Pretty Enough to Buy: The Art of Fashion Merchandising

Some of the most important skills a retail salesperson can develop are their visual merchandising skills. A creative and skilled retailer can use the art of visual merchandising to breathe new life into a store and the products therein.

So what is visual merchandising? Visual merchandising is the art of presenting products in an aesthetically pleasing fashion, presenting them in a way that makes people want to purchase the product(s) on display.

In many retail establishments, visual merchandising consists not only of the presentation of items on the store shelves themselves, but also on displays such as window displays, counter displays, main aisle tables, end-caps (the displays on either end of an aisle), and special showcase displays such as armoires and feature walls.

There are a number of visual fashion merchandising tricks. Below, you'll find a few.

Color:

Color is one of the most powerful tools in the visual merchandising toolbox and should be used to full advantage. Colors can be associated with emotions, seasons, holidays, special occasions and gender, among other things. What Halloween display would be complete without orange and black or what Christmas display without red and green (or, alternatively, silver and gold)?

Using color, you can evoke a theme with even the most generic of items. Take towels, for example. Is it possible to create a Valentine's Display using only towels? Sure. Although towels are never going to be the most romantic of display items, by choosing rich red towels and mixing them with pinks and whites, you can certainly evoke the mood of the holiday, particularly if you have the opportunity to cross-merchandise with such items as heart-shaped soaps and scented bath beads.

Someone looking for a baby gift would certainly be drawn to a display that's done entirely in pink and blue, because these colors -- even without any help -- speak to the customer, telling them a tale about the display before they've even studied the products.

Signage:

Sometimes specific signage is required, sent down from a corporate office. But if not, signage is equally important to the display, both in wording and visuals. Don't skimp on color, even for signs. And sometimes, even when particular signs are mandatory, it pays to ask. I found that often if I promised to keep the integrity of the wording, my manager would give me free reign to reprint signs using my own choice of fonts, colors and graphics.

With the variety of easy-to-use publishing software available these days, creating your own signage is simple. Programs such as Microsoft Publisher, Print Shop, Microsoft PictureIt! Publishing, etcetera, are simple to learn, and come with an extensive selection of graphics and font choices. Even word processing software can be easily used to create signs and banners. With a simple change of font, color, and font size, you can make an eye-catching sign.

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