Posts Tagged ‘Retail Details’

Retail Details: a few simple displays, some visual merchandising tips and lots of inspiration!

Friday, September 30th, 2011

Autumn marks the transition from summer into winter in September in the Northern Hemisphere and in March in the Southern Hemisphere when the arrival of night becomes noticeably earlier. Since we have so many new international blog readers, we will continue to feature display ideas that can be adapted through the seasonal changes.  We’ll dedicate an upcoming October blog to Halloween and PINK breast cancer awareness displays. Meanwhile, visit the Retail Details blog Facebook page for bonus fall displays including pumpkins and pink!

A fence section at Ya-ya’s Creative Boutique provides the posts for displaying colorful scarves. This is also an idea that can be used for a two-sided display in a store window. Yaya’s follows a theme of  repurposed and upcycled works of art and features a variety of talented vendors. The creativity continues throughout their display areas at their shop in Fresno, CA.

Rolling pins mounted on curtain rod brackets are a clever, alternative way to display hand towels in the showroom of Peking Handicraft  at the Americasmart in Atlanta, GA.

A simple white stool provides height in the store window display at the Little Shop of Funkiness in London. It is non-distracting for the colorful Rice products and the fresh flowers are a nice touch. When shop windows are multi-paned, it is best to create simpler displays, as shown in this example.

Fall in America means football season. This display at The Pink Chalet in Orlando, FL, does a nice job of incorporating a team’s colors into a display with other non-collegiate merchandise. Round, tiered display tables are versatile and when they are glass, like this one, the product on the floor becomes a cohesive component of the display.

Recently, Kate’s Paperie on Broome Street in Soho, New York City had a grand opening event. I enjoyed following the progress of the new shop, as they posted pictures in a Facebook album. I especially liked the wall of wrapping paper sheets with these beautiful flowers hung above. You can see more of their lovely displays on their Facebook page.

For those who have inquired about a store display contest this year, it’s in the works. The announcement will come soon and it’s going to be bigger and better than ever!

Stay display inspired!

Retail Details blog, Becky Tyre, Swirl Marketing~Becky

Summer store displays and Retail Details blog news

Friday, July 29th, 2011

I’m convinced that whoever wrote the song about the lazy days of summer was not in the wholesale or retail gift business. Not in the United States, at least.  The summer gift shows are in full swing and keeping the buyers and showroom staff and reps quite busy. I’ll be at the Orlando Gift Show on Sat., 8/6 and then off to New York for the NYIGF show that begins the following weekend. Watch for my Retail Details press badge and I hope you’ll stop me to say Hi. Scroll down for some fun news at the end of this blog post.

Summer Displays:

Oars are used as hang rails in this summer display at Periwinkle of Potomac Greens in Alexandria, VA. Suspended with boat rope, the oars are the right diameter for hangers and make a clever display in their swimwear area.

Porter Square Books is an independent bookstore in Cambridge, MA. They always do a nice job of creating displays around holidays and various themes, like gardening, movies or events like poetry month or graduation. They have several summer displays, one that features books about traveling around New England, which became a store event in June. Their “book it to the beach” display is complete with a sand castle and books for all ages.
Rice is a Danish homewares and accessories company, known best for their colorful melamine and storage solutions that are fun and functional. They sponsor store display contests for their retail customers worldwide. This company REALLY encourages creative retail visual merchandising and I will be featuring more of their stores in the future. This summer display is from the Rice Ting Bergen store in Norway. The mini-fridge is just the right size for the kids summer snack containers. It catches the eye by being painted bright green, inside and out.
This display at Hollies on the Avenue has a sophisticated, natural, beachy feel. Hollies is a specialty shop for gifts, home accents, and “surprises” in Barrington, RI, and caters to residents and visitors.
Showroom Displays:
A great source of display inspirations, showrooms at the markets are a proven resource for display ideas.
This scarf display is in the Lindsay Phillips area of the OneCoast showrooms.  A rope ladder display can be a versatile piece for presenting merchandise. Neutral in color, it shows up well against a color wall, as shown here, but is not distracting. Another version are the rope ladders that are available at boat stores and bring a nautical theme to a summer display.
Some displays use props and some are products on traditional fixtures. At the Greenleaf Gifts showrooms in Atlanta and Dallas, they built some props out of their product.
They used sachet packets for the scent Velvet Woods, adding feathers to construct these colorful peacocks in their showroom windows.  They turned out great and caused quite a buzz around the marts.
Announcement:
Please join me in welcoming Chelsea Redfern, who recently joined Retail Details as an intern. Chelsea is in her last year of college and will graduate with a BA in Marketing, Advertising and PR. Chelsea manages her Mom’s shop, Baglady Boutique, in Springfield, MO. Chelsea grew up in the retail business.
In her own words: 
“When I’m not at the shop, I love to create in the kitchen or get lost in the midst of a fashion or foodie blog. I took this internship with Becky because I thought it would be a great experience for me to work with two things I love: blogs and retail. I’m very excited to learn from her and this experience. So, in short, I’m a 20-something aspiring shop girl who in the midst of trying to finish college also lives the life of a fashionista, chef, blogger, daughter & friend.”
Chelsea will be contributing to the blog and helping to plan our next store display contest. She will research and analyze displays and also help me with research for my other writing assignments. I am thrilled to have Chelsea on the Retail Details team and look forward to her perspective, ideas and retail knowledge.
Retail Details blog, Becky Tyre, Swirl MarketingStay display inspired!
~Becky Tyre

Becky Tyre is a Florida-based journalist, visual merchandising consultant and display designer. She writes about retail topics, blogging and visual merchandising for national and trade publications. You can read her most current articles in Gift Shop Magazine. She is the owner and writer of the Retail Details blog at www.SwirlMarketing.com You can reach Becky via email at SwirlMarketing@comcast.net

Store displays in Stockholm – part 2

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

We had picture perfect weather for our visit in Sweden earlier this month. The parks were filled with families enjoying the warm weather and the shop windows were starting to look like summer – or SOMMAR, as they call it.

