The holiday season presents a prime opportunity for retailers to boost sales and connect with customers in festive ways. Effective holiday merchandising goes beyond simply decorating your store or website—it involves strategic planning, creativity, and understanding consumer behavior during this special time of year. Whether you’re a brick-and-mortar store or an online retailer, here are essential tips to maximize your holiday merchandising efforts.
Use Planograms
Planograms are the easiest ways to plan out and organize merchandise in displays, slatwalls, and more. A planogram tool offers a visual of product layout, including helpful metrics like shelf height, product dimensions, UPC/SKU numbers, and more.
Explore DSC Planogram Tools here.
Follow the Rule of 3
A simple, but powerful tip is to display products in groups of three. Customers are more likely to stop when they see symmetrical or balanced designs. Place three products side by side instead of just one, or if you are arranging things by height, use items that are short, medium, and tall. You can also create a pyramid of products, as it forces the shopper’s eye to look at the focal point and then work their way down.
Group Products Together
Grouping products together saves your customers time searching for pairings, but it also increases their likelihood to buy more product from you. Consider which of your products pair well together. It helps to understand the categories your products fall into, and which categories have good cross-over. For example: notebooks pair well with pens, binders pair well with index dividers and tabs or sheet protectors, and more. You can even practice during down-times with your employees by asking them to come up with different pairing ideas.
Signage
Signage can be a great tool in capturing attention and conveying information. You may be limited on space in your store, so be strategic about the kind of signage you want to use and replace it regularly. Signage could include key new products, promotions, sales discounts, time-sensitive offers and more.
What merchandising tricks have you tried? Let us know in the comments!
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