Visual Merchandising in Retail - new career avenue

I got some collection about visual merchandising in retail and what does the profile means.
Definition: What is Visual Merchandising?
Visual Merchandising is arranging items for display.

General Use:
Merchandise presentation and store displays, including window dressing.
Also Known As: Merchandise Presentation, Visual Display, Product Merchandising
Examples: Proper visual merchandising supported the store's image and improved sales.
source:http://retailindustry.about.com/od/visualmerchandising/g/visual_mdsing.htm
What is VM? Welcome to the world of Visual Merchandising, where the fascinating tools of display turn shoppers to stoppers, walk-bys to walk-ins, and passersby to passers who buy!

Definition: Visual Merchandising is the presentation of the merchandise at it’s best; colour coordinated, accessorised and self explanatory.

It is one of the final stages in setting out a store that customers will find attractive and appealing and it should follow and reflect the principles that underpin the store’s image. Visual Merchandising is the way one displays 'goods for sale' in the most attractive manner with the end purpose of making a Sale. If it does not sell, it is not Visual Merchandising.

Especially in today’s challenging economy, people may avoid designers/ visual merchandisers because they fear unmanageable costs. But in reality, visual merchandisers can help economise by avoiding costly mistakes. With guidance of a professional, retailer can eliminate errors, saving time and money. It is important to understand that the visual merchandiser is there, not to impose ideas, but to help clients articulate their own personal style. So, think of a visual merchandiser as an “idea person” who is at your disposal.

Visual merchandising is the art of implementing effective design ideas to increase store traffic and sales volume. VM is an art and science of displaying merchandise to enable maximum sale. VM is a tool to achieve sales and targets, a tool to enhance merchandise on the floor, and a mechanism to communicate to a customer and influence his decision to buy. VM uses season based displays to introduce new arrivals to customers, and thus increase conversions through a planned and systematic approach by displaying stocks available.

Why do we Display? We display to make the shopping experience more comfortable, convenient and customer friendly by:  Making it easier for the shopper to locate the desired category and merchandise.  Making it easier for the shopper to self-select.  Making it possible for the shopper to co-ordinate & accessorise.  Providing information on sizes, colours & prices.  Informing about the latest fashion trends by highlighting them at strategic locations.

History of Visual Merchandising Every shopkeeper and merchant's primary objective is to sell merchandise. When the giant nineteenth century dry goods establishments like Marshall Field & Co. shifted their business from wholesale to retail the visual display of goods became necessary to attract the retail customer. The store windows no longer simply allowed natural light to shine in the building or act as storage space for stock; they became important venues to attractively display the store's merchandise. Gradually, the design aesthetic used in window displays moved indoors and became part of the overall interior store design, eventually displacing the importance windows altogether in suburban malls.

Museums and department stores in America have a shared history of displaying their products, both having come of age in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Like world's fairs, department stores and museums crowded everything together on shelves or in display cases. Today displays in museums are referred to as exhibitions, while displays in stores are referred to as "Visual Merchandising. Essentially, visual merchandising is the selling of a store's goods through visual means, incorporating advertising, and window displays, and interior sales floor design and display. Throughout the twentieth century, well-known artists such as Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol created window displays, while other artists who are lesser known were commissioned to design unique objects specifically for visual merchandising purposes.

TIPS 4 YOU 1. Sell by showing and promoting. 2. Encourage the shopper to enter the store. 3. Get the customer to pause and “shop” the selling floor. 4. Establish, promote, and enhance the store’s visual image. 5. Entertain customers and enhance their shopping experience. 6. Introduce and explain new products.

Plano gram A Plano gram allows planning of the arrangement of merchandise on a given fixture configuration to support sales through proper placement of merchandise by Style, Option, Size, Price points, etc...

The main purpose is to support ease of selection & enhance the Merchandise in a neat, organized manner.

What is Merchandise Presentation? Why do it? Merchandise Presentation refers to most basic ways of presenting merchandise in an orderly, understandable, ’easy to shop’ and ‘find the product’ format.

Window Displays: Why? Windows are the most important factor within the store/shop front, communicating style, content, and price point. They can be seductive and exciting, based on emotional stimulus, or price-based (when they clearly emphasize value for money with easy and obvious ticketing). The window is one of a retailers most controllable elements in relation to image and to what is happening inside the store, but there are number of decisions to be made about a how these effects are achieved. A Window Display is your “Visiting Card”

The best store windows can generate great excitement and talking point for an entire city. They contribute to the environment by entertaining pedestrians, while simultaneously communicating the products and services on offer.

