Retail

Visual Merchandising Techniques: How to delegate the workload to the visual team

/ Q’s Creative Perspective/Q’s Closet / Leave a comment

Some visual merchandising manager have a heavy workload on the daily and others have a ton of downtime through out the day depending on the size of their store. Visual managers have daily, weekly, and monthly routines they follow to keep the store organized and looking amazing but the visual manager most certainly can not do all the work themselves so knowing when and what to delegate to the store team is key.

First and for most visual managers should do the store walk throughs with the team especially the store management. Walk the sales with the store manager and other department managers typically on a Monday at the beginning of the week coming off of the weekend. Walk with the managers and make them aware of any visual updates, floor moves, and sales increases per category.

For example pull your weekly sales reports on Monday review and analyze them from the visual merchandising point of view meaning what categories had increases from the previous week and what categories are showing decreases from the previous week. Analyze those numbers and then make a mini merchandising plan to react to those numbers. After you make a merchandising plan delegate the work to the team by giving them small projects to do like move a table display to another location in the store or re-set a plan-o-gram, or re-stock a area in the store.

Giving the the department managers a task list for their department after you walk it everyday is best practice for keeping the team updated on any visual merchandising initiatives you might have and need support with. Also giving the department managers a weekly task list keeps them in the loop with all of the merchandise movement happening in their departments because sharing is caring.

Getting the team involved with the visual merchandising in the store by assigning them areas of expertise in the store is definitely the best way to delegate task and workload to the visual team. If you work in a department store give everyone on your visual team a section of the store to own as their own little mini store. Giving the visual team areas of expertise in the store will also drive increases in those areas it’s the level of focus on a section that makes the money FYI.

The best way to delegate the workload to the team is to communicate with them about visual merchandising all the time if if you get on everyone’s nerves again sharing is caring so let your team know you care by delegating the visual task list every week and by giving them through walk throughs of the store on a regular basis.

Q’s Creative Perspective- The Art of Visual Merchandising

Visual Merchandising Techniques: Feature presentation

/ Q’s Creative Perspective/Q’s Closet / Leave a comment

On every sales floor lives a few feature presentations, which are visual moments in the store that feature a select product/merchandise and the presentation is typically front and center of the area it lives in. Feature presentations are great sales drivers if your store receives new merchandise create a feature presentation in a high traffic area in the store.

Feature presentations are usually built on tables. Best practice for featuring merchandise in your wis to position it in the center of the store or area of the store, build it on a table or a wall, and use props to make it look extra special. Also make sure the signage and the lighting is on point and remember when it comes to feature presentations less is more so merchandise lightly. When merchandising feature presentations pay extra close attention to the details and keep the presentation well stocked until it sells out.

Feature presentations are meant to drive high increases so run your numbers (weekly sales reports ) every week to see what is selling and how much of it is selling. If the feature presentation is not selling like expected then get rid of it and feature a new product or collection. Feature presentations typically get shopped heavy so make sure to maintain the integrity of the presentation.

Q’s Creative Perspective- The Art of Visual Merchandising

The 3 most important KPI’s in visual merchandising

/ Q’s Creative Perspective/Q’s Closet / Leave a comment

KPI’s (key performance indicators) are how we measure success in visual merchandising. In retail there are many KPI”s used, but in visual merchandising there are three very important key performance indicators visual merchandisers live by and here they are.

Weekly sales reports- Weekly sales reports are key performance indicators in visual merchandising because the reports tells us if merchandise is moving, it tells us what merchandise categories are selling and what merchandise categories are not selling and this information gives us the blueprint for how to react to the business. For example if there is merchandise in the front of the store and the weekly sales report indicates that the product isn’t selling over the week or a couple weeks then we react by moving that product to the back of the store and replacing it with something new. The weekly sales reports give us a glimpse at the most recent movement in the merchandise but monthly sales reports and LY vs. TY sales reports (last year vs. this years sales) are also a great KPI.

Increases in allocations and inventory levels- When the store is allocated more merchandise or different types of merchandise and or inventory levels increase that is a key performance indicator that indicates your getting new merchandise or more merchandise in your store because your selling more. Funny thing is when the store sells more it gets more so when your store gets more inventory you are doing the job of visual merchandising well.

Customer reaction- The customer reaction is everything. How your customers react to the merchandising and the merchandise in the store is the most important KPI. The customers reaction is why we do what we do, if your customers enjoy shopping in the store and loves the merchandise and merchandising than the rest shall follow.

Q’s Creative Perspective – The Art of Visual Merchandising

Visual Merchandising Techniques: The visual walk

/ Q’s Creative Perspective/Q’s Closet / Leave a comment

In visual merchandising sometimes you got to walk the walk…the visual walk that is. The visual walk is when you walk the store with store management and or team. There are two types of visual walks, walking with the store team consist of showing them any visual merchandising updates that have been made for the day, week, or month. When there is a new floor set a visual walk is necessary.

After the floor set is complete or a section of the store is complete walk with the store team members and management give them a tour of the store and speak to them about the floor set things like product knowledge, color stories, and inspiration are important to share with your store team. Walking with the management is very important after any store changes have been made this empowers everyone in the store to be involved in the visual merchandising aspect of the store.

