Visual merchandising in retail is more than just aesthetics—it’s a strategic driver of sales, customer engagement and brand perception.
As brick-and-mortar stores compete with the convenience of e-commerce, well-designed retail display solutions can make all the difference in attracting shoppers and encouraging purchases.
However, many retailers struggle with balancing creativity and measuring the ROI of visual merchandising.
How do you quantify the impact of 3D visual merchandising or the effectiveness of visual merchandising and display strategies? Without clear data, it can be difficult to justify investments in store upgrades.
At The Look Company, we specialize in cutting-edge retail and visual merchandising solutions that enhance store aesthetics and deliver measurable business results.
From lightboxes to modular display systems, our solutions help brands stay ahead of trends, optimize budgets and create dynamic in-store experiences that drive real ROI.
Investing in visual merchandising in retail isn't just about enhancing store aesthetics—it's a strategic move that can significantly boost sales and customer engagement.
Increased sales: Studies have shown that effective in-store displays can lead to a sales increase ranging from 80% to 478%, depending on the product and display strategy.
Higher foot traffic: Engaging window displays can boost foot traffic by 23%, drawing more customers into the store.
Repeat visits: A well-designed store layout and immersive 3D visual merchandising create memorable experiences, encouraging customers to return.
Stronger brand perception: Consistent, high-quality retail and visual merchandising reinforces brand identity, making your store more appealing to customers.
Enhanced customer experience: Shoppers spend 20% more time in stores with well-designed visual merchandising, leading to increased engagement and potential sales.
Greater customer loyalty: Unique and innovative visual merchandising and display elements create emotional connections, fostering long-term customer loyalty.
While the benefits of visual merchandising in retail are clear, many retailers struggle with implementing and optimizing their strategies.
Several key challenges prevent brands from fully leveraging the power of retail and visual merchandising to drive measurable ROI.
One of the biggest obstacles is quantifying the impact of visual merchandising and display efforts. Many retailers rely on intuition rather than data, making it difficult to justify investments.
Without proper tracking tools, brands may not know which retail display solutions drive sales and which need improvement.
Shoppers’ expectations evolve quickly, making keeping up with the latest trends challenging. A static store design can quickly become outdated, reducing its effectiveness.
Retailers need flexible and scalable retail display solutions that allow them to refresh their store environments without excessive costs or downtime.
Budget constraints often force retailers to compromise on 3D visual merchandising and other impactful display solutions. Many stores rely on traditional signage and outdated fixtures that lack flexibility.
The challenge is finding cost-effective ways to enhance customer experience in retail while maintaining operational efficiency.
The Look Company offers innovative retail display solutions that help brands overcome common visual merchandising in retail challenges.
Our products are designed to enhance customer experience in retail, maximize flexibility and drive measurable ROI.
Lightboxes create vibrant, high-visibility displays that elevate visual merchandising and display strategies. They offer:
Brighter, more engaging presentations: Backlit graphics enhance product visibility and brand storytelling.
Flexible placement options: Choose from freestanding, wall-mounted or ceiling-hung designs.
Energy efficiency: LED-powered lightboxes consume less energy and reduce long-term operational costs.
Retailers need dynamic display solutions that can change with the seasons or store layout updates. Our modular display systems provide:
Easy reconfiguration: Update your store’s look without expensive renovations.
Long-term cost savings: Reusable components reduce the need for new fixtures.
Perfect for seasonal promotions: Pop-up kiosks and partition walls adapt to marketing campaigns.
Tension fabric graphics with silicone edge graphics (SEG) offer a polished, glare-free aesthetic while being easy to maintain. Benefits include:
Quick installation: Change graphics without disrupting operations.
Durability and sustainability: Long-lasting materials reduce waste.
A cost-effective alternative: Avoid expensive drywall, paint and other permanent fixtures.
Wayfinding and promotional signs and banners are essential for enhancing customer experience in retail. These solutions:
Guide customers effortlessly: Improve in-store navigation and shopping flow.
Axnew Product Page
Increase promotional impact: Highlight discounts, events or seasonal campaigns.
Offer scalable solutions: Choose from temporary banners to permanent signage.
By integrating these innovative visual merchandising and display solutions, retailers can create immersive shopping environments while staying agile and cost-efficient.
Walmart Canada faced challenges in creating flexible, high-impact signage that could adapt to various store layouts and accommodate frequent promotional changes.
They required solutions that were visually appealing and easy for in-store staff to update without specialized tools.
Partnering with The Look Company, Walmart Canada implemented several innovative retail display solutions:
End cap lightboxes: These units were designed to fit existing store fixtures seamlessly, providing consistent illumination without fading.
In-aisle lightboxes: Customized mounting solutions allowed these lightboxes to rise above store fixtures, enhancing visibility within the fashion sections.
Hanging displays: Utilizing lightweight frames and fabric systems, these large displays were easily installed using standard ceiling cables, ensuring precise positioning.
Feature product displays: These displays elevated on-the-wall branding with exchangeable product and price information, allowing updates from the ground level without specialized tools.
On-the-wall displays: Covering extensive wall areas, these displays provided a continuous brand image using lightweight frames and large fabric runs.
This collaboration produced over 850 stretch fabric frames, significantly enhancing Walmart Canada's in-store visual appeal.
The project was recognized with a FESPA Bronze Award, highlighting the effectiveness of these visual merchandising and display solutions.
