Want a store that overflows with customers? How about knowing where in-store product placements make the most sales impact? Let’s explore some of the magnetizing in-store best practices that crank up revenue, below.
Chasing Eye-Level Space
Eye-level shelving is a natural winner in stores everywhere.
Generally speaking, eye level is where shoppers tend to choose products the most. Are shoppers in a hurry? Usually. So, in this circumstance, it’s understandable that eye-level merchandise gets 35% more attention from shoppers at that specific height; who has time to check every shelf?
This level also signals where specific product types are and can help promote new products. Try placing promoted products or new brands next to established aisle-draw brands and destination products.
Difficult-to-reach products, on the flip side, will be ignored – and this goes double if shoppers have to stand tippy-toe or hunker next to the well-trodden shop floors to read or reach them.
For this reason (and practicality), low-profit and high-weight or high-fragility items should be placed on the lowest shelves.
In-Store Product Placements at Touch Level
Touch level can mean anywhere from just below eye level to just above the bottom shelf, depending on whom you ask. Generally, though, touch level is about 3’ to 4.5’ in height.
Unless shoppers are looking for a “top-shelf brand,” touch level gets extra eyeballs from those who don’t immediately find what they want at eye level.
Those lower shelves are also ideal for items designed for kids. Young folks enjoy handling and examining the bright packaging up close. Giving them a chance to find their favorite item can turn these little shoppers into your product’s loudest brand ambassador. Low-cost, high-profit items (candy, earbuds, youth-targeted foods, gadgets and toys) make an ideal basket-filler that adds profit but won’t make parents cringe at the price.
Touch Level: Experiential Display Height, Tester and Demo Height
Tables, product demos and experiential displays should all be touch level in height. Nothing will welcome a sip, bite or test run than those items that are easy to inspect and just within reach.
This placement works well for new product demos, too.
Field Research: Touch Level Can Stop Shoppers’ Feet
On a tour of some nearby malls, the trend in top-line stores was to interrupt the flow of movement into the store with a touch-level display or large (sturdy) table with products to examine, handle, test – and maybe see how they look in a selfie.
The table (with or without signage) forces attention as shoppers enter the store to navigate the obstacle.
While checking stores out for an upcoming article, our field researcher noticed this had two effects: it immediately forces you to notice the product (as long as the table is clear, plain and uncluttered) and it builds a kind of “Walkway Credibility.”
By forcing people to stand directly in the door while checking out the product, you are telegraphing how awesome your product is to all who pass, and by slowing people down at the entrance, you give a better impression of the popularity of your products and brand.
This totally breaks with the advice of pulling people in and around a store – it took a minute to understand why these experiential displays were nearly blocking the door. Then, on passing the store a few times, it was clear – from many angles outside these stores, the place looked packed (even if there were only a handful of people inside).
We saw this doorway touch-level product placement used most frequently in specialty retail, luxury retail and tech.
Making In-Store Product Placements Work
Natural Insight’s merchandising and workforce management platform gives retailers, product companies and merchandisers the power to create, distribute and verify the in-store product placements used in your merchandising strategy.
For more information on how we take the chaos out of merchandising, download our infographic: Natural Insight: Creating Order from Chaos
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