Fresh Visual Merchandising helps World Cup sales

On Friday we kicked up our 2010 World Cup magazine, sticker and supporter products promotion with a fresh display at the front of our newsagency.  While we were running low on most stock items, we were still able to bring something half decent together.  By the end of yesterday, sales showed that the effort was well worth it.  You only had to watch customers as they approached the store, the display was very popular.  I saw it draw several people who were walking past the newsagency to exit the centre – it definitelty drove some new traffic for us.

Too often I visit newsagencies where a display is created for a promotion, like the World Cup, and left in place for the duration of the opportunity.

Good retailers know that change is essential in retail. I think this is even more important in newsagencies where we can see the same customer three or more times each week.  These regular customers become as store blind as we do ourselves.  Change combats store blindness.

Change does not need to take hours.  Even just moving a stand can have a tremendous impact.  The key is to be tactical.  What is the outcome you want?  If it is to sell an item or a seasonal opportunity, like World Cup, think about the best location to put the stand, display or even a single product to disrupt traffic from customers who are likely to notice, browse and, hopefully, buy?  Disruption of shoppers is the key with this type of display.

The change we made to our World Cup offer on Friday morning was the fourth major change so far for the World Cup season.  The sales results indicate that the labour and floor space investment has been well worth it.

As the photo shows, displays don’t need to be the most beautiful to work.   In this case, our focus was on traffic disruption around a popular and short term seasonal opportunity.