---
title: "Terminal Merchandising: Not Just Rote Memorization, but Flexible Application"
description: "China is a super manufacturing and copying power; once a product sells well, numerous homogeneous products appear overnight. Therefore, it is crucial for merchants to capture consumers' attention and implement effective terminal merchandising. Statistics show that improved shelf display can increase product sales by over 20%. This article covers the definition, standards, and significance of merchandising, product display principles, and practical strategies for supermarket displays."
author: "胡以国"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2015-07-24"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/terminal-merchandising-not-just-rote-memorization-but-flexible-applicati-4ab66caa/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/terminal-merchandising-not-just-rote-memorization-but-flexible-applicati-4ab66caa.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/9MMB3APPmhnw5dQHJ9NW_w"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E7%BB%88%E7%AB%AF%E7%94%9F%E5%8A%A8%E5%8C%96-%E4%B8%8D%E4%BB%85%E8%A6%81%E6%AD%BB%E8%AE%B0%E7%A1%AC%E8%83%8C-%E6%9B%B4%E8%A6%81%E6%B4%BB%E5%AD%A6%E6%B4%BB%E7%94%A8-4ab66caa.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/terminal-merchandising-not-just-rote-memorization-but-flexible-applicati-4ab66caa/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Terminal Merchandising: Not Just Rote Memorization, but Flexible Application

> China is a super manufacturing and copying power; once a product sells well, numerous homogeneous products appear overnight. Therefore, it is crucial for merchants to capture consumers' attention and implement effective terminal merchandising. Statistics show that improved shelf display can increase product sales by over 20%. This article covers the definition, standards, and significance of merchandising, product display principles, and practical strategies for supermarket displays.

China is a super manufacturing and copying power; once a product sells well, numerous homogeneous products appear overnight. Therefore, as a merchant, how to capture consumers' attention and do a good job in product terminal merchandising becomes extremely important. According to statistics, improved terminal display can increase product sales by more than 20%.

Part 1: Definition, Standards, and Significance of Merchandising

1. What is merchandising?
It is to display products more vividly in front of consumers, making them easy to identify, attracting their attention, and thereby gaining more purchase opportunities.

2. Why does the company establish merchandising standards? What is the significance?
With the increasingly fierce competition in the snack food market, establishing merchandising standards not only enhances the company's brand image but also allows consumers to see a clean and orderly display style among many competing products, creating a strong visual impact, making it easier to form memories and trigger impulsive purchases.

Research has found that consumers (especially women, the main consumers of leisure food) often make unplanned purchases—deciding on the spot after seeing product displays. Merchandising can improve product display effectiveness and stimulate purchase intention. It can also be said that the quality of product display is the last chance to drive product sales; only products that attract customers' attention will sell! Consumers who go to supermarkets make random purchases in the majority. They stay in a supermarket for an average of 15 minutes (excluding hypermarkets), stop in front of a product area for 15 seconds, and 75% of people make a decision within 5 seconds. If they cannot see the product they want to buy, 40% will buy another product. Lost sales opportunities never come back; once you miss a consumer's purchase, you lose that sale forever. Next time, consumers cannot buy double to make up for the loss (especially for leisure food).

Part 2: Product Display

Product display is divided into shelf display and off-shelf display.

1. Shelf Display

Principles of shelf display:
- Quantity: Increasing the number of display faces strengthens visual impact, creates a sense of abundance, and increases sales.
- Concentration: All products of the company should be displayed together to create related and holistic brand associations and influence.
- Color: Eye-catching colors and appropriate color combinations can leave consumers with an impression of product richness, strong selectivity, and corporate strength, enhancing the display effect.
- Lighting: Appropriate lighting can enhance the color of products, deepen the exquisite and noble aesthetic, and create expected display effects and shopping atmospheres such as romance, enthusiasm, or freshness. It also attracts buyers' attention and fosters affinity with the product.
- Leading products: The best-selling leading products should occupy the largest display space.
- Prominent position: Key brand products should be placed in the first best position, i.e., at eye level.

1.1 Selection of shelf display positions

The same product in the same store can see huge sales changes due to different shelf positions.
- Golden shelf position: 60-160cm, visible at eye level, easy to reach, accounting for 50% of sales.
- Secondary position: 160cm-180cm and 30cm-60cm, accounting for 30% of sales.
- Top and bottom: above 180cm and below 30cm, accounting for 15% of sales. Always maintain a fixed display position for products to prevent competitors from squeezing in. In addition, consumers in the store mostly walk in one direction; few people walk back and forth in the same aisle. Easterners tend to be right-handed, so they pay more attention to products on the right. Therefore, in the same aisle, the shelf on the right side of the traffic flow is often better than the left.

