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Education

How much focus do you put on merchandising?

November 5, 2010 | By: deaneparkes

I believe the biggest improvement in health food stores over the past 10 years has been in store design and overall presentation of the store. Shelving, colors, flooring, lighting and other fixtures have been updated to have a broader range of appeal. The days of the old fashion health food store is pretty much gone.

How is your 8 second first impression?  Women, the primary shoppers, are able to size up your store within a few moments of entering your store. She has all her senses active when shopping. To keep her coming back it is important to make positive impressions on all her senses.

Did you know next to customer service merchandising has the most impact to increase your sales? How much time do you dedicate to ensure your store is properly merchandised? Just having a nice store design and look is not enough to create sales if you have not made proper use of your merchandising. As Paaco Underhill said, author of ‘WHY WE BUY’, a must read for any retailer, ‘if impulse shopping stopped the economy would collapse’.

Merchandising is a low cost way to increase sales and is 100% more effective than running an ad yet most retailers spend more time on advertising and other outside promotions before maximizing the benefits of their merchandising.

The easiest and often best way to learn how to merchandising is to visit any mass retailer and take notes.  They have years of accumulated experience in how best to display product with the proper signage to maximize the sales in their stores.

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