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The store window displays are an essential part of any retail space. They can help highlight a particular product or draw in customers to the storefront, but they also need to be attractive and unique–a tall order when there’s so much competition! Let these tips help you create stunning display graphics that will entice shoppers.
The “window display trends 2022” is an article that gives 16 tips for creating stunning store window displays. The article also mentions the importance of having a well-designed logo.
One of the most effective pieces in your marketing arsenal is a shop window display, which is the scenario you create in your outside facing windows. Your window displays are a tool for attracting new and returning consumers, showcasing new items, promoting special offers, and increasing your brand image.
Window displays will be a big aspect of beginning a retail shop, and this tutorial will show you how to make something that will stand out and help you develop. Here are our top 16 pointers for building a stunning store window display.
1. Focus on a single story or theme.
It’s advisable to decide on a narrative or theme for your window display before you start working on it. A consistent narrative can help shoppers understand and appreciate your window display, as well as guide your own development process.
The significance of narrative in branding and merchandising, as well as how it appeals to buyers, is discussed in a Forbes article. “Businesses can no longer afford to remain faceless organizations in this [tech-driven] world.” Businesses must connect with consumers, tug at their emotions, and interact with them on a far deeper level than ever witnessed in order to survive. This is when brand storytelling enters the picture.”
The concept of this retail’s window display is a woodland party, replete with forest creatures dressed in their finest attire, as shown in the photograph below. This shop is able to engage consumers, add an artistic touch, and generate curiosity in the items it shows by creating a themed scenario in its window display.
(Image courtesy of Zen Merchandiser)
Starting with a topic and moving into something more particular from there is a great strategy for settling on a narrative. Consider the following scenario: your topic is travel. Your tale may then take you on a tropical cruise or to a ski lodge retreat. For example, if your theme is Halloween, you may go with trick or treating or a séance.
2. Use Color to Evoke Emotions
Because color has such a profound psychological impact on human perception, the palette you choose will provoke distinct responses. Red, for example, evokes ideas of excitement, passion, danger, energy, and action, thus it would be appropriate to use a red palette in window displays communicating tales about love, exercise, or exhilaration.
Green, on the other hand, is connected with calm, development, and healing, making it a better choice for window displays expressing vacation or nature themes. For further information on the emotions evoked by various colors and tints, see the color wheel below.
When selecting your palette, keep in mind not only the emotional reactions you want to elicit from your color selections, but also the amount of colors you want to use. Too many colors might generate a feeling of confusion and disorder, causing your tale to become muddled. To minimize confusion, I suggest limiting your display to two or three colors.
Green and orange tones are used in a tropical-inspired window decoration. (Image courtesy of Planarama.com)
Sticking to a color family (say, reds, pinks, and purples), keeping a constant color tone (think pastels or primary colors), or utilizing several various shades of the same hue may all help you produce more vivid displays (maybe teal, hunter green, and olive). The key is cohesion, so make sure the colors you chose complement one other rather than clashing and creating a feeling of chaos.
Primary colors are used in a spectacular window display to create a unified and beautiful environment. (Image courtesy of Mall Xplorer)
3. Be aware of who you’re trying to reach.
You must know who you are focusing your displays towards—your target audience—for your window display to be successful at drawing clients.
We offered trendy bohemian-style apparel at a low price range at my business. We knew we wouldn’t appeal to customers looking for high-end brands. Instead, we targeted our messaging towards women between the ages of 18 and 45 who have more relaxed lives and wardrobe preferences. We recognized that scenarios of park strolls or informal brunches would appeal to the ladies who would really buy in our store, so we included them in our window displays.
To figure out who your target audience is, start by looking at who shops at your business and then think about who else would be interested in your items. The Home Depot, for example, has dubbed its target demographic DIYers, or do-it-yourselfers, who undertake home renovation tasks on their own.
Then you should consider the sorts of displays that might appeal to that demographic. The Home Depot’s target demographic is those who are willing to get their hands filthy in order to complete a task. All of its message, then, is centered on portraying images of weekend gardening projects or bathroom repairs, as well as the feeling of personal gratification that comes with doing these tasks on your own.
The ruins of a DIY landscaping job are on display at Home Depot. (Photo courtesy of The Home Depot)
4. Stay true to your brand
You’ll want to make sure your business window display is consistent with your brand. This will guarantee that the image your display makes is consistent with your company’s values and that customers know what to anticipate from your shop. Your brand voice will speak to individuals who are interested in your products, which will help you narrow down your target audience.
This young and vibrant brand is reflected in a fantastic window display. (Image courtesy of Boutique Window)
Furthermore, if your display is inconsistent with your brand, buyers will see it as deceitful and skeptical of your company. Returning to my bohemian-style clothes business, imagine mannequins holding nice purses and sipping tea at a lavish table setting in our window displays. This would not only turn off our target audience, but it would also provide the wrong idea about what we have to offer. Customers would be puzzled and irritated by the deceptive window displays, and they would be unlikely to return.
Consider your brand, what it stands for, and how your retail window displays might represent this. This will guarantee that you are just attracting the proper clients and that you are not deceiving them.