1.2 Analysis of the impact of different shelf display positions on sales

Shelves usually have several heights: eye level, direct view, reachable, knee height. The impact of different shelf heights on sales is:
(1) Changing from reachable height to knee height decreases sales by 15%.
(2) Changing from knee height to reachable height increases sales by 20%.
(3) Changing from reachable height to direct view height increases sales by 30%-50%.
(4) Changing from direct view height to knee height decreases sales by 30%-60%.
(5) Changing from direct view height to reachable height decreases sales by 15%.

1.3 Company requirements for shelf display

(1) Company products should be displayed vertically, with the same specification and packaging horizontally on the same shelf layer. Each specification should have at least three display faces, and the larger the display face, the better—sales are almost proportional to the display face.
(2) Best-selling specifications or those promoted by the company, or those with higher profits, should be placed on the best shelves in the middle, or periodically rotated to the best shelves.
(3) When conditions permit, fully utilize the company's merchandising items such as price cards, insert cards, wobblers, hanging flags, and balloons. The front of products on the same shelf should face customers uniformly. Also, remove a few bags from neatly arranged products to show good sales.
(4) Products must have clear price tags, and be careful not to misplace them.
(5) Place products with earlier production dates in the front for quick sale to avoid product stagnation and expiration.
(6) All Chinese labels should face outward.
(7) Place heavy and large products at the bottom, and small and light products at the top, for consumer convenience and aesthetic habits.
(8) During new product promotion, ensure new products occupy at least 1/3 of the display space.
(9) Place products next to the best-selling similar products to "borrow light."

How to use best-selling products for display?

If the company's products have just entered the store, they may not sell well immediately. How should you choose the display position? In addition to the above requirements, the most important thing is to choose a position next to best-selling products, which is also the best promotion position for new products.

We know that when consumers wander in the store, they can pass 100-200 products in a minute, and products that attract attention will occupy 5 seconds of consumer time. This is the so-called "5-second advertisement in the store." All merchants' "hand-to-hand combat" in the store is actually to win these 5 seconds of attention. But consumers pass a product on average in less than 0.5 seconds. How can you make your product stand out among 100-200 products and attract attention?

Best-selling products are often located in areas with the highest traffic, where consumers stay longer, and have more opportunities to be noticed and purchased. Data shows that products displayed next to best-selling products receive far more consumer attention than other products.

When using best-selling products for display, pay attention to two issues:
1. If your product has obvious weaknesses in quality, packaging, price, etc., compared to the best-selling product, stay away from it, otherwise you will become a foil and expose your flaws.
2. Be sure to show your product's different personality from the best-selling product, highlight the differences, so your product can compete at the same level. Product merchandising is the best way to express personality.

2. Off-shelf Display

2.1 End-cap display

(1) Must display promotional specifications with clear promotional information signs, such as "special price" or "prize."
(2) Products on the end-cap should be full; each end-cap should display at most two items, preferably one.
(3) Products on the end-cap must be large packages.
(4) When conditions permit, fully utilize the company's merchandising items.

2.2 Floor stack display

(1) Choose a location on the route most frequently used by consumers.
(2) Stacking method: Pay attention to the stability of the base; use cross-stacking. POP and product packaging fronts should face consumers, with appropriate height for easy access.
Cut-case display: When there is no fixed or special stack base or display rack, cut the cartons according to the box structure and label printing format, usually cutting the front in a trapezoid shape down to the lower waist, allowing full product display and simple display using the carton.
(3) Classification of stack displays:
- Island floor display: Located in the center of the main traffic aisle, accessible from four directions. All layers except the bottom should be cut to expose the trademark.
- Trapezoid floor display: Against a wall, accessible from three sides. All layers except the bottom are cut, with each layer receding.
- Pyramid display: Square shape, larger at the bottom and smaller at the top, displayed in circles and multiple layers.
(4) When replenishing products, follow the principle of from back to front and from top to bottom.
(5) The display should preferably be one product specification, and it should be large packaging. The height of the stack should be convenient for consumers to take.
(6) There must be clear promotional information or price signs on the floor stack.
(7) The floor stack must be surrounded by the company's skirt or POP.

The above is the company's "supermarket display rules." In reality, sales personnel are constrained by the store's own regulations, the sales base of competing and own products in the store, and customer relationships, so they cannot fully implement the display rules as taught.

Part 3: How to Do Supermarket Display?

