Maria Larsson is an independent visual merchandiser consultant with more than 20 years of experience. She’s passionate about how social trends directly affect consumer behaviour.
This article includes tips, suggestions and general information. We recommend that you always do your own research and consider getting independent tax, financial and legal advice before making any important decision.
The bigger retail chains spend thousands of pounds on visual merchandising. But it’s easy to believe that visual merchandising (VM) doesn’t matter when your shop is the size of a walk-in closet. VM consultant Maria Larsson proves to us, even as a small shop owner, it’s important.
By thinking about how to feature favourite products and show off your stock, you can directly boost your sales.
Try and see the results for yourself!
We are naturally visual creatures, so it makes sense that business owners would try to appeal to customers by creating enticing displays. That is, essentially, visual merchandising in a nutshell: the art of arranging and presenting products to catch the eye and guide customers towards a positive purchasing decision.
This can be done through almost everything from strategic lighting to colour coordination or tactile props, but the underlying principle is that VM taps directly into the psychology of impulse buying.
In small shops, VM can be particularly effective by increasing every inch of available floor space: a single spotlight or a neatly grouped feature can draw attention to a hero product that might otherwise go unnoticed. By crafting an environment that feels inviting and intuitive, even tiny stores can create the same impact as larger chains and turn browsers into buyers without a massive budget.
To learn more, let’s take a granular look at the seven ways visual merchandising can be used to increase sales.
If you really want to know how to increase sales of a product using visuals, it’s as simple as understanding that most of the consumption in the Western world is driven by desire, and what easier way to create desire than to shine a literal spotlight on something?
As an example, put a small basket with a suitably attractive product beside the counter and highlight it with a spotlight. Don’t make the classic mistake of forgetting to turn your spotlights when you’re moving products around though.
In supermarkets, one common strategy to boost sales can be to place products at the end of shelves, or use so-called ‘gondola end-displays’.
As a small shop owner, try placing products at the gables in your shop. By doing so, they will directly face your customers and drastically elevate the chance of purchase.
Small shop owners looking at how to increase sales fast are naturally strapped for time, so additional activities like visual merchandising often get neglected.
In this case, prioritise. Focus on your displays and try to feature specific products during periods when you have the most shoppers.
Are you selling children’s backpacks and pencil boxes, for example? Then spend more time on visual merchandising when new school terms start!
The customer of today is demanding and your strategies to improve sales need to adapt accordingly. Think of it like you’re inviting them to an event, or even a party. The key is to offer your customer an authentic experience.
Add a plate with apples. Make the customer think: ‘Oh, are those apples for me?’ Be the thoughtful and friendly shop owner who builds a relationship with the customer and sparks the purchasing instinct. Your displays must not appear to be fake or come across as misleading.
Honest, genuine, and personal. These are the three mantras all shop owners need to keep in mind.
Remember the overall impression of your shop! It’s easy to get stuck on details and specific products when you’ve spent so much time on the purchasing planning process.
Make a judgement of the overall atmosphere. How’s the lighting or the colour of the walls?
Get a second opinion by asking friends and family to get a fresh, new perspective on the shop's general 'vibe'. It's not like you’re asking them directly how to increase sales; you’re just asking for their opinions.
Pay extra attention to the entrance. It needs to be welcoming; many shop owners get too eager and overwhelm the customer with too many items. Don’t let that be you.
Remember, your checkout isn’t just for payments. It’s your last chance to convert your customers. Point-of-sale visual merchandising places small, high-margin items directly in the path of customers as they pay, tapping into last-minute impulse decisions.
Start by selecting compact, eye-catching, easy-to-grab items (think travel-size products, seasonal novelties, or trending accessories) and grouping them in clear, tiered risers beside the card reader. Use simple and clear signage to naturally draw the eye. It doesn’t need to be fancy, either. A simple chalkboard, neatly printed card, or small backlit frame can neatly highlight a ‘just for you’ message or suggest a perfect pairing.
To keep things fresh, rotate these displays weekly. That way you can keep regulars curious and returning customers engaged as they have something new to see whenever they pop back. This is an easy and cost-effective way for smaller stores to use visual merchandising without sacrificing any extra floor space or really breaking the bank.
You can link these POS displays to your PayPal POS system too, so that every impulse sale will update stock levels in real time. That way, you can avoid running out of your best-selling add-ons, and your analytics can feed back into your broader VM strategy for continuous improvement.
Point-of-sale visual merchandising can only do so much, you need the data to back it up and figure out where you made the right decisions and where you can make things better.
Use point-of-sale software to track sales when you make a change in tactics.
Note patterns for individual products, which ones are tougher to sell and might therefore need a push to leave your shelves?
Clean and organise: Keeping it clean is of course key, but don’t underestimate the power of organising your products in certain ways. Group them, it’ll create space and air and make it easier to focus. It’s about finding that balance on specific surfaces as well as in the shop itself.
Colour coordinate: A standard guideline is to stick to one base colour and use one or two accent colours in every display. Be careful using multiple colours, it’ll create too many impressions for your customer to process. If you have products in a lot of colours, let’s say you’re selling women’s clothes, try grouping them.
Work actively with your window display: You have about three seconds to capture the interest of the customer when they’re walking by your shop, if they’re walking past the same display several times and nothing’s changed, they probably won’t notice it.
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Use your POS reports to compare product performance before and after implementing a VM change.
By following these steps, over time you may build a VM playbook grounded in real sales data, which helps merchandising decision to be driven by genuine evidence.