Budget option: window dressing without extra costs
The easiest way to attract a potential buyer to the store is to present your product in a window display. In a crisis, visual merchandising is an expense item that is among the first to be significantly correlated. But experts are sure that one should not refuse seasonal changes of their windows: “beautiful and inexpensive” is not a ploy, but a reality.
Alexander Tulyakov, project manager "VITRINISTIKA.RU", an expert in the field of visual merchandising.
VITRINISTIKA.RU - A leading information project in RuNet about window dressing, retail design and visual merchandising inside the store. www.vitrinistika.ru
Betting on a product or idea?
The crisis has not stopped big corporations, niche brands and luxury sellers from bold window dressing ideas. Thus, they advertise a lifestyle they dictate rather than a product. Instead of the usual set of shoes and handbags behind the glass of the showcase, there may be ... a model or a famous person, not so much advertising the product as attracting attention. Such performances really work for the store's image and brand awareness, but so far no one has calculated the profit in monetary units from such promotions. Do not forget that such design "liberties" are not always allowed and not for everyone. Our task is to present products in a favorable light, to differentiate ourselves from competitors and to increase sales. And here classic techniques work.
Refuse window dressing can only those whose window opens the store completely, and the store itself looks so impressive that it can do without additional "information" attributes to attract the attention of customers. If you are not among the lucky owners of such commercial real estate, you will have to think about seasonal window dressing.
Need an idea: composing a plot
Even if you are betting on the product itself in the window dressing, this does not mean that you should abandon the minimum scenario, the general idea of decoration. The showcase should have a theme - a plot around which your entire presentation is built. The main elements in the first place will be the embodiment of our associations on the topic of shop windows. Here you should not be afraid of stereotyped decisions. Suppose you have chosen the theme of "Vacation", "Travel", "Rest", etc., then the main elements can be palm trees, the sea, seagulls, suitcases, traveler's tags, tickets and everything that relates to this topic. Theme "Sport"? Choose a pedestal, cups, medals, sports equipment, etc. for window dressing. Correctly selected posters with images of athletes, competitions, any attributes of this topic will support the story. Having shown imagination, we can achieve very inexpensive solutions. This proves that even with the simplest materials you can make a commercial display case.
But, the crisis is not a reason to trust this work to the seller, who is bored in the absence of an influx of visitors. However, ideas born locally are sometimes competitive. So one of the readers of Shoes Report talked about her find: to promote the summer collection, she created an impromptu installation before entering the store: she poured sea pebbles, laid out beach toys for children ... It was easy to interest such objects ... children, and their mothers, such a creative approach prompted a peek into the store. And then it was up to the sellers to interest them in goods and not let them go without buying. An example is not for imitation, but rather for inspiration and assertion of the fact that it is possible to find inexpensive, but effective solutions.
Can save
The approaches to window dressing can be different, but there are certain points that must always be considered: the use of color, compositional solution, focal points, graphics, etc. Without a twinge of conscience, you can repeatedly use demonstration equipment, and as for the scenery, here from repetitions should refrain.
Speaking about decorative elements, it should be remembered that it is not always necessary to use expensive materials. An experienced showcase will always find how to save money, for example, by integrating into the showcase natural materials that can be obtained for free. But you should not get carried away with this either. Everything is good in moderation.
An interesting version of the budget design was implemented by the window-dressers of the Patchi boutique selling chocolate. Designers worked with the packaging, using branded pouch packages of different sizes.
But do not slip into the banal calculation of all the best and the best: such overloaded display cases have long been dubbed "Chinese merchandising." It is important to maintain balance, and not to overdo it with decorative elements.
Particular attention should be paid to lighting. This is exactly what you should not save on. Otherwise, the most successful solutions may look dull and completely “don't work”.
Great examples of a budget but eye-catching window dressing are the work of Stephanie Moisan for John Lobb stores (Geneva).
Shopping center and street-shop: we take into account the features
The difference in window dressing is primarily in determining the level of focal points. A focal point is what the passerby’s eyes first fall on. The windows of the shopping center “start” from the floor, and the street ones are higher, so they must have different decisions on the location of the goods, equipment, decorations. In the shopping center, respectively, higher. The second distinguishing feature is the depth of the display case. As a rule, there is almost no depth in the shopping center. What to do? Need to increase it!
How to stand out against the general background when a shopping center is an endless series of uniform display cases? First of all, you need to build on the environment. You can work with color: if everyone has bright showcases, you can go in pastel colors or in general in monochrome, as an option, but this is for the bold. Color is the easiest way.
It makes sense to analyze the number and methods of demonstrating graphics in the windows of neighbors (images and inscriptions). Do not get carried away with the inscriptions "1 + 1 = 1", etc. - they no longer work. If the number of decorative elements is small, do not grind with them. It is better to use large elements in very small quantities than small elements in a small ...
How to draw up price tags
The price tags in the display case should look universal. Ideally, on a single sheet, the list contains all the positions that are present in the window. A prerequisite is one font and one size. It makes sense to pay attention to the price tags in the windows of network fashion brands (Gant, Mango, CK) - they have everything done correctly.
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