1. Samples sales floor plan: It presents a format called a “loop” layout. It is not typical, but there is no such thing as an average store nor should there be. Every sales floor is different because every store carries different merchandise, sells to different consumers and serves a different community. This plan illustrates many of the good merchandising principles this chapter discussed and several new merchandising concepts. Study it. Put some of the ideas to work on your sales floor. Improve on these basic ideas by adapting them to your store's needs. Note the width of the main aisles and cross aisles. Consider the plan from the shoppers' point of view. Think of the way the traffic flows around the store. You may not sell what you should in a given department simply because very few people pass through it. This plan makes it easy to move merchandise onto the sales floor, into shopping carts, to the point-of-sale terminal, and into the customer's car. The plan will help you pick up ideas to improve your sales floor's efficiency and selling efforts.
2. Shelf placement: Where you place item on your store's shelves can send subtle signals to your customers that impact whether they make a purchase. The priciest products generally sit on the highest shelves, giving rise to the term "top shelf". Lower shelves should contain "destination" products, or those that people seek out and purchase regardless of price or promotion. Reserve the bottom shelf for the least popular or generic products. Shelves that sit at eye level, known as "reach," should contain products which are competitive, have a high impulse-purchase rate, or are most enticing to the customers. For smaller categories where you want to promote generics, place the store brand to the right of the national premium brands. Stock competitive products vertically and related items across from each other, so that your customers can view all of the products without having to move down the aisle.
3. Store planning: Place destination purchases, such as milk, eggs and bread, in the furthest corner of the store. The more products consumers must walk by to get to them, the better the chance for them to purchase additional goods. Always place impulse purchases, such as magazines and candy, near the cash register. As consumers wait to pay for their purchases, these displays may attract them to buy more.
When was the last time you walked out of a grocery store with only one item?
You go to the store to pick up milk. But you come out with several items you didn't plan on buying. This happens to everyone. An overwhelming majority of grocery store purchase decisions are made inside the store. And it's not a coincidence that the displays are masterful.
You can learn a lot about display just by browsing your local supermarket. The best ones to visit are the higher priced gourmet markets. The displays are stunning and effective. They get shoppers to buy.
You can learn many tips for great displays by visiting the produce department of a gourmet supermarket.
Let’s look at three supermarket display techniques that you can borrow:
1. Angled merchandise
2. Colour
3. Containers &Props
1. Angled Merchandise: When you browse the produce department, you'll notice that most, if not all of the displays are angled, or tiered. That means the display is lowest at the front, and rises up towards the back. This technique is used to present more merchandise to the customer in a small space. Presenting the merchandise this way also makes it look more attractive. You'll notice that these displays look full and bountiful. There are also a number of different types of products arranged in layers. The variety of product makes these displays appear more attractive.
2. Colour: Once you start looking for colour in produce displays, you'll start noticing it over and over. Produce is often displayed to make the colours appear more vibrant, attractive and mouth watering. This is done by placing contrasting colours next to each other.
In a large supermarket, it is rare to see a big cluster of green vegetables all together. You'll see the green interspersed with bright colours. Green lettuce will be next to red leaf lettuce and radicchio. Green peppers next to red and yellow. Green apples next to red.
The contrasting colours are used in combination with the technique of angled merchandise. The produce department is full of artistic, still life arrangements to tempt us into buying. Yet most shoppers are unaware of how carefully each of these displays is planned to be visually pleasing. The colour in these arrangements is one of the biggest factors in making the produce tempting to shoppers. This brings us to the final technique.
3. Containers & Props: Supermarkets use carefully chosen containers and props to present their merchandise. When you browse the produce department you‟ll see baskets and crates used for display.They are there purely to set the mood for the department. These are the tools the stores use to create the image of farm fresh produce. Although they do help hold the products, these containers serve mainly as props