For a retailer willing to exploit the full potential that a window gives, the image-building process can be exciting and have enormous potential. A fashion retailer, for instance, will often change a window weekly to show the latest items on offer. A glance into a shops window by a passerby establishes the time of the year and, very likely, a timely contemporary event. It might combine seasonal points of the year such as Holi, Diwali, Valentines Day, Ganesh Chaturthi, Christmas or Mothers Day. At other times the propping may be based on color schemes, materials or cultural themes-the possibilities for innovative ideas around such themes are endless.

Here is a list of visual merchandising and display supplies every store should have on hand: by Anuraag S • Calendar listing of all holidays and special occasions • Camera • Double sided tape • Fishing line • Glass cleaner • Hammer • 3M Mount Spray • Glue sticks • Iron with board or steamer • Ladder • Light bulbs-colored (extras) • Nails and screws (assorted) • Pencils and sharpener • Rubber bands • Scissors • Screwdrivers, flat tip and Phillips head • Straight dress pins • Measuring Tape • Masking Tape • Cutter • Utility/ razor knife • Velcro strips • Wire • Yellow pages

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_merchandising"
Components of Visual Merchandising:



There are certain things which a retailer needs to take care while proceeding with the process of displaying his products. These components when combined together in a proper ratio will make a successful outcome.



Make merchandise the focal point:



The main goal of display is to showcase the products within the overall display area. Customers give three to five seconds of their attention to window display. The retailers visual message should be conveyed to the customer in that short period of time. It should not be like an unsuccessful TV advertisement, where the product is forgotten altogether and only the concept of the commercial remains in the mind of the viewer. The arrangement of window display should go with the product and should not suppress them to make it discernable to the eye.



Right choice of colors is vital:



Color is one of the most powerful tools in the Visual Merchandising segment. It is a visual perceptual property. Colors can be associated with emotions, special occasions and gender. It attracts attention and pulls more customers into the store. A retailer has to focus on the right choice of color that would match with the theme of display. It is not possible to satisfy everyone all the time, but it is possible to cultivate the taste of customers gradually and purposefully. A right choice of colors in the display items can turn walkers into stoppers and significantly convert them into customers. It is therefore mandatory to choose the right color for the right theme of display. A Halloween display would require black color in the display theme. Valentines theme should be ruled by red color supplemented with pink and white. A display of babys accessories should reflect light shades of pink and blue colors. A Christmas display should contain colors of red, green, gold and silver.
Display themes to appropriately support the product:
A theme is a display of sale items of similar categories e.g. a display of kitchen accessories. Its essential to have themes for all retail displays. They can be romantic, wild, or capricious, and capture peoples imaginations.
A good theme will lure the customer with a shopping mood into the store. Themes mainly depend upon the retailers imagination and creativity. Focusing on the right theme rather than creating a display with expensive raw materials is the key to successful window display. A shoe store theme can be a group of elves buying shoes. A theme for display of casual wears can be a group of mannequins sitting casually at a get together in different poses. Related themes will tug the heartstring of the customers and will pay off.

Retail Buying in Spencer One - take care

I recently did my shopping; usually do my shopping in Spencer One, in Urban Estate Jalandhar bought a NO MARKS cream for Rs. 58.00. But guess what, when I reached home, I found the tube was missing in the pack. The readers would like to know, that how come I didn’t realized the weight less ness of the packet. Because, there was a pack of wet tissues free with the packet and that was the only thing in the packet. I didn’t took the labor of going to return it back, as I got into my busy schedule.
Another, thing I would like to communicate , that many of the products like Tonic water, Juices and cold coffee from other countries are more than 6 months or sometimes even an year old. However, strong the packing may be, but I feel that a food item more than 6 months old is not to be taken , because these are considered fast moving items and if they are selling these items more than 6 months old, you can imagine the quality of the product. I can also imagine, as I didnt dared to but that.
Its good , that lots of retail chains are coming, so that the competition will help these chains to improve upon and give better products to customers and the customer can switch easily .
The Best Ones will survive and the rest will perish, like the old food items on shelf.

The Paradox of Consumptive Marketing

Consumption is good, but up to a certain level. It must ensure a sustainable and positive quality of life.

Why should I join the league in taking this world at the verge of collapse?

You might find the above question out of context as far as Ask Harish Bijoor is concerned.

