design:retail - May 2019 - TR2

Introduction: The Power of Merchandising
This white paper will examine space management and fixture management considerations to help retailers
realize greater shoppability and ROI.
AS E-COMMERCE HAS made significant inroads in retail market
share over the past decade, many brick-and-mortar retailers have
been left wondering how to recapture and retain shoppers in the store
environment. With the lines between physical and digital shopping
experiences being increasingly blurred, it's imperative that companies
know how to effectively manage shrinking selling space and how their
store environments must evolve. To that end, merchandising remains a
powerful tool in the hands of retailers that understand how to optimize
display space using the right fixtures which can help attract customers,
increase sales, and reduce labor costs.
"Visual Merchandising is more important than ever in the retail
environment," says global planning, architecture and design firm
CallisonRTKL Vice President Ignaz Gorischek, who has 35 years in
the industry and leads the firm's Visual Merchandising team. "Visual
Merchandising offers an opportunity to refresh a store in lieu of a more
costly remodel. Evaluating sight lines for scale and height helps to
maximize visibility and encourage exploration. Repositioning fixtures
creates new traffic patterns. Strategically placing visual presentations
provides moments of discovery and surprise and drives a customer
through the store."
To be sure, Shop!'s 2016 Industry Size & Composition Study revealed
that store fixtures, visual marketing, and shopper marketing experienced significant growth over a four-year period, with sales reaching
a total of $18 billion in 2015 alone (see accompanying chart from the
Shop! study).
Further, as retailers look to wring more sales out of their existing
customers, effective merchandising becomes even more important to
running profitable operations, according to the North American Retail
Hardware Association's (NRHA) landmark Merchandising for Profit
study. Retailers are trying to refresh, remodel, and reinvigorate their
stores but are spending less money in terms of visual merchandising
and are looking for less expensive solutions, the report concluded.

2

RECENT GROWTH OF STORE FIXTURES/VISUAL
MERCHANDISING & SHOPPER MARKETING
12,000

Market Size

US$ 12bn

4.0%

▲
9,000

3.0%

●

US$ 6bn

6,000

2.0%
1.0%

3,000

0.0%

●

-1.0%

0
US$ mn

Shopper Marketing
2013

2015

2017

Store Fixtures/
Visual Merchandising

CAGR

● CAGR 2013-15 ▲ CAGR 2015-17

As such, retailers are looking for customized, flexible, and attractive
merchandising solutions to position brands/stores as unique. According
to a recent IBIS World report, Retail Store Fixture Dealers in the U.S.,
dealers are stocking portable pieces that break down easily, making it
easier for them to either be moved to a different location or discarded.
Additionally, material trends vary widely across channels, retailers, and
brands, serving as strong differentiators with metal being more common
in grocery, drug, and convenience stores, while wood is commonly used
in apparel and department stores, for example, according to Shop!'s
Industry Size & Composition study.
Selecting the right store fixtures and implementing effective Space
Management and Visual Merchandising programs can build the brand/
store image, tell the brand story, and create an experiential environment
that will keep shoppers coming back for more, as this white paper will
illustrate.

2017 Shop!
Standards:Solutions
Store Redesign
2018 ROI
Merchandising
: Space Management & Fixture Considerations to Maximize ROI
design:retail - May 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of design:retail - May 2019
