TRENDS

Visual Merchandising Trends

Visual Merchandising means different things to different retailers.  So, lets start with a definition from Wikipedia: “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.” and  “Visual merchandising is the art of displaying merchandise in a manner that is appealing to the eyes of the customer.”  Now having said those things, lets discuss the trends of visual merchandising today.  

Visual merchandising trends are constantly fluctuating because retail is always changing.  The challenge for  retailers is to react to the evolving needs and wants of their customers. Visual elements in a retail store have always been very important in attracting and keeping consumers.  But in the past, visual merchandising trends dictated that featured merchandising be used primarily to promote sale prices.  End caps were and still are, used for this purpose.  However, twenty years ago the visual merchandising trend was to bulk stack end caps promoting prices on single items.  Today retailers often use end caps to promote new items and to inform customers of those items’ specific purposes or benefits.