During the Holidays, window displays remind us how hard brands work to create the most appealing shows that include their products and provide passers-by an enhanced store experience.
Luxury, fashion, and cosmetics, are most likely the first markets that come to mind when discussing visual merchandising examples. However, they are far from being the only industry that thrives to set up a unique retail experience for customers. Industries such as home and decor, including the tile market are where people shop for their home and need to feel like it is their own. It is therefore key for these types of goods to be showcased in art-worthy stores, based on the same science of customer behavior as used in other industries.
National Tiles, a market leader of the tiles and flooring industry in Australia, is a good example of a lifestyle company that puts efforts in, and succeeds in providing an enriching customer experience. With several locations across the country and a small team of visual merchandisers, the company digitized their visual merchandising process with software solutions that allowed them to reduce execution time. Creating environments that were visually easy to understand facilitated the staff’s tasks and improved their customers’ store walkthrough.
The home and decor industry creates different types of displays and areas to inspire customers and help them project themselves in their own home. “The displays we create are curated in order to show customers how they can pair their products with different shapes, textures, and small sized tiles all whilst creating a relaxing and enjoyable space.” shares Amy, Store Design & Visual Merchandising Manager at National Tiles.
Seeing how rooms are showcased in the store also shows the customer what is currently available and encourages them to mimic the same look and feel the brand had created in their own home. Taking inspiration from store set-ups is key in the industry and therefore makes visual merchandising invaluable.
In addition to providing a simpler walkthrough environment for customers, clear guidelines bring multiple benefits to staff teams. The first benefit felt by National Tiles teams is that clear guidelines are easier to read and more appealing to look at, which makes the job more easily accomplished. Seeing distinctly which product needs to go where makes the execution of these documents a lot faster. So much so that store teams have halved the amount of time spent setting up stores with new campaigns and products! “[internal] email traffic has been reduced as our directives provide more detail for stores when launching campaigns and new arrivals. Time spent executing new product merchandising is minimal as teams receive directives with product launches.” explains Amy.
Another important factor when it comes to lifestyle and home decor brands is security. Some products can be heavy or fragile, and placing them correctly avoids any accident. Store staff are therefore more confident when roaming the store and selling products they are not scared might hurt their customer and know that the placement has been done according to security measures. Overall, clear communication and documentation made through IWD ensures beautiful branding, good customer experience, and compliance to safety regulations.
Tile stores, and the home goods industry strive to provide a sense of security and belonging people want to feel when they are in their homes. Setting up stores to look like a room or area one would live in is key to allowing the customer to imagine themselves in the comfort of their own home, and therefore for stores to sell better. Being able to strategize store set up and visualize a life-like representation of them provides the National Tiles head office to perfect their stores like no other in the industry.
About Amy Spasojevic
Amy is a Store Design & Visual Merchandising Manager at National Tiles, with years of experience across multiple sectors including, fashion, homewares, and more recently in the flooring industry. Amy combines her knowledge from both local and global markets to drive forward brands with detailed space planning and conceptualizing ideas that engage the customer on a journey throughout the store.
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