For bricks and mortar businesses, visual merchandise is critical to success. With the potential to attract new customers, convert undecided shoppers and foster brand loyalty, visual merchandise should play a significant role in your marketing strategy.

Although merchandising can help you to increase brand awareness and grow your business, few companies make the most of the opportunity. With many people focusing solely on online promotions, the benefits of on-site visual merchandise are at risk of being overlooked. Fortunately, it’s not too late to embrace everything that offline marketing can offer.

Visual merchandise simply refers to enhancing the aesthetic of your products and in store design. By showcasing your brand in a particular way, you can successfully attract more customers. Furthermore, visual merchandising plays an important role in converting sales and enticing customers to make a repeat purchase.

Although the concept of visual merchandisingsounds simple, it can be difficult to execute. If you want to get maximum benefits, you’ll need to incorporate numerous factors into your merchandising strategy, such as:

• Ambience
• Lighting
• Signage
• Product presentation
• Layout and store design
• Point of sale material
• Colours, shapes and textures
• Packaging

With so many key elements to consider, it’s easy to see why so many businesses fail to utilise merchandising opportunities to their fullest. However, visual merchandising doesn’t have to be difficult or onerous. In fact, you can boost your business with simple and straightforward merchandising techniques.

If you want to grow your business, take a look at these top tips for success with visual merchandising…

When you’re using window displays, banners and pop ups, there’s no need to be subtle. You want to grab the attention of your target market and lure them through your doors. The use of colour can be a great way to make your designs pop, so why not try pops of neon or blocks of primary colour?

With high impact, bright digital prints, you can achieve precision detail, even on a large scale. This means your logos and imagery will be sharp, detailed and accurate, whether they’re on a letterhead or a six-foot billboard.

Before you add any merchandise or even position your stock in store, plan your layout. The floorplan of your site is extremely important, so plan your customer’s journey. Once you’ve enticed a customer through the door, you want to subconsciously guide them through key displays straight to a point of sale.

With strategically placed impulse buys along the way and effective visual merchandising, you can increase their basket value and build your profits too.

Your visual merchandise should be in keeping with your branding. While campaigns will differ, they should always reflect your core brand message. While visual merchandising typically refers to what’s happening in store, the content should be easily transferable to external large format posters and even digital ads.

By using your visual merchandise to embody your brand, you are reinforcing your personality and increasing awareness at every opportunity.

Using the same displays for a long period of time will minimise their impact. You want to keep customers coming back, so give them something new to persuade them to step into your store. Converting a customer can be the trickiest part of the sales process but repeat sales is where the real profit lies.

Visual merchandise should be updated regularly to ensure new and existing customers are inspired to engage with your business. Whether you launch a new campaign, change your floor layout or even switch colour combinations, adding fresh merchandising content can help to revitalise your store environment and reach your target audience.

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to merchandising. Whether you use intricate window displays, innovative product displays or bold wall displays; you have the opportunity to showcase your brand at its best.

You may have a clear idea of how you want your merchandising to look but don’t hesitate to seek professional input. With guidance from an experienced merchandiser, you can transform how customers think, feel and shop when they’re in your premises.

Visual merchandise is viewed from a distance and up close. Your target market may be viewing your merchandise from across a shopping mall, outside the window or from mere inches away. Due to this, your designs need to work from a range of vantage points. Furthermore, the quality of your merchandise needs to be second to none.

At IPW1, we specialise in large format digital printed graphics, window displays, wallpapers, floor graphics, wall graphics and a variety of other visual merchandising. From price point displays and in-store product stages to mounting and encapsulation;our experienced team can put your brand centre stage.

Wherever you’re based, you’re going to be competing with surrounding businesses. If you want customers to choose your store above all the others, you’ll need visual content that will excite, entice and inspire.

When you work with IPW1, you won’t just benefit from top quality printing services. We also offer bespoke installation services. Mounting wall graphics or positioning floor art takes skill and experience, so why not make the most of what our team has to offer?

As well as bringing your designs to life, we’ll install them in-store and ensure they showcase your brand at its best. With custom installation for permanent graphics and short-term displays, your visual merchandising can give you the results you’ve always dreamt of.

To find out more or to order visual merchandise now, contact IPW1on 020 7437 3200 or email us at askglen@ipw1.co.uk