All on the shelves: four ways to arrange shoes

It is unlikely that anyone will argue with the fact that sales depend on a competent display of goods in the hall. And if your sales do not seem high enough to you, a small reshuffle may help. An expert and a business coach in the field of visual merchandising Nina Zaslavskaya talks about the basic principles of arranging shoes on the trading floor, their advantages and disadvantages.

Do not neglect the principles of presenting an assortment in a shoe store: using them correctly, you can influence the behavior of the buyer and lead him in the right direction, or, conversely, distract attention and create conditions for a spontaneous purchase.

It’s worth mentioning right away that the principles described in this article are applicable only to stores with price positioning in the economic and middle segment. Luxury stores as well as those who work according to the scheme “all stock is in the hall, goods are taken out of the warehouse” are guided by slightly different rules worthy of a separate material.

There are at least four basic ways of arranging shoes in a sales area: by brand, size, collection, and category. All these principles have their own characteristics and disadvantages that should be taken into account in each case.

Branding. Owners of multi-brand shoe stores often believe that “their brands are well known to everyone”, therefore they mistakenly believe that the arrangement of shoes by brands will help the buyer navigate the product. In fact, shoe brands that are really familiar to most Russian buyers can be counted on the fingers, and they are usually only sold in brand stores. Most brands of the economic and middle segment are known only to professional shoe makers, and they are most likely sold in your store.

If you are not sure that your brands are on the top list of the most recognizable in Russia, do not risk using the branding. Otherwise, the store will not benefit in sales from the use of such a calculation: the buyer will simply ignore your concept, and his actions to find the goods will be chaotic.

Use branding if your store’s assortment has at least one brand of high recognition and you know for sure that it will attract a customer. Highlight this brand in a separate brand corner, decorating it with branded POS materials. The equipment for such a corner may differ from the main equipment of the store, which will allow marking the brand zone against the general background, thus creating a kind of “shop in store” (shop-in-shop).

Size-based display was common during the socialist era, and today it can be used in economy and discount stores that sell leftovers or incomplete size charts. Size-based display is beneficial for retailers because it allows them to conceal out-of-stock sizes for certain styles, and it's convenient for customers because it saves them time. Upon entering the store, customers can immediately approach the display with their size and don't need the help of a salesperson to find their size in the warehouse. The downside of this method is that if a customer has a "fluid size" or doesn't know the exact size of a style, they must walk between two aisles searching for the desired item. This can lead to frustration and a feeling of wasted time.

The calculation in size signals the buyer that the price of this product is low. Therefore, it is recommended to use it either during the sale, or in a store that does not have image claims. In addition, the layout method in size is only suitable for large-sized trading floors, since in fact it is a somewhat modified concept of “the entire stock in the hall”. When planning a store using this method, it is very important that the size navigation is clearly visible from the entrance. As for the division within the dimensional zones, it is advisable to group shoes in them according to the principle of “like with like”.

Arrangement for collections. From the point of view of the buyer, the concept of “collection” in the shoe industry is very arbitrary, because in the generally accepted sense, a collection is a set of models that make up an ensemble, that is, can be worn together. The concept of the ensemble is not applicable to shoes, because a person cannot put one foot on a boot and the other on a high-heeled shoe. Therefore, in the shoe industry, a collection refers to a set of articles (styles), united by one color scheme and the materials from which they are made.

The arrangement of the collections in the shoe store is carried out using additional accessories: bags, scarves, belts, gloves and other goods. This principle of calculation will be useful in a store in which sales of additional accessories make up a significant share, which is typical for retail outlets of the medium and medium-high segment. Buyers of shoe stores at this level are usually wealthy enough to purchase a pair of shoes and a bag with one check. In addition, the arrangement of the collections in the shoe store orientates the buyer to a spontaneous choice, since it does not help him make the target purchase. That is why this method will not be effective in stores of the "medium-low" or "economy" segments, in which people come to meet a specific need, and not "for a good mood."

When arranging shoes according to collections, it should be noted that accessories must completely match the color and style with the shoes next to which they are placed. Otherwise, it will no longer be a collection, and the meaning of such a grouping of goods completely disappears. In addition, do not abuse the number of bags, otherwise the shoes will simply be lost against the background of these larger accessories.

Categorizing shoes is the best way to meet a customer's specific desires, as a product category is what the customer came to the store for. For example, a customer might search for "high heels for prom," "ballet flats to pair with jeans," "ankle boots like the ones in the magazine," "transitional boots to replace old, wet ones," or "school shoes for a child." These are all specific customer desires that the salesperson must satisfy. Categorizing shoes is the best way to achieve this.

To apply the calculation by category, you must determine what product categories your product range is divided into. In stores with a wide assortment, this division can be very detailed, for example, not only “shoes”, but “shoes with stilettos”, “shoes with wedges” and “shoes with low heels” stand out. In stores with a narrower assortment, it is enough to divide the goods into the categories “boots”, “shoes”, “sports shoes” and others.

Place goods from the more popular categories in the best places, send models that have just been added to the assortment there. This will allow you to see how customers react to the new product. In the layout of goods by categories, the use of cross-merchandising methods is also encouraged, that is, the addition of shoes on the shelves with bags and accessories.