People buy with their eyes. The impact that visual merchandising can have on sales is something that should not be overlooked; the placement and display of products in your salon can have a significant influence on the number of hair care products and merchandise sold.
7 Tips For Business Owners To Display Products In Their Salons
With the sales of products often accounting for between five to 25 percent of a salon’s annual revenue, it naturally follows that good product sales numbers can boost your salon’s overall revenue. The placement of products in your salon is, therefore, something that should be considered carefully, to ensure that you are able to maximise the sale of products and merchandise in your salon.
Not only can good visual merchandising have a positive impact on sales, but it can also enhance the in-salon experience of clients. A positive experience builds loyalty, which will encourage clients to return to your salon.
Here are 7 steps you can take to increase the visual appeal of the products on sale, increase customer engagement – and, in doing so, increase sales:
1. Placement Is Key
Display your products somewhere eye-catching. A good place to position your product display may be near the front doors of your salon. This way, the product displays are one of the first things a customer will encounter when they enter the salon and the last thing they see before they leave.
Ideally, this will also be near either the reception or the waiting area of the salon. This way, customers are able to spend time browsing whilst they wait.
2. Make Your Products Accessible
Don’t keep products in places a customer can’t easily access.
Keep your product display somewhere that both allows and encourages customers to interact with the products on sale. By doing so, you enable customers to learn more about the products on display, which is likely to increase their interest in them.
This way, customers are able to find products which best suit their needs. Engaging with the product also serves as an excellent jumping-off point for customers who aren’t quite sure what they are after; any questions they may have after interacting with the products can be answered by staff, who will be able to point customers in the right direction.
A customer interacting and engaging with the products on display opens the door for staff to establish a dialogue with customers. What can start with simply asking a customer what they think of the product they’re engaging with can turn into up-selling opportunities.
3. Clear Signage
Communication is key. Ensuring that your products are well-signed and clearly priced will allow you to effectively communicate with your customers.
For some people, having to enquire about the price of a product may be off-putting. Making sure that the products on sale in your salon are clearly and accurately signed will prevent any customers from being put-off from the shopping experience by having to ask after the price of a product.
Keep signage concise, simple to read, and informative. Should any information about a product change, update the appropriate signage as soon as possible.
Clean, neat, and product-appropriate signage is just as important as factually accurate signage. As soon as you notice a sign becoming tatty or falling into disrepair, it should be updated. It’s also important to ensure that your signage is befitting of the product that it applies to — a handwritten sign is not the way to go for a high-end product.
It’s worth investing in signage that is visually appealing and engaging; think about the colours and the typeface used, and whether they compliment the aesthetics of the overall product display.
4. Keep It Organised
A well-organised display will make it far easier for customers to browse the products available, and allow them to better find products that are best-suited for them. Ensure that your displays are not cluttered or overwhelming; aim for simplicity.
It will allow a customer who already knows what they are looking for to find exactly what they are after, but it will also allow customers that are merely browsing to discover new products.
To take organisation one step further, you could display the available products in groups; for example, by brand or by product type.
Keeping displays organised will enhance the overall shopping experience, encouraging customers to browse, and allowing them to locate the products they want with ease.
5. Point-of-Purchase Displays
These are temporary displays that are placed in or around areas in which customers make purchasing decisions. In your salon, this is likely to be the main reception area.
Point-of-Purchase (POP) displays centre around a specific product or brand that you want to draw the customer’s attention to. This can be any product of your choice: perhaps a product that you are particularly excited about, a product that is a new addition to your salon, or a product that is part of a promotional deal.
POP displays should be eye-catching and designed to draw customers in, but they should also fit in with the overall look of your salon. In other words, whilst you want your POP display to stand out, you equally don’t want it to look out of place.
6. Match Displays To Your Salon’s Aesthetic
Pay close attention to the overall aesthetic and vibe of your salon, and ensure that your product displays adhere to it.
Consider using shelving and signage that compliment your salon’s aesthetic. For example, wooden shelving units may suit a salon with a more rustic theme, whilst floating glass shelves may be better suited to a salon with a modern or minimalist theme.
7. Apply Principles of Design
Incorporate principles of design into your product displays. This involves considering aspects such as the balance and scale of the product displays, and ensuring that the various components of the display – such as signage, shelving, and product placement – compliment one another.
Also pay mind to aspects such as lighting and colour. Consider the connotations that some colours have, and what impact they may have on the customer’s opinion of the product display. Work to create a pleasant visual experience for your customers.