Merchandising your tanning products – Top tips
The merchandising of a product and overall physical display should promote the store's image and sell products. Here's a few tips to ensure that your salon displays are working well for you.
How customers view your display
When a customers comes into your salon, they will scan your shelves and displays in a 'Z'-shaped pattern. This means that they will look from left to right continuously – the way they view your products will mimic how they read. However this behaviour mainly targets the products which between eye and waist level.
How does this affect customers' purchasing habits?
2/3 of sales occur between eye and waist level, as these are the most frequently viewed products. What's more, where people scan from left to right, research shows that products on the left hand side of a display sell better than those on the right hand side. This may be because these products have more visibility.
How to accommodate for these habits and increase sales through merchandising.
As 66% of sales occur between the eye and waist, placing higher priced items here encourages more sales. High priced items should always be easily visible for customers – if they can't see a product, they can't buy it!
What's more, make sure that you have thought your displays through. Although you want to showcase all of your products, make sure that you leave some shelving space free. This prevents your clients from being overwhelmed with choice. Alternatively, use spaces to highlight the benefits or showcase the features of individual products. By doing this, you will be able to explain the difference and benefits of individual products to customers. However, it's important to get a balance. Where stock should not be overwhelming, it's important not to underwhelm either. Low stock will not encourage customers to buy a product.
Rotating stock is always great. This prevents customers from getting accustomed to your layout and the products that you supply. Therefore, they will be encouraged to frequently refer to your product displays. Plus, moving products from a bottom shelf to eye level can increase sales by up to 87%.
Additionally, appealing to more than 1 of the 5 senses will attract your customers to look more closely at different products. Allowing clients to smell products, or look at the colour of a lotion, for example, before buying will make browsing become a more tangible experience. What's more, placing products so customers can pick them up and look closely at them, makes a purchase more likely.
Finally, it's always important to keep your displays clean, fresh, up-to-date and well-stocked. An untidy, crowded or poorly-stocked display connotes a lack of interest in the products. Why should your customers be interested in your products if you aren't? Keeping things up-to-date will also show that as a salon, you are aware of the latest trends. This suggests that you will provide something new to your customers, keeping them engaged.
