Strategic shop design using display cabinets
Most people never give the way that glass cabinets are set up in the shop a second thought. Unless you are in the business yourself, you do not consciously acknowledge the many facets of their setup and design. In a way, this is exactly what the store owner wants because they want to attract attention to what's inside the displays rather than the glass display cabinets themselves!
In reality, however there is a lot that goes into a successful store layout. And there is also a lot that goes into choosing, and filling your display cabinets. The most successful retail chains in the world invest a lot of time and money into the psychology of sales and specifically into display marketing. After all, once a customer enters the premises, it is the displays themselves that sell the products. Of course, shop assistants are there to aid the process, but in most successful high Street retail chains, the idea is to let the store itself be the salesperson.
What you may think is just sat there silently in the background, housing jewellery, watches, high-tech goods etc, has actually been placed according to certain psychological techniques involved in the sales and marketing process. Everything is positioned in setup to optimise the products by mentions, colours, and price. Using display cabinets in this way is a mixture of science and art and savvy display marketers know from experience that they can radically increase the turnover and make or break a business.
If we compare the layout of the shop to the design of the website, we can apply some principles that make all the difference to converting visitors into customers. In the case of websites, there are certain areas where the eyes naturally gravitate to. These can be graphically displayed via the use of what is known as a heat map. When somebody first visits a website their eyes are normally drawn to the top left hand side of the screen. Secondary to this would be anything centred and above the fold i.e. the area visible without having to scroll down the page.
Internet giant Google produce heat maps to enable their clients to place their advert strategically on websites. Large retail chains are more secretive in what works for them in terms of their layouts, but simply visiting successful stores will give you an insight as to the effective way of setting up your display cabinets. One technique that we seal the time our point-of-sale displays (POS).
All sorts of retail outlets use this from supermarkets to car mechanics. It takes advantage of a change in somebody psychological state from that of a browser to that of an active purchaser. When somebody has their wallet or purse out or is ready with their credit card, they are in a different frame of mind to when they first enter the premises in search of something. Point-of-sale glass Cabinet displays can be used effectively to take advantage of this psychological shift. People are much more open to spending more at this stage of the process.
Although they might not admit it, some companies actually design their shops so that people are held in a queue for a certain amount of time, surrounded by products that are easy to pick up and add to what they would he have prior to going to the checkout. Budget clothing retailer Primark does this effectively by channelling people like sheep into an area where they are hedged in by socks, underwear, and other accessories until they reach the checkouts! You may want to think about this tactic because it would not be too difficult to achieve through the use of strategically placed glass display cabinets. The secret is to not push the customer too far into a sense of inpatients but just give them enough time to be exposed to whatever you are trying to offer them.
Ultimately, your glass display cabinets are there to draw people to certain items. You can do this by making certain products stand out from everything else in your shop. You may want to have a centrepiece display Cabinet that is much taller than everything else. This is almost like a central museum piece which houses something that is quite different to everything else. You can optimise this sort of display through promotional material if your product is marketed with this.
You also have to be careful of what you do not put inside your glass display cabinets. For example, if mundane items such as batteries are also housed alongside your more higher-priced products, this devalues the other items on display. The glass display cases are there to enhance the perceived value of your products and not just as storage.