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Walking into different supermarkets and malls, consumers may notice that some shelves display products with vibrant colors, creating a warm and comfortable feeling that easily stimulates purchase desire, while others do not. Some malls even place seemingly mismatched products in the same display area, such as diapers and beer, yet sales are surprisingly good.

These are all examples of product display science derived from in-depth research and validation by merchants. However, do not underestimate product display; scientific display can significantly increase sales and accelerate product turnover, while poor display can lead to low average transaction value, slow turnover, and even unsold inventory. Achieving reasonable product display is not easy, and the secrets and knowledge behind it are beyond the comprehension of ordinary consumers.

Purchase Hints in Display

In the industry, product display first considers the shelf. The original shelf was named after the open-top freight car used by American railroads for piling gravel. Typically, shelves are rectangular, with smaller ones measuring 90 centimeters, and can be combined according to the retailer's needs. Later, cabinet-type closed shelves and mobile platform shelves were developed.

A reporter recently visited major supermarkets and malls such as Carrefour, Walmart, RT-Mart, Auchan, Lianhua, No. 1 Department Store, New World, and Watsons, and interviewed many industry professionals. It was learned that using different shelves and mall spaces, product display can generally be divided into linear display, cylindrical display, gap display, columnar display, diagonal display, and stacked display. In terms of specific product display, similar products can be displayed together, or different products can be displayed for comparison. Some products require luxurious packaging, while others are suitable for "bare" stacking.

Among these various display methods, the most fundamental principle is that display must stimulate customers' purchase desire. Therefore, display techniques contain purchase hints.

"The most basic principle of all product display is richness, or a sense of overflow. For example, some stack displays must present products fully, so that customers can see at a glance that the store has a wide variety of goods, large quantities, and fresh products. If the shelves are empty, or some are full and some are empty, customers will think the store has poor turnover and stale products, and they will be unwilling to buy," Mr. Ji, who worked at Carrefour for many years, told the National Business Daily reporter.

Besides richness, customers are most sensitive to price. Although supermarkets can be plastered with discount signs, this visually fatiguing approach is sometimes less effective than reflecting price directly in the product display.

Zhou Yong, a professor at Shanghai Business School who has studied retail for many years, pointed out that discount stores like Dia are, as the name implies, cheap. This is directly reflected in the box-type product display, especially for beer and beverages, which are not unpacked; only a small opening is cut in the sample box to show the product, while the rest are displayed in full boxes. This simple and labor-saving box display hints that these products are low-priced.

Another method is the "Matsu, Take, Ume" Japanese display method, which also capitalizes on consumers' price sensitivity. Japanese marketing expert Shinzan Katsutoshi, in his book "115 Complete Product Display Examples," points out that in behavioral economics, there is a theory of "edge avoidance," commonly known in Japan as the "Matsu, Take, Ume" effect, where "Matsu, Take, Ume" represent three price levels, and most people choose the middle-priced "Take" products. Therefore, many retailers display three price levels of similar products side by side, with the middle-priced products having the most stock, which capitalizes on customers' tendency to choose the middle option and sells more middle-priced items.

"Similar to the above theory, Carrefour has specifically studied the high, medium, and low gross margins of products. It is not necessarily true that low-priced products have low margins or high-priced products have high margins. The key is how to combine high, medium, and low margin products to achieve the store's optimal profit point. Therefore, careful research has been done on product display, highlighting the most critical margin products. This not only gives consumers a purchase hint but also is a targeted way for merchants to increase gross margins," said Ding Haozhou, Executive Director and President of Shanghai Zhongfa Commercial Management Group.

There is also an unexpected display hint: the time-period display method. Xiao Li, owner of a clothing store, changes the clothes on the store's mannequins 3 to 4 times a day. "Based on people's reference, the clothes on the mannequins sell the fastest. Our research found that in the morning, students pass by the most; in the afternoon, housewives; and in the evening, many elderly people go for walks. These three groups have different clothing needs. So we display more youthful and fashionable women's clothing during the day, and switch to inexpensive and good-quality middle-aged and elderly casual wear in the evening. Many consumers buy based on the display hints from the mannequins, which has increased our store's sales by more than 30%," Xiao Li said.

In fact, Xiao Li's time-period display method has long been practiced in Japan. Due to the clear correlation between people's life rhythms and time periods in Japan, many Japanese stores have been changing product displays according to the main customer groups at different times for years, to capture customers at all levels.

The "Beer + Diapers" Display Method

In the retail industry, there is a famous product display rule: "Beer + Diapers." This sounds bizarre, but when these two seemingly unrelated items come together, they trigger a chemical reaction that leads to high sales.

"Usually, product display places similar products together, but many products you think are unrelated actually have close connections. We need to combine long-term research, data support, and opinions from experienced people to place these seemingly unrelated but consumer-related products together. 'Beer + Diapers' is a classic case. After long-term research and analysis of large amounts of data, we found that most buyers of baby diapers are not mothers, but fathers. After buying diapers, fathers usually also buy beer. If the beer shelf is too far from the baby products, some fathers may be too lazy to buy beer. When we placed the beer directly next to the diaper shelf, we clearly saw a significant increase in beer sales," Mr. Ji told reporters excitedly.

