Store Design and Visual Merchandising
STORE DESIGN AND VISUAL MERCHANDISING
BY
TULIKA ANAND (Retail roll no 1)
RADHIKA BIYANI (Retail roll no 4)
1. INTRODUCTION For many years, businesses have tried to sell their products to buyers with limited merchandise options. It did not matter how the merchandise was displayed, how the store looked, or whether the sellers were polite. Just having merchandise available very often guaranteed a sale. Not any more though. Nowadays with an increase in the number of manufacturers and retailers, a buyer has many options available in terms of style and functionality. Hence it has become an exercise for sellers to entice the audience via the art and science of Visual Merchandising (VM) and store designing. Visual Merchandising is creating visual displays and arranging merchandise assortments within a store to improve the layout and presentation and to increase traffic and sales. It can also be defined as the art of displaying merchandise in a manner that is appealing to the eyes of the customer. Store design, a creative commercial discipline, is a specialised practice of architecture and interior design that combines several different areas of expertise together in the design and construction of retail space. Store design and Visual merchandising are very important attributes of a store, both of which contribute to a store’s shopping environment. From a shopper’s perspective, visual merchandising and store design help create what the shopper will sense, albeit perhaps only subconsciously, as their “feelings” about a store. Even though there are many influences at work in the shopping experience, the look of a store holds the most sway in enticing customers through the doors. Customers even tend to sum up that initial in-store encounter in visual terms: a store is exciting, clean or well-organized or, at the other end of the scale, boring, messy, or overwhelming. Store design deals with elements such as
BY
TULIKA ANAND (Retail roll no 1)
RADHIKA BIYANI (Retail roll no 4)
1. INTRODUCTION For many years, businesses have tried to sell their products to buyers with limited merchandise options. It did not matter how the merchandise was displayed, how the store looked, or whether the sellers were polite. Just having merchandise available very often guaranteed a sale. Not any more though. Nowadays with an increase in the number of manufacturers and retailers, a buyer has many options available in terms of style and functionality. Hence it has become an exercise for sellers to entice the audience via the art and science of Visual Merchandising (VM) and store designing. Visual Merchandising is creating visual displays and arranging merchandise assortments within a store to improve the layout and presentation and to increase traffic and sales. It can also be defined as the art of displaying merchandise in a manner that is appealing to the eyes of the customer. Store design, a creative commercial discipline, is a specialised practice of architecture and interior design that combines several different areas of expertise together in the design and construction of retail space. Store design and Visual merchandising are very important attributes of a store, both of which contribute to a store’s shopping environment. From a shopper’s perspective, visual merchandising and store design help create what the shopper will sense, albeit perhaps only subconsciously, as their “feelings” about a store. Even though there are many influences at work in the shopping experience, the look of a store holds the most sway in enticing customers through the doors. Customers even tend to sum up that initial in-store encounter in visual terms: a store is exciting, clean or well-organized or, at the other end of the scale, boring, messy, or overwhelming. Store design deals with elements such as
Bibliography: Books: Retailing management – Swapna Pradhan Discovery based Retail Links: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tappal_Babu http://www.retail.franchiseindia.com