The floor of the store window at SCAMPI in Stockholm is covered with a woven, natural rope rug. It becomes a perfect base for a beach window featuring their mix and match swimsuit separates. Hovering above the display are colorful birds hung with ropes. This is an excellent example of texture and color use in display.

Fence lacing at Odd Molly:

Odd Molly is known for their creative store interiors. The Stockholm store has chain link fencing in the windows and it has been enhanced with a procedure called “lacing”. It is an eye-catching, clever process that provides two-sided display and works well in windows, as well as against walls.

Father’s Day is not in June in Sweden, but we stumbled upon this menswear display window. The frames were filled with scrunched white fabric for a very interesting effect.

The Nordic Museum was having a Fashion Exhibition. In conjunction with the museum show, a local shopping mall, Sture Gallerian, had a dandy exhibit.

At the entrance to each store, a pedestal was placed with signage promoting the dandy theme. Atop each pedestal was a glass dome and each store created a vignette display featuring items from their store.

At least 30 shops had the display domes and it was a pleasant added feature for our mall tour.

I returned from Sweden to head to Dallas for the gift show. I’ll post some display ideas from Dallas showrooms soon.

Stay display inspired!

Retail Details blog, Becky Tyre, Swirl Marketing~Becky

Becky Tyre is a Florida-based journalist, visual merchandising consultant and display designer. She writes about retail topics, blogging and visual merchandising for national and trade publications. She is the owner and writer of the Retail Details blog at SwirlMarketing.com Email: SwirlMarketing@comcast.net

Facebook is not a verb & other store display ideas

Monday, May 30th, 2011

Last week, on Facebook, I asked retailers if they have incorporated Twitter and Facebook into their store identities by using the logos in their store windows, displays or signs. For this blog post, I hoped to be able to tell you exactly where to get your official social media stickers, but that information is not easily located. You can readily locate the links to download their logos and read page after page of rules for the use of such logos. I learned that Facebook has a rule stating that you should not use Facebook as a verb. I find that entertaining, because most brands would be flattered to become a verb. Ask Velcro, Google, Xerox, Hoover and Hula Hoop.

Catching Fireflies created a store window to promote involvement with their social media campaigns. They used this display to invite customers to join the firefly party online with their savvy social media pages. They have two stores in Michigan; Berkley and Rochester.

Little Cherubs Clothing in the Torquay, UK appears to have an official cling in their window.

Jean Genie in Manchester, UK, uses interior chalkboard signage to direct customers to their social media pages.

If you have social media logos in your displays,  click comment at the end of this blog post and “link” us to your pages, websites and blogs. We like and follow. Here are our links: Facebook, Twitter.

Display Backdrops

At their Brookhaven store in Georgia, Boogaloos  uses two beautiful old doors in the background of their store window display. This is a lovely example of back drops that add to the  interior store decor, as well. When possible, it is best to choose two-sided backdrops or display elements that allow for merchandise to be shown on both sides.

Ginger Boutique – located in Winter Park, FL and Bethesda, MD -  shows how a double-sided backdrop provides a background for the mannequins in the window without completely obstructing the view into the store.

Display Eye Candy:

This CUP OF TEA display is courtesy of Anthropologie, who are internationally-known for their creativity in visual merchandising. Retail Details blog is pleased that the Anthro visual teams enjoy our visual merchandising blog and appreciate all the nice comments and notes. You guys are truly display inspired and inspiring! Thanks for sharing.

Coincidence? I think not…

This display is the first in a series of store displays that I will be featuring using armoires, hutches and desks as store fixtures. A few weeks ago, I was doing some research for a magazine article and admiring some museum store displays. They have done a nice job of using all surfaces for display, including the doors and drawers. Also, you may notice the use of the colors and the arrangement of the yellow and blues to bring contrast – and interest – to the display.

The coincidence, you may ask? This display is from the Swedish American Museum  in Chicago, IL. As I type this blog post, my bags are packed to head to Sweden, as my daughter is getting married in Stockholm later this week. I have arranged to visit some retail stores there and I’m sure I’ll have lots of display pictures to share. Swedes are known for simple, but very creative displays and I hear they make great son-in-laws too!

Summer gift shows: Attending any markets this summer? We’d love to meet you. Send us your email address and we will keep you posted of where Retail Details will be and when. Dallas Gift Show is our first stop and Becky will be doing several seminars in the OneCoast showroom with SnapRetail. If you want to learn about blogging or visual merchandising, you will find her seminars listed on the Dallas Market Center website events calendar.

Stay display inspired!

Retail Details blog, Becky Tyre, Swirl Marketing~Becky

Becky Tyre is a Florida-based journalist, visual merchandising consultant and display designer. She writes about retail topics, blogging and visual merchandising for national and trade publications. She is the owner and writer of the Retail Details blog at SwirlMarketing.com Email: SwirlMarketing@comcast.net