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Walking into different supermarkets and malls, consumers may notice that some shelves display products in vibrant colors, creating a warm and comfortable feeling that easily stimulates purchase desire, while others do not. Some stores even place seemingly mismatched items 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. But achieving rational product display is not easy, and the secrets and knowledge behind it are not easily understood by 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 cars used by American railroads to pile gravel. Typically, shelves are rectangular, with smaller ones being 90 centimeters, and can be combined according to the retailer's needs. Later, closed cabinet 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. They learned that using different shelves and store spaces, product displays can generally be categorized 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 in contrast. Some products require fancy packaging, while others are suitable for "bare" stacking.
Among these various display techniques, the most fundamental principle is that the display must stimulate customers' purchase desire, so display methods contain purchase hints.
"The most basic principle of all product displays 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 shelves are empty or some are full while others are empty, customers will think the store has poor turnover and stale goods, and they will be reluctant 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 filled with discount signs, this visually fatiguing approach is sometimes less effective than directly reflecting price in the product display.
Zhou Yong, a professor at Shanghai Business School who has studied retail for many years, pointed out that in discount stores like Dia, as the name suggests, prices are low, which is directly reflected in the box-style display. For example, some beer and beverages 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 "pine, bamboo, plum" Japanese display method also captures consumers' price-sensitive mentality through suggestive consumption display. Japanese marketing expert Shin'yama Katsutoshi pointed out in "115 Complete Product Display Examples" that in behavioral economics, there is a theory of "edge avoidance," commonly known in Japan as the "pine, bamboo, plum" effect, where "pine, bamboo, plum" represent three price levels, and most people choose the mid-range "bamboo" products. Therefore, many retailers display three price levels of similar products side by side, with the mid-range products having the most stock, which capitalizes on customers' mid-range consumption mentality to sell more mid-range products.
"Similar to the above theory, Carrefour has specifically studied high, medium, and low gross margins of products. It is not that low-priced products have low margins or high-priced products necessarily 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, which not only gives consumers a purchase hint but also is a targeted way for merchants to increase gross margins," Ding Haozhou, executive director and president of Shanghai Zhongfa Commercial Management Group, admitted.
There is also an unexpected display hint—time-based display. 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, clothes on 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 take walks. These three groups have different clothing needs, so we display more youthful and fashionable women's clothing during the day, and switch to affordable casual wear for middle-aged and elderly people in the evening. Many consumers buy based on the display hints from the mannequins, which has increased our sales by more than 30%," Xiao Li said.
In fact, Xiao Li's time-based display method has long been practiced in Japan. Due to the clear correlation between lifestyle rhythms and time periods in Japan, many Japanese stores have been changing product displays according to the main customer groups at different times 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 of high sales.
"Usually, product display places similar items 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 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 technique of cross and related display. To use this display technique, merchants must first have a deep understanding of product relevance, such as what connections exist behind seemingly unrelated products and what consumer habits are.
VICTORIA WICKER and WEBER ALEXANDRE from France have just joined OLE, a high-end supermarket under the China Resources group. Their key job is to tell Chinese high-end supermarket operators about overseas consumer habits, which products are related, and that they must be displayed together to increase sales.
"In the Chinese market, cheese might 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 explain various pairing methods to customers," WEBER ALEXANDRE proudly said. 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 aforementioned ham and biscuits, fresh meat and barbecue grills, fruits and juicers, and different red wines paired with different staple foods. OLE sometimes also uses live demonstrations to display different products like oils, beverages, red wine, and beef together. After customers try and approve, they are triggered to buy these products collectively. These products, originally displayed in different areas, are now placed together, allowing customers to "conveniently" buy them all, greatly improving key indicators such as average transaction value and sales per square meter.
Moreover, even outside the store, merchants are making efforts for related display. Mr. Ji told reporters that with advanced technology, WeChat marketing is widely used. Many supermarkets and stores publish home-style recipes via WeChat, such as the simple stir-fried eggs with wood ear mushrooms, which is nutritious and delicious. Customers who receive the "wood ear mushrooms with eggs" message will buy these two related products in the store. But if eggs are placed in the fresh food section and wood ear mushrooms in the grocery section, purchases may decrease. So after WeChat marketing, merchants deliberately place wood ear mushrooms next to eggs, greatly increasing sales of both products.
Another type of related display is displaying different brands of the same product. For example, Carrefour, TESCO, Watsons, and Mannings all have private label products. According to Chinese consumer habits, private labels are not as well-known as famous brands, so if a separate private label section is set up, sales will not be high. Therefore, many merchants place low-cost, low-price private label products next to big brands of the same category to increase sales. For instance, 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 Xiang Piao Piao 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 display, there are many auxiliary methods for product display that can also boost 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 the color. So we did a pink-themed display, placing products such as food and daily necessities that are pink or related brands on one shelf, so that female consumers passing by would take a second look, increasing 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.
VICTORIA WICKER showed reporters a large wooden grid shelf that looks like a locker room cabinet, but each grid contains 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 many colors. Using this color theory, we presented various bright vegetables like red, yellow, and green 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 point 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 is not suitable for strong light exposure.
Some products also need "bare" display, such as fruits and vegetables. In the past, they were packaged, but now customers need more freshness, so OLE, Lianhua, and other merchants are increasingly adopting "open" and "bare" displays, where unpackaged 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 live candy making in the display area, which attracts many onlookers. The reporter saw on site that many people, after watching the interesting process of making flower-shaped candies and rainbow candies, were eager to buy.
Another auxiliary display method highly praised by the industry is thematic display. For example, during festivals or major promotions, many merchants paste 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 Easter eggs and chocolates, and then arranged the store according to the Easter legend, interspersing the products, which achieved good sales performance. Our sales grew by double digits month-on-month," VICTORIA WICKER said.
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