This "Beer + Diapers" display rule was later widely applied in various retail stores, and it reflects the cross- and related-display techniques of products. To use this display technique, merchants must first have a deep understanding of product relevance, such as what kind of connection exists behind seemingly unrelated products and what consumers' shopping habits are.

VICTORIA WICKER and WEBER ALEXANDRE from France have just joined OLE, a high-end supermarket under China Resources. Their key job is to tell Chinese high-end supermarket operators about overseas consumers' shopping habits, which products are related, and that they must be displayed together to increase sales.

"In the Chinese market, cheese may be displayed on the dairy shelf, biscuits in the food section, and ham in the dry goods area. But in Europe, ham is not eaten alone as a dish; it must be paired with cheese, and sometimes with biscuits. So in OLE, which is positioned as high-end and has many overseas customers, we display imported ham, cheese, and biscuits together. I am also the person in charge of this area and will explain various ways to eat them together," WEBER ALEXANDRE said proudly. Through explanations and related display, the sales of ham, cheese, and biscuits under his management have significantly increased, and customer return rates are high.

Under WEBER ALEXANDRE's guidance, the reporter saw many cross-related displays in OLE, such as the ham and biscuits mentioned above, fresh meat and barbecue stations, fruits and juicers, and different red wines paired with different staple foods. OLE sometimes also uses live demonstrations to display different products such as oils, beverages, red wine, and beef together. After customers taste and approve, they are triggered to buy these products in bulk. These products, originally displayed in different areas, are now placed together, allowing customers to buy them "conveniently," which greatly improves key indicators such as average transaction value and sales per square meter.

Furthermore, even outside the store, merchants are making efforts to implement related displays. Mr. Ji told reporters that with advanced technology, WeChat marketing is widely used. Many supermarkets and malls publish home-style recipes via WeChat, such as the simplest stir-fried eggs with black fungus, which is nutritious and delicious. Customers who receive the "stir-fried eggs with black fungus" message will buy these two related products in the store. But if eggs are placed in the fresh food section and black fungus in the grocery section, purchases may decrease. So after WeChat marketing, merchants deliberately place black fungus next to eggs, greatly increasing sales of both products.

Another type of related display is the display of different brands of the same product. For example, Carrefour, TESCO, Watsons, and Mannings all have private label products. According to Chinese consumers' habits, private labels are not as well-known as famous brands. Therefore, if a separate private label area is set up, sales will not be high. So many merchants place low-cost, low-price private label products next to well-known brands of the same type to increase sales. For example, Mannings' private label body wash is often displayed next to P&G products, while Auchan's private label tea bags and milk tea are placed directly next to Lipton and Xiangpiaopiao brands.

According to incomplete industry statistics, this cross-related display method generally increases sales of related products by 20% to 30%.

Auxiliary Display Methods

In addition to purchase hints and related displays, there are many auxiliary methods for product display that can also increase sales.

"Color is a very important auxiliary display method. Most customers in supermarkets are women, who are highly sensitive to color. Sometimes female consumers buy a product purely because they like a color. So we did a pink-themed display, placing products involving pink color and related brands, such as some foods and daily necessities, on one shelf, so that female consumers passing by would take a second look and increase the possibility of purchase," said French girl VICTORIA WICKER. What she is most proud of is not the pink series, but the vegetable display she did for a newly opened OLE store.

She showed a large wooden grid shelf, which looked like a locker in a changing room, but each grid contained a different vegetable, including green peppers, red peppers, yellow peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes. "Vegetables are usually very ordinary products, but they have the characteristic of having many colors. Using this color theory, we presented red, yellow, green, and other colorful vegetables in a fashionable way, stimulating customers' strong desire to buy," VICTORIA WICKER said.

Corresponding to color is the lighting auxiliary display method. Some industry insiders pointed out that Watsons uses different lighting for different product areas. For some products that need brightness, concentrated lighting is used to make the products look very attractive. Although the effect may be different when customers take them home, the lighting display effect has been achieved in the store. In OLE, the lighting in the red wine area is deliberately dimmed to show the nobility of red wine, and red wine itself should not be exposed to strong light.

Some products need to be displayed "bare." For example, some fruits and vegetables were previously packaged, but now customers need more freshness. So OLE, Lianhua, and other merchants are increasingly adopting "open" and "bare" displays, where fruits and vegetables are placed directly in baskets or sacks, making customers feel like they are in a farmhouse, which also indicates that these products are very fresh and worth buying.

In addition, professional display is also very important. On the 8th floor of Shanghai Super Brand Mall, there is a small candy store. In terms of candy alone, sales would not be large, so how can they afford the high rent of this "golden mall"? The trick is that they have a glass kitchen for on-site production in the product display area, which attracts many onlookers. The reporter saw on site that many people, after watching the interesting production process of flower-shaped candies and rainbow candies, were eager to buy.

Another auxiliary display method most praised by the industry is thematic display. For example, during festivals or major promotions, many merchants plaster promotional posters, but these posters may not be as effective as thematic displays.

"For last year's Easter promotion, we did not put up too many posters or ads in the store, but instead did a thematic display. We gathered all Easter-related products, such as colored eggs and chocolates, and then arranged the store according to the Easter legend, interspersing the products. This achieved good sales performance, with a double-digit month-on-month growth in sales," VICTORIA WICKER said.

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