Management being aware of the changes in the store also helps them to speak to the business and delegate information about the floor changes to the rest of the team. Also having store management involved with floor sets and visual merchandising updates gives them the blueprint for maintaining what has changed.

The other visual merchandising walk is the district team walk. Management from the district team will most likely walk your store once a month when they visit. When they visit prior to the visit run your numbers (sales reports), the district visual walk is lead by the numbers. As you walk your store with the district team have your numbers ready to go and be ready to speak to the business. For example if you just updated the mens department at your run your weekly numbers to see if there were any major increases over the week, and even the small increases count so run it all up during the visual walk with the district team.

Also prior to the walk with the district team you want to walk your store throughly and make sure everything is set to directives and plan-o-grams. Walking your store for extreme cleanliness prior to the walk with the district team is a good idea. Basically you want to do your own visual walk of the store to make sure everything is good prior to the district team visit. When your district visual manager walks your store they expect store opening visual merchandising so don’t disappoint. Walking with the store team and district team gives you the opportunity to show off your work and speak to the impact that visual merchandising has on store sales…show out.

Q’s Creative Perspective- The Art of Visual Merchandising

Merchandising a collaboration or a exclusive launch

/ Q’s Creative Perspective/Q’s Closet / Leave a comment

A collaboration in the retail world is when the retailers does a merchandise collaboration with a big name brand or a celebrity. Retailers like H&M, Forever 21, and Target have been known to do some of these merchandise collaboration. When a retailer is planning a special launch for a collaboration it is a whole roll out with a special launch date and a special high traffic area in the store reserved just for this exclusive merchandise.

When a exclusive merchandise product collaboration rolls out to the store it is of course exclusive to the retailer so there is most likely some buzz around the merchandise launch previous to setting it in the store so customers are anticipating the coming into the store on the special date to see the merchandise so setting it up in a hot spot in the store with the perfect visibility from the doors is essential.

There is usually a limited amount of this product so prior to launch date as the merchandise drops into the store inventory you want to set it aside in back stock and label it reserved for specific launch date and put the launch date on the label. On the day of the launch set up all the fixtures and wall systems for the set first and set top to bottom left to right or how ever you prefer.

Special signage, backdrops, props, and fixtures will be sent to the store prior to the launch date, these things are a key element in the set that will highlight the exclusivity of the merchandise.

Make sure to add the extra details to the set because you want this set to stand out in the store. Things like placement, spacing, color story, and color threading are important when your merchandising for exclusivity so keep all of those things in the for fronts of your mind when your setting up a display for a merchandise collaboration. And last but not least make sure as a visual merchandising your team has a little product knowledge on the collaboration and the merchandise.

Q’s Creative Perspective- The Art of Visual Merchandising

Visual Merchandising Techniques: How to highlight premium merchandise

/ Q’s Creative Perspective/Q’s Closet / Leave a comment

Premium merchandise is the most exclusive and expensive merchandise in your store and in most cases there is a limited supply of this merchandise available so it is important to highlight this merchandise in your store. Premium merchandise is and exclusive offer so to protect the exclusivity of the product you want to merchandise it in a special space in the store a space in the store that has a lot of visibility and gets a lot of foot traffic. Most premium merchandise set are merchandised towards the front end or the middle of the store.

Highlighting premium merchandise in your store might also include installing some special fixtures, usually these special fixtures are branded specifically for the merchandise being shown. Special signage and backdrops to promote this premium merchandise is also a thing. Once all of these elements are merchandised together in that special space in the store with the perfect visibility and high foot traffic this presentation comes to life and honestly really stands out in the store as it should.

Premium merchandise will typically have a specific launch date as well so most stores collect the merchandise in the store and hold it in back stock until the release date. Placing the merchandise on the sales floor with a beautiful presentation always creates so much excitement around the launch and will drive sales for your store. Hooray to premium merchandise because it looks amazing in are stores and it gives us a reason to refresh the store presentation and drive some sales.

Q’s Creative Perspective- The Art of Visual Merchandising

Visual Merchandising Techniques: The stockroom is the heartbeat of your store

/ Q’s Creative Perspective/Q’s Closet / Leave a comment

The stockroom is the heartbeat of the because the functioning of the stockroom is what makes the rest of the store go round and trust me if your stockroom is non-functional your entire store will suffer. So again the stockroom should be looked at as the heat of the store and the sales floor is the entire body, the heart health has to be good to keep the rest of the body going right. Everything we receive into our stores has to pass through the stockroom to be processed for the sales floor and or back stocked to be later stocked to the floor. Extra time, care, and attention should be taken while working in a stockroom.

The organization of the stockroom is key you should be able to rotate merchandise in and out of the stockroom with ease. If the the stockroom is un-organized the sales floor will reflect that and it will feel messy and chaotic as well. When the stockroom is clean an organized your sales floor will feel clean and organized. Merchandise has to constantly rotate out of the stockroom because things don’t sell sitting in back stock, do yourself a solid and throughly walk your stockroom merchandise on a weekly if not daily basis to make sure all merchandise is be represented on the sales floor and to also ensure things are replenished regularly and merchandise is moving out of the stockroom.

