Why You Should Rearrange Your Gallery or Store.

We call it merchandising.  Be it that you have a retail store, office space or a gallery, rearranging furniture and reorganizing product is something that should be scheduled on your monthly calendar.  There are many advantages and benefits to moving things around, reorganizing and getting rid of clutter.  I would like to share a couple of ways merchandising can help to attract more people to your business, as well as some idea's to help you declutter and increase the chances of a sale.  

1. New & Repeat Customers

The number one reason for moving product, furniture and display areas around is to attract new and repeat customers and to profile items perhaps not seen before. One of the most obvious benefits to rearranging the sales plan is to give your stores a fresh look.  It keeps things looking new and moving; the perfect way to influence current customers to keep coming back into your store.

Think about it, when you want or need go "leisure shopping" or "gift shopping" what stores jump out at you?  Most likely the stores that you have purchased from before and also that present the appearance that they are getting new items in all the time.  They also might have just put out an advertisement about new product that just came in, or that a new promotion is about to start.  This is a great way to provoke your curiosity and desire to discover the perfect something.

This is the second stage of the purchasing process for many of us, we anticipate what we might find and then go through our memory bank for the stores and places that gave us what we wanted the last time we went shopping. 

When everything is left stationary for a long time, items that are pushed to the back selves or into dusty corners often are forgotten about, overlooked, and undervalued. 

In my 15 years experience in retail sales and customer service, I have observed the following outcomes that occur when the look stays the same:

Customers are not seeing everything equally.  OK - so no one can ever take in the entirety of your store or what is being offered.  Our brains are not programmed this way.  Our brains are programmed to decode the world around us and find the quickest way to achieve a goal.  The goal in this situation is to find something we value and the quickest way to do this is to scan the store until our eyes land on something interesting for our brains to decode it as a valued item. 

Your job is to help make this process even easier for your clients by staging your store with eye catching displays.  Re-arranging merchandise presents a new look that causes regular customers to think they are getting a new experience every time.

Customers, if not directed where to put their attention, start to look around in the areas that we are not so proud of like dusty window ledges, old light fixtures and dirty pathways.  I think it is safe to say that this is not the objective.

I know that I have done this many times as a customer in a store.  When I have nothing more to look at that interests me but my friend is still chatting or looking around in desperation for something wonderful to appear, I find myself looking at the floor, lights, mirrors, windows and checking out the dust bunnies under counters.  Just admit it - you know what I am talking about.  What feelings do you take away from a place where you just inspected the floors and came out feeling empty handed?  Your Customers are feeling the same and they tuck this experience into their memory banks to recall at a later date.  It could be the difference between them returning to your store or driving right on by and going down the street on their shopping adventure.

Some shoppers don't go through the whole store on each visit.  Turning over merchandise exposes them to more of your products, keeps their attention on new items or product, and possibly increasing your sales volume.  Now with social media platforms you should be posting about new products, promotions and sales to attract new and repeat customers.

"It’s just the same old, same old" - this is the statement you want to prevent your customers from saying or thinking.  You want them to say - "Let’s go down to ___________ and see what’s new!"

2. Staying in touch with your Brand Image

Rearranging the look of your business routinely as part of re-branding or maintaining your existing brand is a must.  It is time to get creative and perhaps time to reconnect with your business, your public image and all the great items that you have in your store!  Not only does cleaning up help with the team moral, but is critical to maintaining the enthusiasm within your business, keeping up with your brand image, as well as staying up-to-date on what inventory you have.

Monthly rearrangment of your merchandise and transitioning of color schemes are integral to building a fresher, more appealing style to go along with the company's emphasis on value pricing, sense of adventure, a welcoming environment or however you want to be portrayed. Turning over merchandise and having hot, trendy and new products are the most common times that you want to rearrange; that and taking advantage of seasonal changes...

3. Seasonal Themes and Promotions. Get in the know!  Look at trending activities, hobbies, and purchasing choices people are making.  Many retailers sell seasonal products that only have high demand year round, but most often for temporary periods of time.  Back-to-school, Christmas and Black Friday are big ones for Thunder Bay businesses.  Make sure you are ready and on it for these seasons.  Sales should take place a couple months prior to the holidays and all advertisements should be sent out and seen on a regular basis.  The average buyer needs to see, hear, touch and feel the benefits of your products, service and/or brand before they will ever decide to come in and purchase from you.

Some Tips:

4. Sales & Promotions.  Often, retailers periodically hold sales promotions in certain departments, or for particular products to move excess inventory and to declutter the store shelves.

However, it is not always possible for a small business to offer regular sales promotions, and if you are a Gallery owner and are selling for others on a commission agreement,  you may not believe in mark downs and nor do you clients. 

I feel the same way, but we could all use a little "promotional therapy" from time to time.  What am I saying?  Never heard of "promotional therapy"?  That's because I made it up... but keep reading and hear me out.

Promotional therapy is about stepping outside of the norm; getting creative and having some fun with your merchandise!  If you are not able to offer regular sales, create an offer that is presented and perceived to offer a similar kind of reward, like a bundle of items.  Once you have done the work to relocate the large, expensive collections of items on the sales floor you will have all the smaller, more affordable merchandise to play with and group together.  

Put items into bundles that would go well together - think “If I was putting together a gift basket for a friend or family member, what items would I place together?"

Here is a basic example and you are free to use this one.

Christmas Gift Package - $55.00 plus tax - it might include:

• 1 x Apron (one size fits all)
• 3 x Professional level acrylic paint brushes (three sizes)
  
• 1 x Fabric brush carer bag (re-purposed fabric)
  
• 1 x Hand formed Coffee Mug (holds 1-1/2 cups)
  

Price all these bundles out and keep an inventory sheet that lists what items are in each package (I like to use a number/ name of artist system).  The price should reflect the price of all the items that are included in each bundle as well as the material to create the packages they are sold in.  Items that are presented this way influence customers the same way as what marked down items do.

Tip: Have fun with this and offer to help them put together their own unique packages with more items around your store or gallery! 

5. Last thing:  Place the sale items or bundles at the end caps of walls and as special displays in areas where they are easy to see and reach.  Once the items sell, the products can then get rotated again to their prior setting or used to promote another new sale or promotion.

This also is used as a strategy to drive more traffic in through your doors.  This may require rearranging of merchandise again to better display the sale items.

If you would like Implementation Strategies for a Declutter or Merchandising Plan, or would like to know about all that our Membership Plan has to offer, please visit us inside Gallery 33 at 4 Balsam Street, Thunder Bay, ON or contact us by telephone (807) 286-4233.

Hope this helps to give you some new ideas... 

Tracy Barry, Business & Arts Consultant

The Nest Studio

Website: www.theneststudio.ca

Image provided by Gallery 33. 

Local artwork in a variety of media from paintings, drawings, pottery and sculptures to gift items such as books, jewelry and greeting cards.  Art class are offered to all ages. Lastly we have opened our doors to many local artist and if you would like to be featured on our gallery walls please visit or call us.  Painted Turtle Art Shop and The Nest Studio are also a part of our lovely location and happy to help you find what artistic tools you may be looking for.

Gallery 33

Website: http://www.gallery33tbay.info/

Painted Turtle Art Shop

Website: http://www.paintedturtleart.com/

4 Balsam Street
Thunder Bay ON.
(807) 286-4233