1. Correct mindset: Correctly understand the essence of supermarket display

— No move wins

Sales personnel who truly want to improve their supermarket display "martial arts" cannot rely solely on memorizing dozens of display rules. They must understand the deeper meaning of the display rules and apply them flexibly.

1. The essence of supermarket display is: adapt to the situation, no move wins.

The so-called supermarket display rules are only basic, literacy-level knowledge or "internal skills." In practice, supermarket display is not painting on a blank canvas; more consideration must be given to the specific limitations of the supermarket. Use basic display knowledge to adapt, respond to the situation, and achieve "no move wins."

2. The significance of display rules lies in a unified visual effect.

Different companies have different display rules. In fact, the significance of display rules is not the rules themselves (e.g., whether "brand vertical, packaging horizontal" or "packaging vertical, brand horizontal" is better is hard to conclude), but having a standard so that consumers see a consistent display style at different points of sale, making it easier to form memory points.

3. The core of display rules is to occupy maximum space.

If you think there are too many display rules to remember, just remember one sentence: "Display as many products as possible and occupy more display space."

If you can squeeze competitors off the shelf, you can squeeze them out of the market!

4. Supermarket display is not an isolated task.

The display effect depends on store support, and the reasons for store support include:
(1) You invest more display fees.
(2) Good after-sales service, professional and thoughtful sales staff, and good customer relationships.
(3) Your products have high sales and profits in the supermarket.
(4) Your promotional activities enhance the supermarket's "low price" image.

Supermarket display is not an isolated task. To improve the display effect, you need to work on product portfolio design, pricing, promotion, display fees, after-sales service quality, and business visits. Relying solely on sales visits to improve display (especially fighting for display positions) becomes "water without a source" and "a single hand cannot clap."

5. Display has no end; it relies on execution.

Securing the best display position and space is only the first step. Maintaining the display effect relies on the tireless efforts of sales personnel in daily work, day after day, month after month, year after year. Which manufacturer supplies more timely, visits more frequently, and does more solid store display work will maintain its own display position and gradually seize competitors' positions. To a certain extent, supermarket display performance is a manifestation of the salesperson's dedication, a contest of execution and endurance.

6. There is no best display, only better; learn to "give and take."

After all, the display space given by the supermarket is limited. Increasing the display face of one item will inevitably reduce another. So there is never a best display, only a better one. Based on the promotion focus of different products at different times, give and take, prioritize the display of key promotional items, and sacrifice the display faces of "secondary" items.

2. Practical skills—know yourself and the enemy, adapt to the situation

The difficulty of supermarket display mostly comes from the supermarket's various regulations. Therefore, being familiar with common supermarket display regulations and their solutions can help you know yourself and the enemy, adapt, and turn passivity into initiative.

2.1 Comply with the supermarket's own display standards.

Background: Each supermarket has its own display style and regulations. In practice, manufacturers' products must comply with these regulations, which limits the display effect (e.g., products are grouped by taste, packaging, or price, preventing manufacturers from displaying together). In this case, design a display plan tailored to the store.

Actions: Common techniques are as follows:
(1) Design of display plan: When formulating a display modification plan for the store, first draw a diagram of the snack area, including shelf width, number of layers, distribution of competing products, the display space already obtained for your product, and the expected specific display position.
(2) For supermarkets that display by specification vertically (products of the same specification from different manufacturers are placed vertically together), the technique is: In the same specification area, try to make your products "connect vertically and arrange vertically," using the adjacent positions of two specifications to place your two specifications next to each other, forming a concentrated display effect.
(3) For supermarkets that display by brand (each manufacturer is given a section, and products of the same manufacturer are placed together), the technique is: Supermarket shelves usually have 4-6 layers, and the most effective shelves are the middle layers (100cm-170cm). If you use horizontal display (one item per layer), the top and bottom layers will not be in effective positions. If you use vertical display (items arranged vertically), ensuring each item has at least two display faces, the limited space may not allow all items to be displayed.

Coping strategy: Use a cross display method:
1. Try to give each barcode an effective display face.
2. Do not be blinded by the existing number of shelf layers; redefine the layers with an effective display perspective.

Example: As shown in Figure 3, a supermarket shelf has 5 layers. With an effective display perspective, you can redefine the layers as three layers.
Note: Layers 1 and 2 are seen as the first layer, layer 3 as one layer, and layers 4 and 5 as one layer.
When displaying multiple barcodes on this shelf, it is recommended as follows:
Note: 1. This ensures each barcode occupies a display face on the effective display layer (layers 2 to 4).
2. Similarly, when the shelf has 4 layers, redefine it as two layers...