Even tho no one can see the store stock it is the most important area of the store and should be held to high standards. High standards for your stockroom means high standards for the sales floor. If you have ever worked in a store with a dysfunctional stockroom you no how bad it is and how difficult it is to merchandise the store and rotate the merchandise. Take the time to clean and re-set your stockrooms on the regular it will take your store along way.

Q’s Creative Perspective- The Art of Visual Merchandising

Visual Merchandising Techniques: The importance of walking your window displays everyday

/ Q’s Creative Perspective/Q’s Closet / Leave a comment

If your store has window displays congratulations because window displays are a game changer for every retail store that has them. The windows are your marketing too the outside world, the window displays draw customers into your store from a far and it is the first thing the customer sees when approaching your store, first impressions are important right so your window displays are very important.

Walk your window displays every single day to make sure they are presentable don’t just set it and forget about like most VM’s tend to do. Yes most windows are closed off to the customers and can’t be shopped but things still get rearranged and looks in disarray. Get in the windows everyday and first and foremost clean them yes dust, swiffer, windex all of that, this is a everyday task because the windows do get dusty and sometimes people actually leave trash in the window displays so everyday cleaning is very necessary.

Sometimes it is necessary to re-set your window directives just to make sure everything is still in tact and still in place and position. Take the time to windex or squeegee clean the outside of the windows this is where the most issue with cleanliness. Sweep or vacuum the inside and on the outside of the windows. Sometimes a good power wash is necessary if your outer windows are outside. And last but not least make sure all your signage, backdrops, and graphic marketing is visible and updated, and check the lighting. And remember your window displays are the first impression of the brand when a customer approaches your store so make them shine bright like a diamond literally.

Q’s Creative Perspective- The Art of Visual Merchandising

Visual Merchandising Techniques: The true way to sell stuff in a brick and mortar store

/ Q’s Creative Perspective/Q’s Closet / Leave a comment

Can you remember back to about six years ago when walked into a Nordstrom department store and you were greeted by about five to ten sales people and you had five personal shoppers at one time and you just received superb customer service, well that doesn’t really seem to be a thing anymore. And nothing against Nordstrom still a great place to shop but the customer service is not as plentiful as it used to be and it is not super sales person heavy as it once was but no retail store really is super sales person heavy anymore.

Now, without as many sales people the store must sell its self and the true way to sell stuff in a brick and mortar store when there are not enough sales people is really great merchandising. Really great merchandising starts with really great visual merchandisers with the skill set to elevate the store. Here’s a few examples of how great visual merchandisers sell stuff, when a visual merchandiser is replenishing the store with new merchandise it draws customers into the space to explore the new offerings and they will shop.

A clean and clutter free store always keeps them coming back and this is the job of a visual merchandiser. Setting a dynamic display definitely draws a customer in and makes them want to shop more. If you have ever noticed that more customers gravitate towards a area in the store that is being merchandised, no matter how big the mess the customer will still want to shop the area.

Visual merchandisers are the silent sellers in the store, the little ninjas/magicians working behind the scenes actual driving sales through the roof…low key. Remember one thing the areas of your store that you are really focused on, I’m really pour into no matter how much time and effort it takes you will see the true results. Spend some tedious time on a specific area of your store and run the sales numbers every week and you will see money, money, money. Visual merchandising is the true way to sell stuff in a brick and mortar store with or without a lot of sales people in the store, sales people are great but visual merchandising wins the majority of sales every time.

Q’s Creative Perspective- The Art of Visual Merchandising

Q’s Creative Perspective: Visual merchandisers are a gift to the store

/ Q’s Creative Perspective/Q’s Closet / Leave a comment

If you are a visual merchandiser just know you are a gift to your store truly and I’m going to explain why visual merchandisers are the prize. So if you work in a retail store with visual merchandisers or you have a regional/district visual merchandiser that visits your store on a regular basis you know the difference in the store energy when they are present. Visual merchandisers come in and give the store an up lift so to speak changing the appearance of the store.

The vm’s are elevating mannequins outfits, they are cleaning up fixtures, and most importantly they are replenishing the sales floor with new merchandise. The visual merchandisers are moving things around, adding props and signage, making the windows beautiful, and educating the team on how to maintain a clean, impactful, and elevated store. A visual merchandiser fixes the issue the store he’s when it comes to product placement. A visual merchandiser is like a magician of the store, they come in and fix store problems the store didn’t even know they had.

Visual merchandisers put in a lot of work to help the store sell more stuff they are the silent sellers working hard behind the scenes. If you have worked in a store that has visual merchandisers you see the difference and if you have work in a store that doesn’t have visual merchandisers you also can see the difference. And anyone working in a retail store can honestly admit it is a gift to the store when there is a separate team for visual that is dedicated to getting all that tedious work done.

Q’s Creative Perspective- The Art of Visual Merchandising