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their stores. The result is a disor-ganized store that’s hard for cus-tomers to shop.

THE FIX: Retailers need to use a vari-ety of fixtures to show and rotate ap-parel and hardgoods effectively.Small capacity fixtures holding newlyarrived merchandise should beplaced on walkways. Taller and larger capacity fixtures are placedbehind them toward the wall. Wall fixtures must be visible from theaisles and positioned slightly above the height of the fixtures infront. Place related items adjacent to one another. For example,footwear, socks and liners together or tents, bags, pads and camp-ing accessories side by side.

DIRTY BATHROOMS AND FLOORSA dirty restroom reflects a sloppy attitude on the part of the store-owner and staff and implies a disregard for customers.

THE FIX: It’s simple. Keep restrooms clean and free of suggestiveposters and outdated magazines. Maintain a good supply of paperproducts and, to keep it clean, assign staff members to monitor thebathroom on a daily basis.

MESSY DRESSING ROOMSDressing rooms can collect pins, hangtags, discardedclothing and any number of other objects.

THE FIX: Keep them cleaned out and you’ll be onestep closer to shrinkage control as well as reflect a pro-fessional attitude. After helping a customer use adressing room, staff members should check the dress-ing room, pick up debris and re-hang clothing.

INTERRUPTED SIGHT LINESAs customers enter a store, they sweep the space with their eyes toassess whether the product con-tent is what they’re expecting.Often, their view is obstructedby large objects and fixtures.

THE FIX: Tall apparel fixtures,gondolas, boats, tents and otheroversized items belong close tothe walls or in the rear of thestore. This placement guaran-tees clear sight lines from thefront entrance.

BAD LIGHTINGToo often, retailers overuse fluorescent lighting. It hasits place as an overall illumination source but is byno means the only lighting that should be employedin a retail store.

THE FIX: Use fluorescent lights for ambient(overall) lighting and halogen par lamps orlow voltage lamps to highlight displays andwash wall presentations with light. A mixof light levels makes a store environmentmore interesting and highlights productsmore effectively.

CLUTTERED WINDOW DISPLAYSCustomers give window displays three to five seconds of their at-tention as they pass by. In that short time, it’s impossible to ef-fectively see your “visual message” with a window crowded witha plethora of products.

THE FIX: Keep the number of products in a window display sim-ple. One idea is to feature one category of product and show threeto five items only (odd numbers are always most visually inter-esting). For example, hang an odd number of backpacks from theceiling, then back the window with a large-sized graphic depict-ing either the packs shown or an outdoor scene. Or combine asmall assortment of related products all in the same color or cre-ate a simple scene, i.e. camping or climbing.

INEFFECTIVE PRODUCT SIGNAGEStores tend to either overuse or underutilize signage or use thewrong kind.

THE FIX: Different categories ofproducts need different types ofsignage. The more technical theproduct, the more features andend-use information should behighlighted. The most success-ful signage contains productname, style, features, benefitsand price. To create added in-terest, create short “stories” about how some of your more exot-ic products have been used by staff or customers and post themnext to the items.

WRONG FIXTURE PLACEMENTOften retailers don’t consider product rotation, eye-level view-ing, product adjacencies and fixture positioning when arranging

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No interruption of sight lines from front to back.

Correct placement of t-stands and 4-ways

Good example of varied light levels and wall highlighting.

Unattractive and messy

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WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES. It’s easy to do. And many of the merchandising mistakes we make are simply the result of inat-tention to details. We get caught up in the day-to-day business of running the store and forget to look at our business through

our customers’ eyes. To help get you out of this rut, we’ve identified 10 of the most obvious merchandising mistakes with sug-gestions to fix them and get your store back into tip-top shape.

THE TOP MERCHANDISING MISTAKES RETAILERS MAKE AND HOW TO FIX THEM.10

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TOP 10

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zone,” under 3.5 feet, is the leasteffective space but can be usedto stock secondary merchandisethat supports the impact zone.

LACK OF EXTERIOR SIGNAGEThe lack of the right kind of exteriorsignage often makes it difficult forcustomers to find a store. If they can’tspot their destination easily, chancesare they’ll give up trying.

THE FIX: A sign high on the buildingfacade above the entrance is great but you need additionalsignage. Place the store name on the front windows or by thefront entrance at eye-level and consider placing additionalsigns at right levels to the building so that people approach-ing your store from the side can see the sign.

INTRUSIVE MUSICThere’s nothing worse than the sound of radio commer-cials filling the retail environment.

THE FIX: If you have to use a radio, use digital radio—it’sfree of advertisements. Better yet, subscribe to a musicservice that provides all genres of music. Volume shouldbe loud enough to be heard but not intrusive. Test it byhaving your staff monitor the volume levels in each areaof the store.

PRODUCT PLACED TOO HIGH OR TOO LOWIn an attempt totake advantage ofevery availablespace in a store,retailers are proneto place productstoo high on a wallmaking them im-possible for theaverage person toreach or placingthem too low re-quiring customers to do deep knee bends to procure items.

THE FIX: The best place to hang product on a wall is inthe “impact zone,” the area of the wall 3.5 feet to 6.5 feetfrom the floor. The products in this zone will be noticedfirst. Above 6.5 feet is the “top zone,” a good place to pre-sent related products or additional stock. The “bottom

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ˆAbove right: Signage on store windows at eye level for customers passing by. Below left: Signs hanging at rightangles to the store exterior attract customers on sidewalks. Below right: Traditional signage high on the exterior.

Products placed too high and low on wall.

» Correct product placement at eye level and in the “impact zone.”

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Messe München GmbH, Messegelände, 81823 München, Germany, info@ispo.com, Hotline: Tel. (+49 89) 949 - 11 3 88, Fax (+49 89) 949 - 11 3 89

29 june-1 july 03sunday – tuesday

www.ispo.com

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