Till now I boasted and felt proud of being among the sharpest and brightest minds of India or probably the whole world. But now, during my last few days of my MBA, when I look back over the last 17-odd months, what I see is that all I have learned is how to spread consumerism and thus, unhappiness. We are taught how to sell more than two mobile phones to the same customer when he can easily do with one; how to ‘connect’ people by making them talk more and moreover call rather than encourage them to meet each other; how to influence ‘impulse’ buying even when the object’s not on the customer’s list. The list is long and never-ending. We call ourselves strategists?

_ Ankush Lal, Lucknow

Ankush, nothing is out of context at all. All questions are really good and correct. It is the answers that are wrong. It is the answers that are out of context most of the time.

I like your question. You ask because you think. And you think long-term, quite unlike the harried marketer of the day and his ‘short-termism’.

I do believe consumption has a glass ceiling. Consumption is good, up to a level. It must be all about ensuring a good, sustainable and positive quality of life to all concerned in a consumer society. The height of the glass ceiling is really common to all.

If you peek keenly at what is happening in urban India, there is some cause for distress for sure. The marketer of the day is going a bit berserk in some categories. Selling has two dimensions: Selling of the necessities and selling of the un-necessities. Both are two sides of the same coin. There is a thin line that divides the necessity from the un-necessity. Is a refrigerator a necessity? Is a cigarette lighter an un-necessity? Is a Swarovski diamond an un-necessity?

The answers are contextual to a society on the rise, the rising income levels of a people, the yen for convenience and lifestyle, and most certainly the disjointedness of a society with the real way of living, as opposed to the new virtual way of living.

Consumers go through cycles of living. In the beginning they are satisfied with the real and natural things of life and living that surround them. They are happy with what they get. As they earn more and as they make progress happen, they seek out more. This is when they move from the basic and real things in life to the created and virtual joys of convenient living. And then finally, there will come a time when they will get fed up with it all, and will want to regress to the real and natural way of living.

In different societies, the point to note is that different clusters of people exist at different levels of what I call consumptive evolution. For example, in the US, a seventh-generation marketing economy, the size of the pie of each of these three clusters could vary. The early-stage market for real and basic is very small. All under 1 per cent of market. The size of market for the created and higher end virtual joys is as large as 86 per cent. The third category of the self-actualising consumer fed up with it all and wanting the real joys of natural living once again is as big as 13 per cent, and growing.

In an early second-generation marketing economy such as India, the size will surely vary. This is un-audited as of now, though.

I do believe marketers must be the ones to show self-governance and self-restraint. The marketer in India must not try to fast-pace the consumer onto the track of unwanted needs. Selling of the un-necessities as represented by the two-television set household and the three-car household is where there needs to be immediate restraint. Advertising as well has a role to play. It is time for restraint.

And this is where you come in, I guess. I do believe you must join the marketing bandwagon for sure. You must, however, join it at the responsible end of the spectrum. Minds such as yours can contribute a lot to bring purpose to marketing that can go, and has gone, awry in its besottedness with harvesting the new consumer in width and depth for every mobile phone and garment on tout.

Why should you join the league? To bring in responsibility. To bring in restraint. To bring in method to the marketing madness we see all around us. You will stand out like a sore thumb in the beginning. You will be pushed to a corner. You will be the maverick for a start. And then the world will follow.

Go for it, dude!

How does dominant ownership of a category impact brand valuation for the said brand in question?

- Jyotsna Tripathi, Mumbai

Jyotsna, owning a category is the biggest value-reap any company or brand can hope for. When you own a category, you alienate every other competitor, existing or new. You build barriers to entry which are rock-solid.

Brand valuation in categories totally owned are the highest for the owner of the category. The board game Monopoly owns the category, just as Scrabble owns the word games category. Valuation of these brands is the highest in the board games category.

(Harish Bijoor is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
This article is picked from my net surfing on brands and marketing and taken from Hindu Business Line , except the first few lines . I acknowledge all the views expressed in this article.

my views

India is no doubt becoming a high consumption society following the path of consumptive evolution like US. And, as a Marketeer , most of us are trying to sell all kinds of products, whether the consumer really needs it or not. As, a Sales and Marketing professional , would I do the same ? well, it depends but I feel that as a responsible marketeer , we need to understand the needs of consumer and design the product accordingly.
I also , feel that it should not be mistaken by upselling or cross selling the product, as upgrading the consumers is a perfectly ethical move by any sales or marketing person.
The focus is to make a genuine attempt to sell, and not fool the consumer becuase a untapped consumer is easy to win , but getting back a lost customer is a tough thing to do.