A complete guide to supermarket visual merchandising

What were the few items that stand out more when you go into a store or a showroom? The exhibition windows, store layout, artificial lighting, product display, mannequins, point-of-sale display, music, aroma, interior design, graphics, seasonal and festival exhibits, and many others are just a few examples. These are all examples of supermarket visual merchandising. The supermarket’s techniques for capturing your attention include all of these conspicuous features. Even if you have no intention of purchasing something, you succumb to the temptation and do so. That would be the power of visual merchandising in supermarkets.

Visual merchandising tactics are used by supermarkets and retailers to improve the consumer experience and increase sales. Supermarket visual merchandising is the presentation or display of items that boost their aesthetic appeal and intrigues people enough to enter the store and make a purchase. It’s a mixture of science and art. It necessitates a grasp of retail science, including consumer buying behavior, the emotions that inspire purchases, and the use of psychological principles to influence buyers.

The art of presentation and display is found in the use of color, lighting, space, display type, product positioning, and other visual factors. However, getting the proper mix of science and art is crucial such that the supermarket visual merchandising plan may affect both persuadable and impulsive shoppers at the same time when executed. Because there are so many brands available in each product category, the rivalry for customers’ attention is fierce, and in-store product placement is indeed a critical tactic.

Furthermore, capturing the attention of clients for a single transaction or a one-time retail visit is not the primary goal. The visual merchandising approach at the supermarket must be so successful that it persuades people to buy several units of the product and to become devoted to buying it at every trip to the supermarket.

Important purposes of supermarket visual merchandising strategy

Increasing the number of people who visit the supermarket
Taking advantage of footfall to convert it into sales
Customers’ billing amounts are being increased.
Increasing sales by cultivating a loyal consumer base
Key strategies of supermarket visual merchandising

Store layout

The shop layout is an important aspect in supermarket visual merchandising because it determines how much floor space is used and where the shelves are placed to keep customers in the shop for longer. The size of the shop, the kind of items to be presented, and the target clientele for those items all influence the store layout. Furthermore, thanks to the usage of shop layout, retailers may calculate sales per square foot, allowing them to adjust the layout if the required sales are not obtained.

Floor plan

Retailers can choose a straight floor design, which provides a vision of a well-organized flow and is cost-effective. Loop layout, angular floor plan, geometric layout, and free-flow layout are some more alternatives. The floor design is also influenced by businesses’ ideas about guiding people in a clockwise or anti-clockwise path around their businesses. Retailers select where new arrivals should be placed in relation to current items depending on the spatial of client flow.

Placement of shelves

In supermarket visual merchandising, shelf placement is a critical choice. Two shelves should not be so far apart that consumers waste a lot of time travelling from one to the other, nor should they be so near that consumers are nudged from behind while looking at the items. In supermarkets, where consumers can find all of their daily requirements items, separate shelves must have distinct product categories so that customers can see all of the brands in a product category on a single shelf and make rapid decisions.

Proper signage

In supermarket visual merchandising, effective signage is critical since it directs shoppers to the rack with the product categories they seek. This allows customers to serve themselves while looking for a product rather than relying on a salesperson, which can lead to increased wait times and lost revenues.

Placement of products

Getting the items to the shop is still simple; however, strategically placing them for optimum sales is more challenging. Visual merchandising in supermarkets is a crucial choice because merchants must consider what items demand a lot of space and which items have several brands available, increasing rivalry.

They must also take into account items that are temporary and will need to be replaced once the season is through, as well as new items that demand more awareness. Supermarket visual merchandising, when done well, leads to greater product volumes, high conversion rates, higher transaction values, and hence higher productivity for both the supermarket and the brands and items on display. Customers’ attention is drawn to high-value and high-usage items when they are placed in the middle aisle, which leads to greater sales. The positioning of almost-forgotten goods or low-value things that aren’t as important near the bill-paying area aids in the selling of these things.

Volume of products

How many goods to place on display on a particular shelf is a critical aspect in supermarket visual marketing. For a high-end business, keeping fewer items on the shelves is better, however for everyday items, having too many product alternatives on the shelves increases sales. Another theory is that when there are too many items, buyers become bewildered and lose interest, and if there are too few items, buyers perceive a lack of choices. It’s a crucial question, but there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. In the instance of supermarkets, the amount of items is usually large, giving buyers the impression that there are enough of them, and the store is not forced to restock it.

