The merchandising system in the new era: what needs to be changed in the shoe retail business?

A visual merchandising system can help a store stay in the market even during the most difficult times. SR expert in merchandising and store design Marina Polkovnikova gives the top 5 things to do as soon as your store reopens after quarantine.

Marina Polkovnikova -

founder and head of VMC Retail agency, expert in visual merchandising and store building; @marinapolkovnikova_official, Vmcreta

So, what is special about our stores now? There are five main areas to be taken.

1. Implement checklists. No matter how trite it may sound, you need to keep your finger on the pulse of all the components of visual merchandising. It is a working merchandising system that allows us to maintain the level of profit in a falling market and even increase it.

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2. Absolutely all companies will adjust downward the volume of orders for fall-winter 2020/21 and cut back for spring-summer 2021. Therefore, review the volume and range of retail equipment - mounted, wall-mounted and island. See how you can present your product well and correctly, without showing that the purchase volume from you has decreased. There are special techniques for this, for example: we reduce the number of shelves, hooks, create more space, more air between shoes on the shelves, make wider, more comfortable aisles between equipment.

3. Critically look at the area for trying on shoes. How comfortable is it now? How many mirrors do you have, are they full length? Do you provide footprints / knee socks for trying on? What kind of shoe horns do you have, do magnets hang on them? It's time to give up this practice, the magnets on the horns look very strange. Therefore, buy 20-30 horns and have them always in the fitting area. Yes, horns are stealing, but let's think about our status and how we are perceived through the eyes of our customers. Those who do not repackage in the near future will find it extremely difficult to work in the new conditions. Therefore, it is very important to take into account all the details, including the presence of horns in the fitting area.

4. Lighting is a very important component in a retail space, ideally every shelf should be illuminated. An emphasis on competent, professional lighting, which we have already talked about more than once (Detailed articles on the features of lighting in a retail store, on the choice of lamps - in the Shoes Report magazine, No. 175, 2020).

5. Look closely and very hard at your storefront. And finally, order a conceptual showcase with a basic set of elements from specialists. This approach will allow you not to spend huge budgets for each season, because you will have a base that makes it possible to create a beautiful and high-quality showcase. The showcase should be attractive, it is it that creates traffic for the store. You should understand that your turnover is the number of people entering the store multiplied by the average check. Therefore, if we increase traffic even by 5%, we automatically increase our profits. Think about the fact that the showcase needs to be decorated and done regularly, with high quality, from decent materials. It should be delicious and attractive as never before. If you don't fix it, clean it up soon, dust it off, your customers will go to your competitors.

Now everyone is in a state of unity, but after isolation everything will change very quickly - tough, fierce competition in the market will begin, and only repackaged stores will survive in it.