to gain profits from proper store fixtures and displays.