Looking to ramp up retail sales? It’s time to focus on your product displays. 

It isn’t enough to simply place your products out for customers to see. Thoughtful product displays are focused on providing an engaging customer experience, and presentation can make the difference between capturing and losing a sale. Learn how you can revamp your product displays to take your business to the next level.

Understanding In-Store Displays

Your product displays are one of the most direct ways you can use your physical retail space to drive engagement. They provide an opportunity for you to leverage your brick-and-mortar presence against e-commerce options and give customers a real experience to drive repeat business and word-of-mouth recommendations. When properly displayed, your products not only sell themselves, but your entire brand, as well.

These days, one of the most critical elements of a good product display is a phygital retail strategy that can combine the best elements of physical retail and digital shopping to engage your store’s guests with multisensory experiences while driving focus to your merchandise.

Types Of Retail Displays

There are many types of product displays available, and having the right ones to showcase your items will engage customers, drive sales, and increase brand loyalty. Pick your choice of display based on the type of featured product and the emotions you want to elicit from customers—excitement, relief, and so on.

Some basic display examples include:

• Display cases
• Garment racks
• Window displays
• Shelving displays
• Gondola Displays
• Mannequins 
• POP (point-of-purchase) displays
• Countertop displays 

No matter which product display you choose for your base, know that a simple, arranged display is no longer enough to compete in the modern retail market. Your displays must incorporate phygital elements for true success.

You want customers to be able to visualize themselves using your products in their lives, and phygital displays can help them do that by combining traditional, physical displays with a digital experience. Social media sharing, augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence are a few of the experiences you can leverage.

Ensure your product displays pop by incorporating digital elements, such as:

• Interactive touch screens: Allow store guests to scroll through a catalog, a calendar of events, or a menu. Customers can select items for an online shopping cart to complete purchases right then and there or complete later at home for convenience.
• Digital video wall: Show videos of how to use a product, perhaps incorporating expert advice or demonstrating how other consumers have used the product. When applicable, gaming consoles and popular video content can drive great experiences, as well. 
• Digital signage: Use screens as digital signs. No more chalkboards listing daily specials or updating your hours by hand. Change the messages easily to keep up with changing context and specify your messaging as needed.

Many consumers are just beginning to interact with phygital displays during their retail experiences. Integrating tech into their shopping experience has great potential to surprise and delight, giving you an edge. 

How To Display Your Retail Products

Ready to start planning the specifics of your display revamp? Follow these tips:

• Pay attention to height. Install product displays at the right height for your audience and place the products on them with thought to the customer’s overall experience in the store as they go from product to product, display to display.
• Feature important products strategically. Special feature displays can be a great way to draw attention to a particular product, so ensure you have a display that stands out for the products you really want to promote.
• Maximize sensory experiences. Install retail displays in a way that allows customers to interact with products as much as possible. Appeal to the senses—touch, sight, smell, sound, taste—and think of how your display can help communicate these to your customers.
• Capture attention. Use digital tools like screens, social media features, and AR, VR and AI to draw focus to critical products and drive engagement.
• Position displays thoughtfully. Popular and profitable products should generally be placed in high traffic, high visibility areas. Accessory items perform well when placed by their host products and near POS registers.
• Shine a light on critical products. Think past overhead lighting. Strategic, directional lighting should highlight your top, most profitable products.
• Balance inventory with simplicity. Having a huge inventory of products can backfire if it splits customers attention and drives decision or sensory fatigue. With endless aisle, you can showcase everything without crowding your store.

Effective Retail Display Examples

Need inspiration? Here are some of our favorite product displays—and what makes them work.

Incorporating a social media experience into customers’ product selection process can delight your store guests and earn your brand favorable recognition online.

Make your product displays a sensory experience that works with your store’s brand. In this example, our client’s bright, colorful products are accented by clean white displays and pops of color, playing into a quasi-taste experience by mimicking the appearance of a candy store. Customers have the opportunity to touch and smell the bath products on display and access a broader catalog of products with convenient digital screens that enable an endless aisle experience.

This display pairs nail polishes with a digital screen that easily allows customers to scan a QR code and access an extended experience online.

Incorporate digital screens throughout product displays to give all customers easy access to digital experiences.

This Snickers display draws attention from passersby with this iconic and whimsical oversized candy bar that doubles as a dynamic digital screen.

This display, complete with a digital screen, uses its unique design to capture attention and highlight the aesthetic of the products it houses.

Combine Tech with Traditional Displays for a Winning Strategy

When you’re looking to build a new storefront, or revamp an existing retail business, product displays—specifically, interactive phygital displays—are a key element of success. 

These tips can help you get started, but if you don’t want to go it alone—or if you want an all-in-one solution that can provide design, installation, and expert experiential technology—the team at MINT is ready to help. Book a meeting with us to let us know what you need and see how we can optimize your store together.