Retail merchandising is a broad term used to designate a vast range of services which are closely connected to in-store marketing and sales strategies, revenue generation, and a lot more. Read on as we go deeper and elaborate on the top three reasons why retail merchandising is so important for the sector.
Improves Brand Impact Through Retail Compliance Audits and Surveys
Let’s see what a retail business owner should expect to gain from the audit and survey data:
Analytics – Provides access to accurate evaluations, estimations, visual presentations, actionable insights and future predictions to help the brand’s in-store and in-market presence.
POS – Provides insight on how to arrange and rearrange POS items in the display for maximum sales.
Inventory – Provides insights to make inventory management a leaner and more efficient process. It is easier to manage stocks efficiently when there is reliable, dynamic data to base orders on. Go beyond automation with AI-based fulfillment software, check https://retalon.com/ for further information.
Benchmarking – Delivers insights about the brand’s:
- Position in the market
- Existing performance gaps with their competitors
- Model goals which would help in closing the gaps
- Model redirection of resources to help achieve those goals most efficiently
Planogramming – Provides visual directions with special diagrams called planograms for maximising the store space and boosting sales.
Depending on the particular store and its scope, there can be other benefits to retail audits as well. Anyone in need of a full audit can look to services such as CJ Retail Solutions; an international brand that deals with all aspects of retail merchandising, as well as several associated facets of the retail business that other companies in the sector cannot. Expert help like this will help to ensure each of the above goals are achieved.
Integrates Visual Merchandising to Improve Sales
Visual merchandising is such a huge part of retail merchandising that the terms are often used interchangeably. Strategies, plans and follow-up activities are used to:
- Attract the attention of target customer groups (there are usually several)
- Influence the customers’ buying decisions
- Stimulate interest and buying intent in target customer groups
- Stimulate a sense of urgency about buying specific products on display
- Stimulate a sense of reward and achievement by strategically placing discount/savings/sales signs
Common tools of visual merchandising include enticing and suggestive store signs, images, highlights and lighting effects to name just a few. A good visual merchandising strategy will use transparent glass walls to attractively highlight certain key items for generating primary interest in customers from outside the store.
Synchronises Visibility with Need and Demand
By combining market intelligence and customer identification data, retail merchandising experts can easily predict what their clients’ customers will be needing or demanding the most within any given time period. They will utilise that insight to synchronise a store’s rack and aisle arrangements with that of the customers’ needs and demands.
When customers can easily find what they are looking for without much effort, it leads to faster checkouts and better sales. The sales data is again taken into account for further analysis, so that an even more refined stocking/restocking practice could be developed.
Retail merchandising can include almost any in-store plan that passively attracts visitors, generates buying intent in them, and plays a big role in their conversion. The passive aspect is important to keep retail merchandising separate from direct sales efforts and interactions in retail stores.