Visual Merchandising

Visual merchandising is at the core of how a store is mapped - a look at how this enhances your shopping experience...

Imagine this. your wife has just ordered you to grab a bottle of 'Dragon' brand of vinegar for the Hakka noodles she is planning to experiment on you tonight. The association of 'Dragon' with 'noodles' is so strong that you effortlessly conjure up an image of the Great Wall of China on your mental LCD screen. Relax. You don't have to hit your head against a wall, nor is your search for vinegar stonewalled. Thankfully for you, a brand new supermarket has opened around the corner just last week.

When you reach the supermarket gasping for breath from the frantic run, you are hit by the numerous directions signs. 'Household needs'; 'Skin Care'; 'Hair Care'; 'Body Care', etc.; but your vinegar is still not in sight. You will then do the most unmanly thing of asking for directions to that bottle of vinegar that holds the fate of the rest of your evening. The friendly staff then guides you through a long aisle of racks to a section at the back called 'Food Additives' or 'Masalas & Spices'. After grabbing the bottle of vinegar; and also impulsively picking up the shaving cream, cologne; toothpaste; soap and a pack of chips for the little monster; you get a brainwave and remember to pick up a bunch of yesterday's spring onions from the 'Fresh fruits & vegetables' section!

Now, consider this. your sixth girlfriend and you are taking the escalator to watch a movie at the multiplex in the mall. While you are admiring other movie-goers, your girl has just caught sight of the mannequin in the show-window displaying a 'pastel green cotton floral top' from the 'Spring Summer' collection. (No; it's not your fault if mannequins now-a-days look like wax models from Madame Tussaud's). You notice her object of interest and pray that she says nothing about it. But, even before you've finished your prayer, she screams, "Hey.isn't this cute.?" Your rich experience with the previous five girlfriends, intuitively tells you exactly what will follow.

Your girl - as if she has sighted the very golden deer that Sita sighted in the Ramayana - will be persistent or rather obstinate about the green top; and before you realise it you are waiting outside the trial rooms holding four tops and two denims helping her try them one after the other.

You may curse the mannequin and the retailer, who set you behind by a little over ten grand towards the end of the month! But, welcome to the world of modern retailing. You've just sampled two examples of the role of 'Visual Merchandising' in Retail - what in one case is a quick guide to your destination within a store; in another, seems a path to personal bankruptcy.

Try to recall the last time you entered a store. you are likely to have encountered fruits and vegetables in a supermarket and cosmetics and perfumes in the beginning of the department store, usually to the left-hand side as you enter. (Studies have shown that most shoppers move towards their left on entering a store). These product categories are traffic generators in their respective formats and are thus strategically placed within a store.

Modern retailers invest in a lot of time and resources planning stores scientifically - they employ architects to create customer friendly store layouts and visual merchandisers to create aesthetical display of both merchandise and other in-store communication. They ensure that the aisles are wide enough to avoid "butt brush" or that you don't have to elbow yourself to your dragon vinegar!

It is not by some mistake that you find toothpastes; toothbrushes and dental floss under the 'oral care' section. Your shampoo, conditioner and hair colour will be under the 'hair care' section. 'Skin care' is where you find your soaps; creams; lotions; facial scrubs, etc. You will also notice that the three sections almost always co-exist. You are more likely to pickup a toothbrush (to replace the spike-head) if you find it placed next to toothpastes. Similarly, you will not only find jams and ketchups together; but also find them closer to the rack that carries bakery products. The placing of complementary products close to each other (product adjacencies); and the number of pieces of each size that you see on the shelves, are all scientifically arrived at.

Not only do you see merchandise neatly arranged on open shelves that let you "touch and feel" the products, but the shelves also supply additional information about the product - the brand; its size and price on the label on the edge of the shelves - ('shelf-talkers' for the jargon lovers). These are critical touch-points that make shopping convenient.

And it is also no accident that the biscuits, jams; ketchups etc are placed distinctly away from the soaps and shampoos. Supermarkets don't mix 'foods' with 'non-foods'.

Nowhere else is Visual Merchandising (VM) used to the hilt than in apparel retail. How many times have you walked into a store impulsively and walked away with shirts and trousers (or should I say sarees?) that are displayed in show-windows?

VM takes a new dimension in furniture retailing. Have you noticed how bedroom sets are sold from real bed-room like settings in furniture stores such as 'Home Centre'? Similarly, the dining room sets and living room sets are all displayed in real-life settings.

The next time you go shopping, you may find it interesting to observe these little details that are actually all planned to the last dot. "Retail is Detail"- and modern retailers are caught between having to offer you a wide assortment of merchandise in the most pleasing of environments and yet having to utilise precious real-estate space efficiently.

For those interested in pursuing VM as a career:

The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in the US www.fidm.com offers bachelor's degree in Visual Communications.
The National Institute of Design at Ahmedabad also offers a suitable course. For details visit: www.nid.edu/ study_pg_dre.htm