Ways to Max Reduced Display Space

You may have had to remove some fixtures to create wider aisles and expand the open area by checkouts. Protective plexiglass barriers, signage, and sanitizer stations may also be eating up square footage. The end result is less room to show off products.

The CAMEX 2020 session, Do More with Less: Maximizing Your Merchandising Space, offers some tips that may help. Although the session was aimed at stores that have downsized their overall footprint, the suggestions can also apply to stores that have less net footage to work with. Session presenters were Randy Stejskal from Nebraska Book’s Campus Store Design and Mark Palmore, now retired from Nebraska’s Campus Advisory Services.

Here are some of their tips for boosting your sales and merchandising when you have less room. Some may seem like basic practices, but these often get overlooked when operations and staffing are disrupted:

Check your sales figures by department, both recent numbers as well as the same period last year. This is to gauge the return of each department and allot available space accordingly. For your top sellers, you may want to retain the same space or even increase it, while reducing or eliminating space for items that bring in less net revenue. (If you decide to benchmark with other stores, be sure to measure your floor space accurately, Palmore advised. Exclude storage, offices, or anything that’s not retail selling space.)

Track and measure your basic and seasonal assortments within each department to determine your turn rate, which may be different now. “Watch for holes on the sales floor” where products have run out, Stejskal cautioned. “Get them out of the stockrooms and onto the floor” or place an order to arrive before the shelf is bare. Palmore advised avoiding stockouts on key items and know which vendors can ship merch the fastest. If you’re out, students probably won’t check back later.

Place seasonal products at the front of the store but not necessarily right by the entrance. Especially right now, customers need a buffer area when they enter and they might miss seasonal items if positioned just inside. Also, if you have one-way entrances and exits, customers may feel awkward about lingering around the entrance to look at items.

Avoid the urge to stuff a lot of product onto fixtures in a pared-down selling space. That creates a visual jumble; the eye can’t pick out products. Stejskal recommended organizing merchandise by category first, then product. On a tall shelf unit, he said it’s usually best not to put items on the top or bottom shelves. Keep it clean and simple.

Utilize your wall space for merchandise. Hat walls are becoming popular, but the same concept could work for other items.

Let your student workers come up with merchandising ideas, Stejskal said. Visit other stores that students frequent to see what they’re doing. “Field trips are always good, whether looking for the good or for the bad,” he said.

If you use mannequins to display apparel or accessories, make sure those products are placed right there where customers can easily find them. “Remember you’re not trying to make the mannequin look good, you’re trying to sell the products,” Palmore noted.

Look for high-capacity fixtures that offer more shelf space with a smaller footprint.

Customer appreciation events featuring food, music, and vendor samples have always been a great promotion—even in a pandemic. An in-store event might not be a good idea right now, but consider an outdoor venue. Or try streaming video or social media to hold contests and offer limited-time specials.