#ConfusedRetailing
"Abundance" can be the right term to address above topic.
Doesn't it happen to all of us? We go to the restaurant, fret over the wine menu for so long that it kills our appetite, and ultimately settle for anything which is suggested to us..
I was going through an article which showed the result of a case study and what psychologists say about the behaviour of the customers.This also gave further weightage to the importance of focusing on depth rather than width of the merchandise.
This can further be translated into Visual Merchandising and Marketing strategy.
The questions ,that all VM managers, should consider before planning the SOP's should be :-
1. Are we creating further width by doing too many instore communication ?
2. Should we focus only on one communication at a time to encourage a better sellthrough ?
3. Can VM create a shopping environment which is giving clarity even with a product allocation focused on creating width ?
1. Are we creating further width by doing too many instore communication ?
2. Should we focus only on one communication at a time to encourage a better sellthrough ?
3. Can VM create a shopping environment which is giving clarity even with a product allocation focused on creating width ?
Off course, the first step is to plan zones. We should also focus on breaking the store into less zones possible and definitely not dividing a similar product category into different zones. And then it is critical to decide how many communication (through props/pos/infographics) we want in those zones. I feel not every zone should communicate product stories or inspiration or ,may be, single story per zone.
Encouraging all Retail Experts to share their view points on the same.
The case study :
On a particular day, shoppers at Food market were presented with 24 different varieties of gourmet jam. And on a different day, the same table was presented with just 6 of them. What interesting about the reaction to this experiment is that more people stopped at the larger display of 24 jam, very few bought them eventually. But, in the second case, smaller percentage stopped at six jam display table, more number of people bought them.
What psychologists say :
1. Too many choices paralysis human mind and pushes us to opt for something that may not be good good for us.
2. When choices are few, our decisions are prompt. But faced with innumerable choices, the mind boggles, and we end up wasting time and buy nothing.
The conclusion :
Both width and depth offers a different prespective to the brand.
Width can create confusion but at the same time it can attract more consumers. So for a new brand who wants to settle down in the market can go for more width in the merchandise and visual merchandising strategy.
On the contrary, when a brand is looking to compete under an already established image it is important to go for depth to increase sellthrough and ultimately achieve overall profitability.
There's a lot that can be worked upon as far as visual merchandising strategy is concerned. The stock holding capacity of the stores can be relooked in terms of business plan and further produce guidelines to execute with micro level details.
