Color as a Merchandising Strategy

   

According to Judith Bell and Kate Ternus, authors of Silent Selling: Best Practices and Effective Strategies in Visual Merchandising, color choices play a role in setting your store décor, in bringing a sense of unity and flow, and in creating an atmosphere of excitement to enhance your customer’s shopping experience.      

“Once customers have entered a store, the next visual merchandising challenge is to draw them through the entire store to the back walls. Experience tells us that, on average, customers pass through only the first third of the store and then exit unless something happens to entice them to stay. If merchandise displays with colorful impact are used throughout the store, it is more likely that the customer will be drawn from one area to the next. The more merchandise customers are able to see and touch, the more likely they are to make purchases. Color is one strategy to help you accomplish this critical merchandising goal.”      

The authors give practical guidelines for merchandising by color.      

“1.  Divide the colors of product into groups, according to their color intensity.      

Colorplate 5, click to enlarge

There are seven common color groups. (See Colorplate 5, right)      

• Brights – the clearest, most vivid primary color intensities
• Pastels – colors with added white to lighten and soften their effect
• Midtones – not bright and not pastel, just in-between values
• Jewel tones – royal colors
• Muted/dusty – midtones with added gray
• Earth tones – the colors of the earth: sand, rust, brown
• Neutrals – colors that blend with every color group.

2. Combine the colors within each group to create color schemes. Colors of the same intensity blend together harmoniously.      

3. Do not combine colors from the various groups together, except for neutrals. Neutral colors can be combined with colors from any of the various color groups.”      

When telling a color story, you can utilize mannequins to emphasize the color trend you are promoting showing the accessories that enhance the look. Have a two-way rack featuring the apparel on the mannequin next to it.      

If your business is a gift shop or home goods store, follow the above guidelines in your groupings to help your customer find objects that work well together.      

As we discussed in our blogs on Feature Racks and Round Racks, by grouping products within sizes following the color wheel basics you help create that sense of balance and harmony that makes shopping exciting.       

Bell, Judith and Kate Ternus. Silent Selling, Third Edition, Pages 40 and 41, Colorplate 5. ©2006 by Fairchild Books, a division of Condé Nast Publications, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Fairchild Books, a division of Condé Nast Publications, Inc. www.fairchildbooks.com      

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Harmony and Emphasis – Design Principles and Your Merchandising Strategy

Does your store say “Welcome” to the clientele you are trying to develop into regular customers? Your brand look or store image must be in harmony with the merchandise you are selling. This is done with a careful blending of choices in your wall covering, flooring, lighting, display fixtures, store layout, signing and most important – the merchandise.  Nothing but what you are trying to sell should shout out “Look at me”.

Keeping the design principle of emphasis in mind, here are some ways to highlight what you are trying to convey to your customer. Start with a planogram or layout of your display fixtures and walls and strategize what you are trying to sell the customer – a hot new fashion color of casual wear, a new line of dishware you are stocking, or the latest book from a popular author.

A well planned product placement strategy allows you to take in the length and breadth of your store, decide what should be moved forward or towards the back of the store to complete your product story for the customer. Are there accessories that would complement the products you are highlighting? What about lighting?

Most specialty stores take advantage of their store entry and utilize a merchandising table or specialty fixture, which allows them to display a large selection of the merchandise they are emphasizing. 

Perhaps you have just brought in a coordinated line of casual women’s clothes, and then you will want to showcase them on some feature two-way racks or four-way display racks. Another strategy would be using a mannequin display.

If your store has several departments, you might have multiple focal points for displaying new products or trends.  Using your planogram, you can check your customer’s ease of movement through the store as they stay in focus and in the shopping mode.

About the author of this article: Visit Carlson JPM Store Fixtures/Shop Our Store, to find the retail solution perfect for you.