5. Maintain Simplicity
While you want your window display to be attractive and attract attention, putting too much in it will likely overload and even dissuade pedestrians. If you attempt to do too much with your display, it will become cluttered and distracted.
In this case, I prefer to use the rule of three:
- To begin, you’ll need a topic, or the display’s primary emphasis.
- Second, there is a background, or the display’s backdrop.
- Third, create dimension with accessories or supporting components.
You have the option of using all three items or stopping after the first or second. However, you should never have more than one topic. Otherwise, the display would get cluttered and lose its focus.
Consider the following scenario. The topic of this show is a person dressed in winter clothing. The winter woodland environment and lights serve as the background. The firewood and bird figurine are the accessories. This window display adds curiosity and mystery without overwhelming the area by adhering to the rule of three.
(Image courtesy of Squidoo)
6. Decide where you want your focal point to be.
The focal point of your window display is the topic of the display and the part of it that people will notice first and spend the most attention to. The remainder of your display is formed around this point, from the backdrop to the accent pieces, so make sure you place it strategically and make it prominent enough to carry visual weight.
The most crucial aspect of locating your focus point is ensuring that it is at eye level for passers-by. This will not only guarantee that your focal point is seen and appreciated, but it will also encourage others to look through the windows.
Put yourself in your consumers’ shoes and take a step outside your business to evaluate where eye level falls to choose the optimal location. As you arrange your focal point, keep an eye on how it appears from the outside and experiment with the ideal location for visual impact.
A couple stands in awe at a well-placed window display. (Photo courtesy of Westend61)
7. Look for Inspiration in Others
If you’re stuck at any stage throughout the process of designing your business window displays, your neighbors and rivals may provide some of the greatest ideas. Take a stroll around your neighborhood or the next shopping center and observe what others are doing.
Pay close attention to what catches your eye. What components pique your interest the most? It might be a light show, window decals, or a complex scene. You may also keep an eye on the exhibits that are grabbing the attention of other consumers. Pay notice to which shops customers flock to and which displays result in more foot traffic.
One last piece of advice: study the merchandising leaders in your field and take notes on how they differentiate themselves. Look to large corporate merchants for the best tactics for producing successful shop window displays, since they have large resources and research teams committed to influencing their merchandising selections.
Anthropologie, a large fashion company, is recognized for its creative and lavish retail window displays. (In the Steen manner)
8. Take into account the season
You’ll want to make sure your window decorations are up to date and appropriate for the current season or occasion. This will make your window’s tale appear more relevant to your customers and show them that you have seasonal products on hand. It’s also a terrific way for you to take advantage of seasonal shopping opportunities, such as during the winter holiday season.
What if I told you that
According to the National Retail Federation, Christmas sales accounted for 19 percent of yearly sales on average over the past five years. In fact, Christmas retail sales in the United States reached an all-time high of $886.7 billion in 2021.
Advertise any pertinent holidays as well as seasonal items in your window displays. Seasonal window displays are a terrific way to promote items that will only be accessible during the specific season, ensuring that you don’t end up with any leftovers.
I’m sure you’ve seen photos of New York City department shops during the Christmas season, with their elaborate displays intended to invoke sentiments of festive happiness and encourage holiday spending. There’s a reason why these displays are so extravagant. There are big earnings to be gained throughout the Christmas season, and an extravagant window display will help you maximize on those purchases.
A festive backdrop and holiday party attire are featured in a Christmas window display.
9. Make Use of Proper Lighting
Lighting can create a dramatic environment for your retail window display by evoking an ambience, highlighting merchandise, and evoking an ambiance. Using lighting strategically may help you focus passersby’ gazes where you want them and draw attention to your exhibit.
To create a dramatic lighting strategy around your main point, consider adding spotlights. You may also use contrast or create zones of high and low exposure to lead clients’ eyes across your display and bring their attention to important places.
Remember that brightly lighted areas will draw the eye in, while poorly lit areas will draw it away.
Window displays are an excellent opportunity to experiment with dramatic lighting designs that may not work elsewhere in your business. Utilize bright, colorful lighting, or use your lighting as a piece in your exhibition. Make a statement with your lighting and watch the eyes (and foot traffic) follow.
A spectacular and eye-catching window show is created using vibrant LED lights. (Image courtesy of FashionNetwork.com)
10. Create depth in your display by building it out.
You want extra aspects in your display to generate depth in addition to the focus point. This may contain things like a background, props, and even interactive elements. These elements will help draw more visitors into your business by making your window more engaging to passers-by, encouraging higher interaction with your display.
You’ll want to make sure you’re generating balance while putting the various pieces of your display together. An uneven display will be unappealing to the eye, but a harmonic display will be attractive and make it simpler for clients to understand your narrative or emotional goal.
One advice is to put heavier, darker things at the bottom of your display and lighter, brighter ones near the top. This will assist pull the eye up and avoid your display from seeming top-heavy.
Also, strive to fairly distribute your backdrop components—don’t leave one side full with active objects and the other bare. Humans are more drawn to symmetrical situations because symmetrical items and pictures are easier to identify and replicate the world around us.
