The window displays on a retail store act as a 24-hour advertisement for any business. Window displays
are often the deciding factor as to whether a member of the public enters the shop or keeps walking down the street. Read on for our top 5 tips on how to achieve great window displays.
Remember Important Calendar Dates!
National holidays are the perfect opportunity to create exciting and eye-catching window displays for your store. Rather than simply filling the space with as many seasonal products as possible, telling a story with your merchandise encourages customers to stop and look; enticing them inside. Start by choosing a theme inspired by the occasion and work from there. Add a carefully selected range of products to an interesting and inspiring setting to showcase them in a visually appealing way. People like to be taken away to a different world, and if you can achieve this through your window displays then customers are more likely to enter the store and make purchases.
Measure Your Customer’s Visual Plane
Shop window displays should be carefully planned around the visual plane of the passers-by. People in the street may not be able to see all parts of the window display, so it is important to mark out the visible area before filling it with products. This is particularly necessary if your display is not on the same level as the street. Big department stores often display products on upper levels and it is important to consider how effective they look from the street below. Sometimes it works better to hang the merchandise and setting from the ceiling than it is to completely centre the display.
‘Less is More’
Cluttered window displays are not visually appealing to customers and do not entice them into your store. By focusing on one or two key items, you can create a display that will make customers stop to take it in, giving them more time to consider entering the store. Although this means you are not able to advertise as many products to passers-by, you can make your store look interesting and inviting, making them want to enter and see the rest of the merchandise you offer. You can even create a show-stopping window display out of nothing but multiple items of the same product – it just takes a little bit of creativity and imagination!
Keep Your Window Updated
Changing your window displays regularly makes your store stand out among the rest, who perhaps only change theirs a couple of times each year. This helps to draw potential customers in and it suggests that because there is something new on the outside of the store, there are new products to discover inside too. It is a myth that changing window displays frequently is expensive and time-consuming. By stocking up on basic display fixtures such as a selection of brightly coloured backdrops and product stands, you can cut the cost of future window displays by rotating them as necessary. That is what you call smart, transformational retail design!
Lighting
The lighting you use can make or break window displays. Experiment with different angles and light sources to find the best lighting for your display. Where bright white halogen lighting might suit a clean, modern fashion display, the warmer tones of incandescent lighting might be more suited to a rustic-looking display of vintage-inspired home goods. The number one rule here is to illuminate your products in order to minimise shadows and make your goods look as visually appealing as possible to the people who walk past your store.
H Squared are the experts in transformational retail design. Get in touch with us today and we can help to get your store’s window displays up to scratch and set them apart from the rest.
