How do you Maximise Shelf Space in Retail?
Maximising your shelf space is essential in all kinds of retail, whether you run a quirky, small-town boutique or a large-scale chain of high-street stores. Not only do properly arranged shelves increase your product visibility – and, consequently, your sales – but they can help to enhance customers’ overall shopping experience, making them more likely to return to your brand for more. But how exactly do you maximise your shelf space?
Of course, maximising your shelf space isn’t all about the physical surface area you can gain. It’s also about using your space as effectively as you can, to market your products as enticingly as possible, thus maximising the effect of your product displays in terms of revenue and customer experience, as well. Below, we share our top ten tips on making the most of your available commercial space, in the hope that it will help you to plan your shop layout in the most beneficial way possible.
1. Optimise your product placement
If you’re looking to market your products effectively, you’ll want to group similar or related items together, ensuring that you place your best-selling and high-ticket items at eye level to maximise the chances of them getting picked up by prospective customers. Organising your items in this way minimises distracting visual clutter and also helps to maximise space, as objects of the same size and shape can be stacked or lined up together more easily, without any awkward gaps.
2. Use your shelving units effectively
Think carefully about the best type of shelving for each product. For example, whilst large-scale, supermarket-style gondola shelving might work best for larger items in bigger stores, smaller, boutique items like stationery and jewellery might be best presented in attractive wicker baskets or acrylic buckets on lower, free-standing shelving units that customers can browse through at their own leisure. Organising smaller into clear sections using acrylic storage cubes can also help to create more space for your products, whilst keeping visual clutter to a minimum.
3. Utilise vertical space
Leading on from our previous point, it’s important to take advantage of every bit of available space you have, without letting things feel overwhelming. Wall-mounted storage solutions like pegboards and slatwall systems are a great way to instantly gain more storage space, without encroaching on the space your customers need to browse freely as they walk around. Indeed, you can style these as creatively as you like, using a variety of hooks and quirky accessories like these see-through display spheres to truly showcase your key products.
4. Don’t forget POS
Of course, no successful shelving strategy would be complete without point of sales (POS) storage systems. Create an aisle of tempting last-minute offers for your customers to grab as they wait in the queue or invest in additional, free-standing shelving on which to place stand-out items right next to the till. Whilst permanent structures will last a lifetime, cardboard product stands also make a great alternative to traditional POS shelving, particularly combined with carefully considered print branding.
5. Keep your shelves well-stocked
Whilst you don’t want to overfill the shelves in your shop, as this could easily leave customers feeling overwhelmed and confused, it is important to keep your shelves well stocked. A tidy and visually appealing display is more likely to encourage people to make a purchase and often, surrounding attractive products with similar items helps to generate interest and excitement that cannot be solicited from one single product alone. In fact, shoppers tend to appreciate being able to compare similar products, as having greater choice gives them a greater sense of autonomy in the purchasing process. What’s more, if they can visually see that they could get many more benefits for just a little more cash, they are more likely to opt for the more expensive item.
6. Consider colour, shape and size
Don’t forget aesthetics when stocking your shelves. Add visual interest by carefully considering shape, size, colour and texture. The more senses you can evoke during the shopping experience, the more your visitors are likely to buy. Pegboards are a great way of organising goods by colour or theme and can be easily rearranged at a moment’s notice, allowing you to update your shelving displays according to your current product offers or seasonal preferences.
7. Stock up on shelving accessories
On the more practical side of things, it’s important to ensure that your customers have immediate access to all the necessary product information to enable them to make an informed purchase decision. Stocking up on shelving accessories like shelf edge strips into which you can insert your price tags is ideal for this very reason. Many retailers also choose to break down the cost into price per litre or unit to make things even easier for their customers.
8. Rotate your stock
It’s unlikely that you’ll sell many barbeques here in the UK during the winter months. Likewise, people probably won’t want to buy Christmas decorations in the middle of August. Think about the products you display carefully and ensure they meet customers’ current needs and desires. Limiting the number of unnecessary products you have out will help visitors to focus on the things they really want – plus you can charge full price.
9. Create enticing window displays
Effective retail shelving is not just for the customers inside your store. You can also use low-lying ledges and window shelving to entice people passing by on the street outside. The more creative you are, the better.
10. Analyse your sales data
Whilst many of our tips on maximising your retail shelving have centred around aesthetics, it’s important to take data and logic into consideration, too. Use your sales information to determine which products are selling well and adjust your shelving accordingly. Once again, slatwalls and pegboards are ideal for this, as you can easily move and reinsert your hooks or shelving to accommodate changing product sizes. You might also want to place more popular items in more prominent positions to further boost your sales.
By implementing these strategies, you can easily maximise your commercial shelf space and create an engaging shopping experience that drives sales. At VKF, we stock everything you could possibly need for the perfect layout at your store. Browse or product range or contact our sales team on 01527 878311 to learn more, Alternatively, you can email us at sales@vkf-renzel.co.uk.