Taking a step outdoors and looking at your exhibit from a bird’s eye perspective is the greatest method to check that it has balance and harmony.
From the center point to all of the supplementary parts that make up a comprehensive scene, everything in this exhibit piques the curiosity of observers. (Photo credit: Pinterest)
11. Keep the number of highlighted products to a minimum.
It’s tempting to stuff your display with all of your greatest items in order to show off as much as possible. At the end of the day, this method will divert attention away from your display and may even give the impression that your company is unorganized and cluttered.
When putting up your display, pick one or two goods or sets of products to showcase as a rule of thumb. After that, try to fill the remaining area with ornamental items. This will draw attention to the main items, while the ornamental accents will encourage visual interaction.
Another advice is to check over your display after it’s put together and see if there’s anything you can delete that won’t detract from the overall effect. This will assist you in removing any superfluous or distracting items. Don’t be frightened of minimalism—sometimes it’s all you need to make something beautiful.
A simple window display emphasizes core items while avoiding clutter. (Image courtesy of CreativeNYC)
12. Make Interactive Elements a Part of Your Design
Interactive features are one of the most effective methods to increase interaction with your window display (and consequently boost foot traffic). This might take the form of a QR code that consumers can scan to sign up for your emails, a screen-printed social media handle on the outside of your window, movies that customers can watch, or even augmented reality technology.
Clas Ohlson, for example, erected enormous touchscreens in its shop displays that consumers could manipulate with their smartphones. People may browse the company’s product catalogs, check out the newest special offers, and even make purchases directly on the spot. It was able to attract new consumers and form connections with shoppers who had never set foot in its store because of its unique display.
Customers may control a character on the screen by moving their bodies in a window display at a LEGO store. (Image courtesy of This Is Retail)
13. Switch up your displays on a regular basis.
Update your window displays at least once every six to eight weeks, as a rule of thumb. This will guarantee that it is always current and relevant to the seasons, allowing it to engage repeat consumers. Additionally, as previously said, you should refresh your windows for important holidays in order to take advantage of seasonal shopping opportunities.
Consider the number of individuals that visit your shop when deciding how frequently to replace your window displays. Retailers that have a lot of foot traffic, such as convenience stores, supermarkets, and quick fashion retailers, may consider changing their window displays more often.
If you change your window displays on a weekly or bimonthly basis, this might appear like weekly or biweekly overhauls. You don’t have to undertake a major overhaul every time, but you should try to keep things fresh so that clients are constantly looking for something new to pique their interest.
To keep things fresh, switch up your window displays on a regular basis. (Image courtesy of The Window Display Blog)
14. Invest in Multipurpose Props
Window displays do not have to be expensive, and investing in props that can be utilized in a variety of ways is one of the greatest ways to save money. Clothing companies, for example, often invest in mannequins since they can dress them up in various garments and utilize them in a variety of ways without having to replace them.
Product stands, display screens, LED lights with color customization, pin boards or wall hangings, and giant pictures that you can rotate in and out are more props to consider.
These mannequins are clothed for the season and may be readily altered in the coming months. (Photo courtesy of Foko Retail)
15. Analyze performance on a regular basis
It’s time to inspect your display and enjoy your work after your tale has been told and all of the pieces have been placed. This isn’t the end of your window display voyage, however. To keep clients interested, you should continually updating your display and monitoring its functionality.
When evaluating how effectively your window display is functioning, the most important factor to consider is foot traffic. To begin, keep note of how many customers come into your business before and after the display is erected. Then you can see how traffic grows or drops as you experiment with various presentation ways to see which ones work best.
The manual click counter and infrared sensors are two approaches for counting foot traffic. With the manual counter, you or an assistant keeps track of how many people come into your business by pressing a button each time someone enters. Then you utilize the hourly and daily totals to see whether there has been an increase in traffic. For manual tally tracking, Uline has a wonderful portable alternative.
People counter sensors may be used as an automated alternative. These sensors keep track of who comes in and out of your door and send the information to your computer or point-of-sale (POS) system. For merchants, Dr is a common people counting sensor.
The most important statistic for determining the performance of your window displays is foot traffic. (Image via of Dumpsters)
Compete Against Your Neighbors
You are fighting for attention with your neighbors if your business is located in a huge shopping mall or near other stores. Let’s say you decide to put a few muted mannequins and simple décor in your shop window, while your neighbors choose for a highly illuminated display with interactive elements and vibrant colors. Customers’ eyes would be too diverted by your neighbors to see your business in this case, and your window display would fade into the background.
To prevent this problem and guarantee that you are the one who draws attention, take a trip around your area and make a list of your rivals. Try to put yourself in your clients’ shoes. Would your display attract your attention, or would another shop tempt you more? To leverage on local foot traffic, strive to be the finest display on your block.
Shoppers pass through a crowded retail complex with competing window displays. (Photo courtesy of Visit Philadelphia)
Conclusion
One of the most crucial aspects of your company is store window displays. They provide consumers a first impression, tell a narrative about who you are, and have the capacity to increase foot traffic and, eventually, purchases. Setting up your window display does not have to be difficult, and by following the basic guidelines listed above, you can create an excellent show.
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