Creating successful merchandising programs in brick-and-mortar retail stores is not easy. Navigating the intensely competitive retail landscape, capturing the attention of distracted and hurried shoppers, complying with retailer requirements, creating … The post Point-of-Purchase Displays: 5 Timeless Truths that Drive Retail Success appeared first on Retail Displays and Store Fixtures ..read more

On the morning of August 7th, 1974, French highwire artist Philippe Petit drew worldwide attention when he walked back and forth for 45 minutes on a thin wire connecting the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, the same towers that were destroyed by terrorists on September 11th, 2001. As a large crowd gathered on the streets 1,312 feet beneath him, Petit made 8 passes during which he walked, danced, laid down on the wire, and saluted his audience below from a kneeling position. It was an incredible act of acrobatic skill, highwire artistry, and showmanship. Perhaps even mo ..read more

This is a story about the transformational impact of effective retail store design on a small hometown pickleball shop in Southern California. It was about 15 years ago that my wife invited me to participate in a Saturday afternoon pickleball clinic at a local tennis club known as “Bobby Riggs.” I had never heard of pickleball at the time and wasn’t too excited about spending 2 hours with 50 strangers trying to learn a new sport. In preparation for the clinic, the tennis courts were set up with cheap temporary nets constructed of metal tubing and nylon netting. The club had baskets of yellow ..read more

In this 2-part blog series, we’ve been exploring the topic of exceptionalism as it relates to creating a custom POP display. We all know mediocrity when we see it- me-too, ho-hum, so what. Similarly, we know exceptionalism the instant we see it. Think about the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, landing on the moon for the first time in 1969, and Michael Phelps’ 8 gold medals and 7 world records at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics- all indisputable examples of exceptionalism. In Part I of this series, we introduced the 2 primary attributes of exceptionalism: (1) uniqueness, and (2) superiorit ..read more

One of the great mysteries of retail life is why so many aspiring brands settle for mediocrity when it comes to the design and execution of their custom POP display. In our work with thousands of brands over the last 35 years, we have seen this over and over again. Some brands arrive at mediocrity because they mistake their display program as a cost instead of an investment. “You know, we have to give these displays away,” is a common refrain we hear. Others fail to realize just how challenging it is to stand out in an intensely competitive and overly crowded retail environment where choices ..read more

We refer to it as situational design. That is, a great retail POP design is highly dependent not only on the objectives of the brand but also on the retail environment in which the display will live. The sunglass/eyewear category is large, highly competitive, and unsuspectingly complex. Its complexity derives from the fact that eyewear is both a functional and a fashion item as well as a destination and an impulse item. Moreover, eyewear is a classic example of a product whose perceived value is often dictated by the quality of the display and the way it is merchandised. All of these factors c ..read more

I shop at Sprouts every Saturday. Like a good shepherd checking on his flock, I always make it a point to look for the Tieman’s Coffee POP display we made over 9 years ago. Sometimes I have to go out of my way to find it. One week it’s in the coffee aisle, and the next week it might be in a completely different section of the store. Shortly after we made the display, we wrote a mini case study about its remarkable performance. We used baseline data from Tieman’s and shared how the display increased sales 500% (6-fold) over its historical sales when it shared crowded shelf space with other comp ..read more

The chief objective of visual merchandisers is to capture shopper attention, captivate shoppers intellectually and emotionally, and ultimately convert them from shoppers to customers. Delivering on the 3 C’s- capturing, captivating, and converting- is becoming an increasingly difficult challenge in today’s highly competitive, visually noisy retail landscape where hurried and distracted shoppers no longer read but instead are obsessed with, or perhaps, possessed by their cell phones and social media. Faced with these modern-day challenges, what is the best way to get your product and your cust ..read more

If you are thinking about creating a retail floor shelf display, it always makes sense to start the design process by asking 3 questions: What are my merchandising objectives? What do I want the display to communicate about my brand? What can I afford to spend on the display to achieve an attractive return on investment? Being able to answer these fundamental questions will help to ensure an efficient design process while also maximizing your chances for retail success. In today’s post we’ll look at 10 examples of floor shelf displays that illustrate a range of design outcomes that meet diff ..read more

About 15 years ago our Director of Operations asked if she could bring in her younger brother Tim to help in the warehouse during the summer. Fresh out of high school, Tim earned minimum wage and assisted in packing and doing a variety of odd jobs. One afternoon our head designer Will needed a break, so he started a makeshift game of baseball in the warehouse. He wadded up a ball of tape and grabbed a wood dowel for a bat. Tim jumped in as pitcher, and the game began. After striking out several times, Will noticed that Tim had a strong arm, so he asked Tim to join his men’s league baseball te ..read more