Expert Advice – How to perfect a window display
06-01-2006
‘Windows of
Store Planning For the New Season
Christmas has come and gone and the wheel of retailing keeps turning, as retailers we need to continue planning New Season merchandise and promotions both in the windows and in-store. This week another casualty of the high street was announced kookai has failed to renew its licence in the UK which ran out at the end of last year, the company failed to grasp the differences in size and buying style of the British consumer, having worked for a French Wholesalers I know this is a real problem with European brands, they will not change their designs or sizes to accommodate the curvier British woman who shops and puts together her wardrobe influenced more by American fashion then by our Parisian cousin.
Whether you are an Independent or multiple using a computer added package or hand drawn, having a clear plan of where your new collection stock will be placed is paramount in capturing sales and keeping one step a head of the competition.
The store planner works closely with the buyers and merchandisers, store designer or owner. Based on previous sales figures or on projected or anticipated sales figures, the planner will prepare a store layout plan which is taken from the architects blue print; this is the first allocation of space and the designation of selling areas on the selling floor including the stockroom. By roughly blocking in the areas this will demonstrate fixtures needed and traffic patterns, management gets a visual picture of how much space is actually needed and how much is left over for growth and expansion.
The final plan will have all the counters, cases, tables, & fixtures, shelving drawn to scale in place, and will show dressing rooms, cash desks, exits and entrances. Included in this are the hot-spots or areas used for promotion, they can be mobile or permanent for a set time.
When I was working for Gap part of my job as a merchandiser was not only drawing out the floor plans and listing every item with both style number and colour on each and every fixture, this was for new flow collections when the entire store was changed, this also included planning out all the walls with shelves and displays, this happened every 6-8 weeks and seasonally.
As an independent your store is not as large as a branch of Gap but effective floor planning is always the same, this is not done just at the beginning of the season but weekly or when items are selling through and looking fragmented.
Q: What do you do if your fixtures are not able to be moved?
A: Try to buy in addition to your shop fit small mobile fixtures you can move around to keep the store looking fresh, also when planning out a new shop fit buy a unit/wall fixtures that have many different shelves and chrome options that can be changed easily to adapt to sell through of your stock.
Today when you are store planning you must also think about access for wheelchairs and buggies, remember this when placing fixtures can you get by them with a buggy?.
Also when placing units of clothing onto shelves/fixtures do not over fill them so that it is possible to reach or they all fall down, you must think about health and safety. Don’t forget about the stockroom, keep it simple and easy to see all the brands and products hang as much as you can, using space saving devices.
Remember effective store planning is about the promotion and selling of products in a clear and uncluttered way.
Written by Paula Arkell Retail Consultant