Product display on shelves

The positioning of merchandise at eye level aids in the rise of sales. Customers are less likely to bend or get on the toes to seek for a certain brand/product when high-value items are placed at eye level; as a result, placing high-value items at eye level raises the bill amount. Another viewpoint is that the most often purchased or popular items should be kept at the bottom of the shelf since they will be sold anyhow, but supermarket-owned goods or special offer items should be put at eye-level to boost their proclivity to sell.

Cross-merchandising

Cross-merchandising is one of the most important visual merchandising methods in supermarkets. It is described as a tactic of grouping related items together so that shoppers feel compelled to include that item in their shopping carts. Furthermore, this technique informs clients about what fits very well with the product they are presently purchasing. Chips and cold beverages, for example, or dishwashing detergent and mitts are complementary goods, and persuading clients to buy one by positioning the other adjacent helps improve basket size.

Updates on product display

Another important tactic is to refresh the displays on a regular basis, especially when new goods are introduced into the store. The frequency of modification is determined by the kind of items sold, the discounts offered on specific items, and the amount of time potential clients spend simply looking at the items. Customers prefer that when the display of everyday items offered in supermarkets does not vary frequently so that they can easily go and grab what they need in the shortest amount of time feasible.

Look and feel

The appearance and feel of a shop is an important part of a supermarket’s visual merchandising strategy since it impacts consumers’ decisions to remain or go. The use of color and texture, as well as the lighting in the shop and the usage of empty space, all contribute to the appearance and feel of a business.

Colouring

Customers are drawn to product displays by colors, which help to create the store’s mood. However, using any color for every item is not the best approach. A monochromatic color scheme works well for certain items, but for others, the appropriate blend of similar or opposing hues makes the presentation a success. The merchant must consider the color scheme in relation to the product category, shop exteriors and interiors, and product packaging.

Lights

Customers’ first impressions of items are framed by the sort of lighting utilized throughout the store and on the display shelves. Customers’ perceptions of the goods are influenced by the sort of lighting employed, which might evoke feelings of mystery, curiosity, clarity, or warmth. A significant choice to be made when deciding on supermarket visual merchandising methods is which areas of the shop demand brightness and which areas can cope with dull light or shadows.

Using empty-spaces for storytelling

The majority of retail businesses have blank seats between both the roof and the objects on display. For merchants, maximizing the use of this vacant space is critical. Retailers can use this to showcase extensive product information, client testimonials, or a graphical portrayal of the product in use. The trick here is to not bore the consumer with too much information or to overcrowd the area to the point that clients are turned off. The information should be concise and easy to understand in the form of bullet points or visuals, and it must aid in the purchase choice.

Marketing to other senses

Supermarkets provide food, drinks, personal care, and other home products that appeal to a potential customer’s senses of sound, smell, taste, and touch in addition to their visual sense. These senses also impact the store’s appearance and feel, and merchants may innovate in these areas to differentiate themselves from the competition and enhance sales. The following is an example of how each one of these senses is used:

In the shop where food and beverages are sold, the sound is not essential, but, in the personal care and domestic products sections, some light music may only enhance the mood.
The sense of smell is particularly strong in the store’s food and beverage area. The aroma of bakery goods and cafés might attract additional consumers. Retailers, on the other hand, utilize distinct fragrances in different product areas to give customers a distinct feeling and entice them to purchase the things.
Some home objects have a strong sense of touch since it provides them a pleasant feeling and hence can improve the shopping experience.

When it comes to food items that aren’t often packaged, such as bakery goods, taste plays a big role in decision-making. For example, if some new sauces are arriving, a tasting station can be set up before the product is introduced in the store to provide a greater hands-on shopping experience.

Final thoughts

A supermarket’s main task is to make the environment as customer-friendly as feasible so that it impacts their shopping decisions during the time they have spent in the shop. As a result, merchants’ primary priority should be to make supermarket visual merchandising appealing enough to excite customers’ purchasing behavior and lead to a product purchase. Supermarkets must be astute enough to put items in such a manner that they appear on customers’ “to purchase” lists, and if that isn’t the case, the visual attraction must be such that consumers are compelled to venture beyond their “shopping basket” list.