How to Figure Out the Right Place
Your store’s design and layout can offer an abundance of opportunities to wow your shoppers at every corner. To successfully capture more impulse sales, it’s important how and what you present throughout the key areas in your store. Let’s first look at ways to merchandise products, and then, how to implement these vehicles within your store.
Ways to Merchandise
- Counter displays – Meant to sit on a flat surface. Effective around cash registers or customer service counters
- PDQs – “Pretty Darn Quick” or retail/shelf-ready. Remove from master-cases, and ready to be displayed
- Bins – Very versatile and excellent for grab and go items.
- Clip-strips/peggable merchandise – Packaged with sombrero cut-outs or hang tabs, and can be quickly hung around the store.
- End-cap power panels – Self-contained product assortments ready to be merchandised at ends of aisles or wall-type spaces.
- Floor Standing Displays – Commonly referred to as “shippers,” these ready made floor displays provide instant shopping points around your store. Great for In & Out programs.
- Lane Blockers – Instead of chains to close off a lane, consider displays or rolling-wire racks that can feature a variety of product.
- Specialty Fixtures – Custom fabrications and unique fixtures can be considered based on your store’s layout. Contact us for more details.
| Key Areas to Merchandise | Description | What To Use |
| Checkout/Front End |
When it comes to impulse merchandising, your store’s checkout area is crucial to get right. After all, it is your last chance to fill up your customers’ cart with any last second purchases. We encourage you to expose your customers to the maximum amount of merchandise, while avoiding a sloppy mess. Consumer staples and food tend to work best, but depending on your store, novelty and other items can help you work your register into overdrive. Be sure to optimize areas near your conveyor/sales counter and any adjacent racks. Also, it’s wise to think outside of the box and merchandise areas that you may not have thought about: Register poles, empty spaces between fixtures, tops of drink coolers, & blank dividing walls. |
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| Customer Service Counters |
Some stores have a dedicated Customer Service area. These areas are typically where returns and exchanges are processed. The interesting thing to note is the number of customers that visit these areas, that didn’t come into your store ready to buy product. While at the register, there are several items– such as phone accessories, food products, generic OTC medications, and certain smaller gadgets– that would appeal to these customers and help to generate sales. For many of the same reasons as the Checkout/Front end, this is an excellent area to display products that have broader appeal. |
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| In Aisle |
Slow down your customer’s shopping journey as they roam your aisles. With carefully selected complementary goods placed near other items, you give your shoppers a chance to pick up a few items together when a story is presented to them. For example, customer buying wine? Wine openers and other bar accessories would be very handy if they are presented nearby. Get creative– your shelves can begin to tell a story of how certain items can be used together. That may trigger some thoughts for your customer, uncover a need for them, and lead to extra sales. |
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| Coolers |
Cooler doors and cooler tops are an overlooked piece of valuable merchandising space. Odds are, if customers are coming in for something to quench their thirst, they are probably looking for something to snack on as well. Consider pairing the fronts and tops of cooler doors with items that can be consumed along with the drink. You can also think outside of food, and present popular/trending items that have broad market appeal (general merchandise/hard goods are okay). |
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| End Caps |
End caps deserve special recognition. They provide a break from your aisles, and get distinct attention as a person enters or leaves a row. These areas are a great way for you to correlate to the offerings within the aisle, or provide something completely different. The outlined space allows you a fresh canvas to pepper in various, widely-appealing merchandise for your customers. Be creative. |
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| Open Floor |
Various open-floor areas throughout your store are excellent zones for experimentation. Since you can easily change what you carry, these areas allow you to refresh your offerings, and keep customers coming back in to see what’s new. In & Out displays are perfect for these areas, as pre-filled/pre-assorted displays are a great way to try new items on promotion. Often, these displays show well too, since they are printed with wonderful graphics and signage. If an item does well, you can consider making it a permanent offering in that location. Otherwise, you can swap out to look for the next best thing. |
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| Peg Space |
Many stores often have a few wall sections or peg boards that don’t have any products presented at all. This is a massive missed opportunity, especially in key, high traffic areas. Be sure to optimize this voided space with things such as featured products, trendy assortments, or everyday essentials– depending on your store type and customer demographics. |
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| “The Landfill” |
We’ve all seen it in many stores: Areas filled with a disorganized, hodge-podge of impulse products. Many of them haven’t been touched for months. Customers take a quick glance, and walk away even quicker. Oftentimes, this is where overstocks and things that don’t sell go to die. We call it “The Landfill.” If this sounds like an area in your store, don’t worry. There’s hope! Consider the strategies discussed above, or contact us for ideas. There are excellent ways to drive a proven impulse program. We can help lead you. |
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