1. Consumers buy what they see-out of sight-out of mind. You can’t sell stock out of a drawer. Check your backup stock and place as much as possible out in your display. Full displays sell. 2. Use book easels to display books and DVD’s. Place extras underneath with titles facing forward and faced the same. 3. If customers have to work at viewing your items they will not take the chance of dropping or breaking and move on. Do not load so many items in one spot or bury them, unless you are having an in store treasure hunt! 4. Show me-don’t tell me. Play your DVD’s on your in store TV. Place it at a spot in store that is visible from several areas. 5. Use the cover photo and its colors or theme to cross merchandise. (Cross merchandise: Placing like items (in color or theme) in a grouping. 6. Place DVD’s in a floor or counter spinner to limit lineal space. See your sales representative for availability. If you use a spinner, keep it full! Don’t appear to be closing out your inventory by a few here and there. 7. Place some DVD’s in your checkout areas for impulse sales. Impulse sales add up! 8. Any product in your store can become a potential fund raiser. This benefits your community and draws customers to your store. Example: Donate a dollar to your local school cheerleaders or 4H Club for every item they sell. Make sure you include your store information and maybe a coupon attached. 9. Know your product-if you don’t know your product intimately, you can’t convince a customer to buy it. If you’re not interested in why they should buy it, they will lose interest. Train your staff on a short 3 or 4 second pitch for your highlighted item. 10. Passion is contagious! Are you passionate about your products? Do you display that zeal to your staff, and more importantly to your customer? 11. Create a set of coordinating gifts and using gift cellophane and raffia tied at top, design a great gift idea……special price the gift set. 12. View your display from a customer’s perspective…step in their shoes and shop your own store. 13. The nature of your facility generally dictates your type of merchandise. Use displays to follow through with your theme. 14. Offer discounts for the 1st time buyers of any new product. Get it in their hands and they will be your most valuable advertisement. 15. Find related items, gift books especially…or calendars to add to your displays. 16. Send out a quarterly newsletter or bi-annual to let your customers know your upcoming new products. Include quips and quotes and maybe a spotlight section of an outstanding staff member. 17. Educate staff on the benefits and feature of your special products. Hold staff meetings and perform mock transactions. Remember to have fun at it. 18. Unless you know calligraphy, hand writer signs are a no-no. It does nothing to excite your customer. If you have no point of purchase available, use clear plastic easels with card headers and find someone who has creative writing skills, or use your computer. 19. Hubert Company…..www.hubert.com has a wide selection of display helps. 20. Customers make an additional purchase when they are inspire to buy cross merchandise items. Suggestive sell. 21. Pitch your product in store to your customers at a higher than normal voice tone. You will be surprised at how others are listening to what is hot at your store and end up buying it. 22. Physically comfortable store means more browsing. Pay attention to your store temperature, walking room, safety issues, and air flow. 23. Open door policy. Retailers report when there front door is propped open to public. The increase in sales often offsets the utility costs. 24. You can have an award winning display, but if your marketplace is dirty and unkept they will remember the negative. Are your window sills buggy? How is your curb appeal? Are your prep tables cluttered? 25. Accurate clear pricing on your merchandise is essential. If you do not have a price gun, use price stickers with a black permanent pen. 26. Burn a candle out of your candle line. Example: Take It Home© DVD’s look and smell good with pine or any outdoor scent. This will draw them to display. 27. Shirt buttons cost pennies. Have your staff wear a button to showcase your product. 28. Capture impulse sales with proper lighting overhead and behind. 29. Sounds sell. The sound of a water or the chirp of a bird or the music of a harp. Whatever fits your products choose something with sound that will compliment. 30. Show an example of how products can be packaged for a gift idea, with a particular gift bag that looks good. 31. When playing Take It Home DVD’s set your volume accordingly. Too loud irritates. Customers can’t converse. Too soft it will not draw the ear. 32. Ask local food establishments to give out your coupons if you stuff their coupons in your bag. This exchange broadens your potential profit with tons more customers! 33. Bounce Back Coupon: any coupon you give to a customer that will bounce them back in your door on another visit. Create one for your products you want to move. 34. Help your customer think! They want you create for them. Without being too pushy, suggest a gift and cross item to go with it. 35. Offer a FREE button that compliments the DVD’s you sell. Always give the customer more that he expected in value. 36. Christmas ideas: Create a special event around your promotion. Example: Take It Home DVD’s….Showcase them under your tree wrapped with a big bow. Remember to be successful in retail you must plan promotional events far in advance. 37. Tip: Spend more for a WOW shopping bag and they will remember you. What do your merchandise bags look like? Plain brown or white? Your customers will judge you by your bag! Find something exciting. 38. Write a great gripping for your groupings in store. One that caught my eye was a display of cookies…that read “Lookie, Lookie, it’s Cookies” Be bouncing and fun with your words. Great hooks and value keep them from lining the bookcage with your advertisement. 39. Create a mail list. This is essential for all retail establishments. Get addresses off your customer’s checks, local phone books, or trade lists with another retailer. 40. Offer a freebie. You can often clinch a sale with any freebie. 41. Open houses are great invitations to showcase your exciting products. Customer appreciations can be anytime business is slow. Three things consumers expect from your customer appreciation event: rewards, drawings and treats. Do it up big. Plan ahead and have a gift (keychain, magnet, etc) with your logo and name on it. 42. Display small product set-ups throughout your store. It creates interest among customers, along with arrangement ideas and best of all additional sales! 43. Take It Home DVD’s are small enough to place throughout store. Do not limit them to one area. Consumers often miss areas of your store. If they miss it, this way they will see it again. 44. Movement: Disguise a small fan behind a display that might have a floral with it and your fan will move the leaves or floral ever so slightly, but it draws the eye to your merchandise. 45. Passion is contagious. Do you have a passion for the items you place in your store? Do you display it to your staff, as well as your customers? What is passion? Some of Webster’s words are zeal, infatuation, thirst, love, intense fervor. If you can pass this along to your frontliners you have just performed short of a miracle. Frontliners imitate their peers. If you are excited about a new product, and show it, so will they. 46. Do you have the right tools in you shop? Things like monofilament, staple guns, tape measure, level, hammer and the best tool of all….the needle nose pliers! Do have a handy caddy of some sort to keep merchandising small equipment to create? 47. Got a new product? Or do you just want to have an event to draw people? Find a window painter. Paint on the inside of your windows. Example: During Breast cancer awareness month paint in funky font…”Pink Dot Sale 25% off”…..place pink price dots on selected items and let your customer find them. 48. Allow people to use your bathroom and announce it on your door. Everyone takes credit cards. Take those faded Visa and MasterCard signs out and replace with….Yes… you may use our bathroom! Securely fasten some of your products on the wall in your bathroom. I have purchased many an item by spending time viewing it while you know what! 49. If you have a small store (less than 750 square feet) use wood cubbies to create a lot of small displays and define the grouping. It works great when space is scarce. 50. Tough luck we’re open….Beat it were closed. This was a sign on a motorcycle dealership. It fits the shop. Change your open sign to attract. Come up with a catchy phrase why you’re open….and what happens when you close. 51. Check out http://www.fashionwindows.com for resources, ideas, tips and inspiration for displays. Gloria