The Successful Retail Store Strategy

Shopping has transformed itself from mere necessity to an adventure. It is an experience now, an opportunity for celebration with friends and family. The old days have gone when a list was made and shopping was done at the nearby Kirana store. Now shopping is a welcome break from hectic schedules. Retail giants like Big Bazaar’s rule hearts with “Is se sastha aur acha kahin nahi”, D-mart with “Daily Discounts Daily Savings”, Central with the motto of “Shop Eat and Celebrate” while Aditya Birla’s retail group supermarket- MORE “Hamesha Extra”.

The reason behind all these taglines and visual merchandising is about converting visitors into buyers. At this point, it is important to understand the concept of visual merchandising, which deals with the display of products and creating an ambiance of the retail store. A good display makes people walk into the store and also encourages them in taking a look around.

A successful retail store requires a unique image that can leave an impact or visual on the mind of the consumer. Visual merchandising can help in creating a positive image that can lead to successful sales. It not only communicates the store's image but also reinforces the stores advertising efforts and encourages the customer to end up buying at the store. Visual merchandising can be defined as everything the customer sees, both exterior as well as interior, that creates a positive image of a business and results in attention, desire, interest and final action, i.e, sales. In other words “Visual merchandising refers to anything that can be seen by the customer inside and outside a store, including displays, decorations, signs, and layout of space. The overall purpose of visual merchandising is to get customers to come into the store and spend money. It includes the presentation of merchandise as well as other important, features that create the store’s overall atmosphere. 80% of impressions are created through sight, that is why it is said: “one picture is worth a thousand words”.

Each customer has a visual image of a store back of his mind now how good or bad that image depends on how has the customer perceived the display at the retail store. Visual merchandising is a major factor that is overlooked in the success or failure of a retail store. A store should have an inviting appearance that makes the customer feel comfortable and also encourages him to end up buying. Visual merchandising is directly involved in 2/3rd of the entire process of converting a mere visitor into a buyer. Recently visual merchandising has gained in importance as a quick and cost-effective way to revamp retail stores.it is an art that is used for displaying and presenting products in the retail store and on the entrance and the windows with the objective to increase store footfalls and eventually sales volume. Traditional levers of competition, such as assortment, service and customer and market segmentation are no longer the buzzword. More people are placing extra emphasis on an interior design which has progressed from the shop fitting to entertaining and inspiring the consumers and hence providing added value to the store.

Consumers respond both consciously and unconsciously to visual clues when they visit a store. Visual merchandising is an artistic method to ensure that merchandise sells faster. It's a tool to appeal to the visual senses of the customer. It is gaining popularity with the introduction of self-service in retail services. There is increased emphasis on store layout, building, fixtures, equipment, color displays, silent communication tools and window display. In-store displays have taken the art of retailing to a higher level. Visual merchandising also plays a very important role in attracting customers of different sections to buy goods. Visual merchandising can be done through both- exterior and interior presentation. Each should be well coordinated with each other while making use of the stores/brands overall theme.

Creating and maintaining a stores visual merchandising plan is not a simple task it is like creating the “first impression”. It is necessary to continually determine what the customer sees and also what would attract a customer( i.e, what the customer wants to see). This evaluation from the customers perspective should start on the exterior and work completely through the interior of the store. It is the best source of advertising and marketing. The objective of the study: To understand the importance of visual merchandising in retail stores also to study the different types of visual merchandising tools used by retailers today and to understand the impact of visual merchandising in the mind of the consumer.

Overview: The retail industry is one of the fastest growing industries in India over the last few decades. The Indian retail industry is the third largest in the world. Comprising of organized and unorganized sectors, though initially, the retail industry in India was mostly unorganized consists of the small and medium grocery store, medicine stores, “subji mandi?, “kirana? stores, “paan? shops etc. However, with the change of tastes and preferences of the consumers, the industry is getting more popular these days and getting organized as well. Retail involves the process of selling consumer goods or services to customers through multiple channels of distribution to earn a profit. Demand is identified and then satisfied through a supply chain. Attempts are made to increase demand through advertising. The term "retailer" is also applied where a service provider services the small orders of a large number of individuals, rather than large orders of a small number of wholesale, corporate or government clientele. Shops may be on residential streets, streets with few or no houses, or in a shopping mall. Shopping streets may restrict traffic to pedestrians only. Sometimes a shopping street has a partial or full roof to create a more comfortable shopping environment - protecting customers from various types of weather conditions such as extreme temperatures, winds or precipitation. Forms of non-shop retailing include online retailing (a type of electronic commerce used for business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions) and mail order.

The basic objective for visual merchandising is a desire to attract customers to a place of business in order to sell the merchandise. Visual merchandising is offered to the customer through exterior and interior presentation. Each should be coordinated with the other using the store's overall theme. Creating and maintaining a store's visual merchandising plan, however, is not a simple task. It is necessary to continually determine what the customer sees. The VM from the customer's perspective should start on the exterior and work completely through the interior of the store. The top five tips for visual merchandising are enticed, impact, inspire, identify and add-on.