wicked windows
Having an exciting window display is the number two rule for good business. Store windows need to either be dramatic, themed, cheeky or send a message. In case you’re wondering, the number one, is be nice to people who do come in to the shop, or plain old fashioned good customer service.
Here are 7 tips, to encourage potential customers from the outside to the inside:
1. Apply good lighting - We are naturally attracted by light. Light shining on a beautiful product appeals to customers, it draws our attention without us realizing it. Particularly in winter months as good lighting looks cheery.
2. Use Mannequin like props - People pay more attention to human-like items and your displays will look more alive. Put the mannequins at different heights for even more attention. Our brains have to scan to make sense of what we see, and the more disruption to the scanning, eg by having it look up and down, the longer the process takes, so the more chance there is of them coming in.
3. Let them peep - Expose only part of your window sometimes - I know this one is more scary than the others, but give it a try! This also works if you have vast expanses of window that you can’t fill with stock for whatever reason, or if you want to hide the fact that your shop is cavernous.
4. Tidiness and cleanliness: This is not revolutionary. But customers have perceptions of your shop,and we want them to be good perceptions. Scruffy, untidy or dusty displays imply carelessness. Your customer’s thought process goes something like this: Scruffy / dusty window equals shop doesn’t care. if they don’t care about the window, they won’t care about product selection or serving me! I know this seems unfair when you have a million things to do. But this is what happens. these first impressions are called “moments of truth” Cast your eye over your window now to see what your potential customers see.
5. Use the big to enhance the small: Use bigger props in the background to draw people to small merchandise - like jewellery. This is also true of displays in cabinets, always tallest at the back.
6. Replication: Put numerous props of the same kind together to create an amazing visual impact. This works with colour, or style or shape. Repetition, repetition, repetition!
7. Magnification: have props enlarged to a hundred times their ordinary size - this can be stunning - imagine a huge ring with a massive stone, all made of polystyrene, above a ring display for example or a huge canvas of an product taken from an odd angle!
