Appearance in retail is important. In fact it is very important. When you walk into a supermarket you are presented with a very appealing and easy to understand array of products with clearly displayed names and prices. Any special offers are clearly labelled and shelves (should always be!) fully stocked. This is all the art of supermarket retail and you can use the same techniques for the retail area in your salon.
Presentation is key: When you order food at an expensive restaurant, it will always be presented beautifully as chefs know that we eat with our eyes as well as our taste buds. If something looks beautiful, we assume it tastes beautiful and vice versa – if it looks horrible, we won’t eat it. When presenting your products in your retail area, make it inviting for a client. Ensure products are not dusty – no one wants to buy something that looks like it’s been sitting there for ages. Present them in a logical order that is easy to understand: shampoo A, conditioner A, treatment A, shampoo B, conditioner B, treatment B, and so on. The products should all be aligned and facing the same direction, if the labels are all out of sync and the rows are skewed it makes it harder for the eye to follow and will look messy.
Fill the shelves: There is a trend to have products isolated, all by themselves to make them look expensive. In most cases this doesn’t work and having enough products to fill the shelves, (but not so much that it looks cluttered), is the ideal scenario.
There can be an exception: when you have a limited edition or very expensive products. Use this to your advantage and clearly call out that they are a special, limited edition and you only have 10 items for all your clients. This will then help create demand as people don’t want to miss out on something. You can still have all 10 on your shelf though.
Use your impulse zones: After you’ve got everything you could ever possibly need and your trolley is full to the brim, there is always that last gauntlet, the zone next to the checkouts where we impulse buy chocolate bars and magazines. Your salon retail impulse zone is usually at reception where your clients are paying their bill. Use it to showcase cheaper travel sized products, gift sets, or product glorifiers for special offers or new ranges and remember to get your receptionist to call out the products and ask always clients if they want to purchase anything.
Signpost deals: If we see a large red or yellow sign in a shop we think DEAL! We may not even read the sign and it may not even relate to a special offer, but just the colour cue is enough to set us off. Unfortunately we’ve been trained that way by nearly every shop that has a sale, so use it to your advantage. In your salon use these cues to signpost any special offers that you have in your retail area or even to signpost offers that you have on your service menu.
Names, prices and descriptions: Make sure you have tags underneath your products that clearly display the product name and even a short description of what the product does. Hopefully your stylists would have explained and recommended the products to the client already, but having a description helps reinforce the benefit of the product and what it is for. Prices are very important, so make sure they are clearly displayed on the product or on a tag below it. Clients won’t want to feel embarrassed about asking the price if they feel they can’t afford it, and sometimes they won’t even pick it up for fear of being embarrassed if they need to put it back down again because of the cost.
Shelf height: If you have your own shelving units, make sure they aren’t at awkward heights. Between eye-level and waist-level are the generally the best to showcase your products. Avoid putting products too high as it makes it hard for people to reach and people usually attribute the bottom shelves with bargain brands so avoid keeping the £25 shampoos on the floor.
Keep it fresh: Keep displays fresh so your clients keep paying attention to what you are selling. If you have a ‘glorifier’ or prime spot in your retail area, then consider changing what products sit in this space every couple of months. It will enable you to draw your clients attention to new products or special offers that you have on. If you have products or product messages placed around your styling stations, remember to change these regularly to keep messages fresh and draw focus to different products.
There are plenty of studies online about supermarket science and how retail areas work. Have a look through the articles and videos when you have a moment and let us know what works for you in your retail area.