Retailers who upgrade their visual merchandising in retail strategies see significant benefits: higher sales, increased customer engagement and stronger brand loyalty.
However, achieving measurable ROI requires innovative, adaptable, cost-effective retail display solutions.
The Look Company delivers cutting-edge 3D visual merchandising solutions, from lightboxes to modular display systems, helping brands create impactful shopping environments.
With our expertise, retailers can stay ahead of consumer trends while optimizing budgets and operational efficiency.
It’s no secret that bricks-and-mortar stores face more challenges than ever before. Competition has never been fiercer, attention spans are fleeting and online shopping dominates, so the significance of impactful displays in your physical retail space cannot be overstated. Well-designed and executed retail display is essential to capture the attention of your customers, efficiently demonstrate your product and convert browsers into buyers.
You can discover our expert guide on how to create a stand-out retail display here, but as for the reasons why you need one, read on…
Capturing attention in a crowded marketplace
The modern-day consumer is spoiled for choice with a sea of products vying for their attention. Your retail display should act as a beacon, drawing your customers in and piquing their interest amidst the cacophony of the competition. Clever, intuitive and innovative retail display stops passers-by in their tracks, compelling them to explore further and making it more likely that your product is the one they choose to buy.
Outstanding retail display is even more important in multi-brand outlets, where your concession sits side-by-side with numerous other companies offering similar goods, and space is often at a premium. In stores with a very limited footprint – as was the case in our most recent project for lifestyle flooring brand, Alternative – your retail display must work even harder, using every inch of the allocated area to maximum effect.
We were tasked with designing a wall display that would enhance Alternative’s brand presence and increase its customers’ product knowledge, all within the confines of smaller, inner-city stores. The result was a compact Welsh dresser-style unit in line with the brand’s homely aesthetic, incorporating an attention-grabbing illuminated graphic and interactive ‘play surface’, which encourages shoppers to engage with the samples and explore digital product information via embedded QR codes.
Increasing customer engagement
Shopping is no longer a transactional activity; it’s an experience. Physical stores are now destinations where consumers seek immersive, memorable and engaging experiences that educate, entertain and inspire. Your retail display can tell your brand story and bring your products to life, forging a deeper connection with potential customers and ultimately convincing them to part with their hard-earned cash.
Physical demonstration is a powerful tool, and it’s an advantage that bricks-and-mortar stores have over internet retailers, so use this to your brand’s advantage. Provide a unique experience that cannot be replicated online, allowing shoppers to see, touch and interact with your product to significantly increase the propensity to purchase. This was one of the main objectives of the brief for our recent project for Mercado and its two key brands, TLC and BMK.
Mercado requested a retail display that made the customer journey interactive, enjoyable and informative. We designed an immersive experience using innovative RFID technology, allowing customers to place each flooring sample board into a cradle, activating detailed product information and visual stimuli on an integral 42” screen. This resulted in an uplift of 20% more dwell time and a 7% increase in sales within the first 3 months.
Elevating brand identity and perception
Beyond its functionality in presenting your products in the best way, your retail display also plays a pivotal role in shaping your brand’s identity and influencing customer perception. The design of the display, from the colours to the lighting to the materials used, should communicate the essence of your brand, reflecting the aesthetics of the business and the value proposition of the product.
This is particularly important in the omnichannel marketplace, where your customers may begin their shopping journey online before venturing into store to complete their purchase. If your retail display has the same look and feel as your online presence, you create a more cohesive and efficient customer experience. This consistency fosters brand recognition and a sense of trust and familiarity that will keep your customers coming back.
Premium carpet brand, Crucial Trading, recently partnered with Fathom to enhance its brand presence and expand its market share within high-end, multi-brand retail stores, while also efficiently integrating customers’ online and offline shopping experiences. We designed a sleek and striking, 3-metre-wide wall unit with space for 560 SKUs, in keeping with the sophisticated feel of Crucial Trading’s brand identity and website aesthetic.
Pioneering technology facilitates a seamless customer journey from online ordering of samples to in-store purchase, with each sample sent out being embedded with an individually programmed RFID chip. Customers are invited to visit the store and place the sample on the unit to access in-depth product information via the integrated 43” touch screen. The unit saw Crucial Trading increase its market share within the first month.
Driving sales and conversions
Of course, the ultimate goal of your retail display is to drive sales and convert browsers into buyers. In a marketplace driven by consumers’ desire for speed and convenience, there is a short window of opportunity to persuade shoppers to buy your product. A good retail display should act as a silent salesperson, efficiently guiding your customers through a curated journey of discovery that will significantly impact their purchasing decisions.
Clear and compelling messaging alongside strategic product placement is essential to influencing buyer behaviour, increasing basket size and maximising revenue potential. This is particularly important if your product offers customers a wide variety of options, as demonstrated in our recent project for flooring manufacturer, Palio, whose collection of vinyl, wood and stone designs is available in individual tiles and planks with three fitting formats.
The retail display had to effectively communicate various messages, from the collective selling points of the brand to the unique features of the individual products. By implementing a strategic blend of branding, layout optimisation and customer-focused initiatives, we created a highly shoppable display for up to 48 SKUs, using bold, impactful graphics to convey the messaging clearly and concisely.
Ready to elevate your retail display?
Are you interested in learning more about Retail Display Solutions? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!