2.2 Seizing display positions when entering the store.

Background:
1. When a product enters the store, the supermarket buyer will specify the new product's display position and display face in the "shelf display configuration table" (the store manager can make some adjustments). Once the configuration table is set, it cannot be easily changed.
2. When a new product enters, the order and the supplier will agree on the minimum order quantity and initial order quantity for each item.

Actions:
(1) When determining the display configuration table for new products, negotiate more with the buyer to strive for the most "favorable display conditions."
Common negotiation directions:
1. Use promotions to promote display.
2. Promote unique selling points: Compared with existing similar products in the supermarket, your product has unique selling points that can bring new consumer groups and increase the overall sales of the category (e.g., if the supermarket's existing products are mid-to-high priced, your product has advantages in the low-price market).
3. Exclusive benefits for the supermarket: (e.g., exclusive sales of a certain barcode, lower price, higher profit, better after-sales service).
4. Annual plan outlook.
5. Use competitive psychology.
6. Use weak competitors: If a certain competitor (a weak brand with poor sales) occupies a certain number of display faces, if you are given the same display faces, you can guarantee a certain sales volume and profit.

(2) Deliver the first order in full: Once the display configuration table is set, the first delivery must be 100% complete with all items, and communicate with the store manager to ensure the table is fully implemented. Otherwise, the hard-won display position may "shrink" or even require paying new product barcode fees at the next replenishment.

(3) Adjust the minimum order quantity: Supermarket orders are mostly computer-generated. The minimum order quantity set at entry will affect the supermarket's order quantity and safety stock for your product, thereby affecting sales and display. Therefore, when determining the minimum order quantity, sales personnel should actively participate and propose adjustments.

2.3 Seizing display positions during daily visits.

(1) Visit time: Understand the competitor's sales representative's visit time to the supermarket, adjust your visit time to follow closely, and quickly weaken their display results and seize display faces.
(2) Every promotion is an opportunity to expand display faces.
(3) Seize weak brands: "Brand X's sales have been declining, and they still occupy such a large shelf. Give me some of their display faces, and I guarantee to increase sales by a certain amount."
(4) Wait for opportunities: The layout of shelves and stacks in each department of the supermarket generally does not change, but adjustments are made during renovations, store anniversaries, season changes, festivals, new product entries, and product eliminations. This is the best time to seize display faces (especially when competitors are out of stock, out of supply, or removed from shelves for violations; immediately take advantage and negotiate with the supermarket with strong promotions to seize display faces).
(5) Sales representative alliance: Form an "alliance" with sales representatives of other brands—"When we go to the supermarket to tidy up, we don't fight each other; we all seize Brand X's display faces."
(6) Display face exchange: Even if there are "idle" display faces far from your display area, seize them, because you can exchange these "spoils" with other manufacturers for useful display faces or do favors (seeking cooperation with that manufacturer's sales representative).
(7) Timely supply: Understand the sales volume of each supermarket, help the supermarket correct the safety stock for your product, and deliver promptly to ensure that display faces do not decline due to stockouts or missing items.
(8) Seek assistance in display: Build good relationships with the store's merchandising staff, and ask them to take care of your product's display faces when you are not in the store. Form alliances with other manufacturers' (non-competing) merchandising staff; when one party is absent, the other helps with display.
(9) Seize the transit warehouse: Supermarkets set up transit warehouses near the shelves (top or bottom layers, both sides of stairs, corners at the entrance) to store small amounts of goods for easy replenishment. If your product's stock in the transit warehouse is insufficient, your display faces will be squeezed by competitors.
(10) Develop a second display space: If good stack positions in the leisure area are gone, try to get stack positions in other areas adjacent to the leisure area (e.g., the instant noodle area). The stack fee may be lower, and because your product is different in that area, it is very eye-catching and has a good promotional effect.
(11) Develop display dead corners: The end of the supermarket aisle is usually a business dead corner with low traffic and sales. Manufacturers can try to buy the annual stack in the dead corner near your product's shelf at a low price, then communicate with the supermarket to set up large posters, cartoon POP, free tasting tables, mirrors, etc., to guide traffic and activate the dead corner.

Conclusion: The modern sales channel of the store accounts for an increasing proportion of product sales, especially for fast-moving consumer goods, and tends to strangle traditional channels. Therefore, doing a good job in product merchandising, especially terminal merchandising in stores, plays a very important role in enhancing the company's brand image and product sales. The author has spent a lot of space elaborating on how to achieve terminal merchandising. Of course, there may be deviations in views, and I hope colleagues in the industry can criticize and correct!

Original title: "How to Achieve Terminal Merchandising?"


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671