The secrets of product placement to improve sales

Presentation matters in most areas of life. However when it comes to sales, it can be absolutely vital to success. With that in mind, wholesale specialists; SOS Wholesale share their expertise on how to place products to maximize sales.

The look, presentation and feel for your retail store can make a huge impact on how your shoppers behave, even down to the placement of your isle's - there's a reason behind why fresh fruit is placed at the front of stores rather than at the back. So let's delve into that now!

Start with your store layout

Before you get into the details of product placement, look at the layout of your store. It’s important that people can move around it not just safely but comfortably. You might therefore actually benefit from reducing display space to increase traffic space.

If you have a larger store, make sure that key areas are clearly signed. Depending on the nature of your store, this could mean anything from different types of goods to the checkout area to changing rooms.

Make sure that there is sufficient, appropriate lighting. Customers need to see products to consider buying them. If products benefit from being stored in the dark (e.g. perfumes), then put testers out on display.

Make a grand entrance

It’s generally a bad idea to keep a lot of desirable items near the store entrance. Bluntly, that’s just inviting unwanted attention from criminals. It is, however, a great idea to use the entrance area to “tease” what’s inside.

You might also want to use the entrance area as a place to offer free product samples. If you do, think about connecting these to an in-store offer. This can help to encourage customers to come back to buy the full-size item from you, rather than from a competitor.

Choose the right products

Be very clear about the fact that the best product placement strategy in the world is not going to compensate for choosing the wrong products. Choosing the right products comes down to knowing your customer.

Larger retailers do this by looking at the data. In fact, some of them (for example Amazon) have this down to a fine art. Smaller retailers can certainly benefit from looking at data.

They are, however, more likely to have a “feel” for what will sell to their community. They are also more likely to be in a position to ask their community directly e.g. through social-media polls.

Respect your customer’s time

In most environments, customers just want to make a quick and easy decision. The way to do this is to ensure that there is an obvious differentiation between the different products on offer.

For example, you might have salted butter, unsalted butter, salted olive oil spread and unsalted olive oil spread. Each of these products has a clear niche within the main sector.

On a similar note, you can help your customer, and your sales, by grouping complementary items together. If you can’t put the items physically near each other, consider putting up details of a special offer to guide the customer where you want them to go.

Remember eye level is buy level

This is one of the oldest cliches in retail. There is a lot of truth in it, but it’s not a hard rule. In simple terms, the more time-pressed a consumer is, the more likely it is that they will grab the most obvious product.

By contrast, the more time a consumer has to browse, the more likely it is that they will look beyond the obvious. Always keep this in mind when setting up displays.