As a retail store manager or owner, you should ensure that the layout of the store’s shelves maximizes product visibility. The way shelves are laid out in your store goes a long way in drawing shoppers’ attention to the products that you are selling. When designing the floor layout of your store, you should keep in mind the fact that shoppers quickly get distracted.

Strategic shelving is the most convenient way of optimizing product visibility. A neat shelf not only looks professional but also helps shoppers to get an idea about what you are selling without feeling overwhelmed. Likewise, if your store has cluttered and disorganized shelves with too many items crammed into the available space, customers are likely to shop elsewhere. Here are some retail shelving ideas that can help you improve product visibility.

Use Eye-Level Shelves

As a store owner or manager, you definitely want to make it easier for shoppers to see your most exciting offers. To do this, you should focus on eye-level product displays. Even though shoppers might be willing to look for items placed down low or up high, it tires them out. You can make their shopping experience less cumbersome by making sure that they can quickly scan products that are on display.

By having your best product offers at eye-level, clients will be able to see what you want them to quickly. As a result, it will be easier for them to make the purchasing decision. Just as it is the case with scanning books, most shoppers tend to scan store shelves from left to right. One excellent shelving strategy entails placing higher-cost and newer items toward the left side of the shelves and at eye-level so that shoppers see them first.

Use Tiered Display

You can improve product visibility by using a tiered display, which allows you to have more products on shelves without taking up extra floor space. The different selling levels that you will have created will enable shoppers to spot items that they want to purchase easily. Similarly, it would help if you were strategic with the way you position your merchandise. For instance, consider using the smaller tiers in your store to promote coordinating products and accessories.

Take Advantage of Focal Points and Sightlines

As you plan the layout of shelves in your retail store, you should take advantage of straight lines and focal points. Straight lines are those natural points that shoppers’ eyes are drawn to while navigating the store. Put yourself in customers’ shoes and think about what they want to see as soon as they enter or exit the store. This way, you’ll be able to place the most attractive and relevant merchandise on that sightline, thus keeping them interested throughout the entirety of their shopping experience.

On the other hand, focal points are those locations towards the end of sightlines. Ensure that the attention of your customers is drawn to the focal point. Here, you can display your most exciting products or enticing offers that they shouldn’t miss. Consider setting up well lit, 360-degree focal points, which are accessible from any location within the store. Such focal points are not only calming but also aesthetically pleasing.

Incorporate Creative Visuals in Shelve Design

Experimental marketing has become the latest and most-loved trend by consumers. Therefore, you should join the bandwagon by starting to combine visual merchandising with creative imagery and trending art. You will be able to offer shoppers a more immersive and connected shopping experience by using shelves with eye-catching visuals that speak about your brand.

Be Keen On Product Presentation

Every store owner or manager needs to be keen when it comes to product presentation. This entails a focus on attractive, clean, and modern-looking shelves. Undoubtedly, you want your store’s shelving displays to grab customers’ attention as soon as they come through your doors. Nothing does this better than well-stocked endcaps.

In the past few years, there has been a trend characterized by store managers paying more attention to perimeter displays rather than those found at the center of a store. Besides, shoppers are getting more reluctant to shop on long, arrow-straight aisles. There are dozens of shelving options that can help you transform your store’s conventional straight aisles into something more customer-friendly, softer, and easier on the eyes.

For example, instead of using an old-school gondola shelf color like ivory (off-white), consider using black gondola shelving systems. Black is an excellent color for gondola shelving, it gives your store a sleek and clean look for an economical price. Black gondola shelves are easier to clean & still give your store a unique, eye-catching and effective display for the merchandise that you are selling.

Declutter Your Shelves

It is tempting to put out everything that you have in stock on the shelves for your customers to buy. However, this can work against you, especially if your store has too many items crammed onto a few shelves. Often, such stores look disorganized, cluttered, and downright messy. It will be harder for customers to locate the things that they want to buy.

Neatly laid out shelves give your store an organized appearance, besides increasing customers’ confidence in the products that are on display. Instead of displaying all items that are in stock at once, you should display them in bits when the number of items on the shelves reduces. This will keep the shelves neat besides making it easier for shoppers to locate the items that they want to purchase.

Shelving plays a significant role in the success of retail stores. Shoppers’ first impression of your store is determined by the layout of the shelves and how easy it is for them to locate merchandise. You can learn a lot about strategic shelving by checking out your competitors, especially the more prominent brands. Often, big retail brands invest in market research to come up with the best shelving strategy.

You can get an idea about what works for them by simply visiting their stores. Model your store’s shelving options on what seems to be working for the bigger brands. Even so, avoid replicating what they have because you need something unique that works for your clients.