How to Use Slatwall in a Boutique

Slatwall is one of the most versatile retail display products on the market. Boutiques are in a great position to gain the most benefit from using slatwall panels to merchandise their displays. If you own or work for a boutique, you know that space can often be limited. In a boutique atmosphere, sometimes the décor is as important as the merchandise itself. So, using slatwall systems to help you make the most of your space can be very rewarding. Read on to learn how slatwall could be helping you run your business more effectively.

1) Slatwall is installed in panels. Slatwall panels can be purchased in different sizes to fit the space that you have. You can also have slatwall panels cut to fit your space. This is useful in odd spaces, such as underneath stairs or in other areas where the ceiling slants. It can help you to utilize all of the little nooks and crannies in your boutique. This technique greatly reduces your need for more space.

2) Slatwall also helps you to accessorize. By hanging items that go together in the same area, you can easily show your customers what goes with each outfit. They may not have thought to buy that purse or hat until you put them together on your slatwall display.

3) Slatwall allows you to use more mannequin forms in a small space. Mannequins are the most effective marketing tool available to retailers. However, if you don’t have much space, full-sized mannequin displays may not have ever entered your plan. Using mannequin torso forms allows you to hang the mannequin in the space that it takes to hang a shirt or pants. Simply hang the clothes facing out, dress the mannequin, and hang it in front of the rack. A slatwall display can be very dynamic and effective.

4) Your slatwall will be your best friend when it comes to rearranging displays. The versatility is probably its number one selling point. You can quickly and easily rearrange hanging bars, shelves, hooks, and other slatwall accessories to accommodate your inventory. If you’re running out of something, you can simply space out the other things around it to take up the space. Your displays will always look full and inviting to your customers.

5) Promotions, merchandising, and changing the seasons are so easy with slatwall and slatwall panels. You can replace items and move things around really easily without tearing your store apart. Boutique owners love this because they are usually working alone or with very little staff. You can replace one thing at a time until it’s done without making it a huge undertaking.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail displays, including mannequins, dress mannequin forms, female mannequins, slatwall and slatwall panels. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com.

Boutique Merchandising Tips

Merchandising in a small boutique can be challenging, especially if you’re new to the business. You want your boutique to look fresh and inviting while maintaining its unique charms. However, problems arise when you want to carry more inventory or expand on your merchandise. You need to accomplish both to be successful.

Carrying more products can help you to bring in more money. It can bring you customers that you didn’t appeal to before. It can keep your current customers interested and coming back time and again. Keeping your product line interesting and profitable is definitely a priority. Having the inventory on hand to satisfy your customers and hold up during promotions and busy seasons is also important. So what do you do if you want to turn more profit, gain new customers, and expand if you are in a limited space?

There are a few ways that you can accomplish this. You need to make space so that your sales floor isn’t overcrowded. Too many products in one area can make your boutique look crowded and uninviting. You won’t sell more simply by squeezing more in. You can invest in garment racks that stand taller to give you more room. This helps you to take advantage of vertical space. However, if racks stand too tall, it can make it difficult to keep an eye on your store when you suspect that someone is considering shoplifting.

Another way to take advantage of vertical space is on your walls. You can use gridwall or slatwall systems to display your items vertically without sacrificing attractiveness. There are many benefits to using gridwall and slatwall.

One is the manner in which they display your products. Instead of your shirts, coats, and dresses facing each other, they can hang facing outward. This type of visibility allows customers to shop with ease. They can easily see what you have to offer without digging through crowded clothing racks.

When you’re ready to add more inventory, the versatility of the grid wall or slat wall will amaze you. You can squeeze things closer together without making them look crowded. You can make unique spaces for new inventory with very little effort, simply by moving the hooks around.

You can also display your accessories right beside the outfits that you think they look best with. By displaying your items on the wall, you can free up floor space to display ensembles on mannequins. Mannequins are the number one selling tool in the retail industry and using gridwall and slatwall will allow you to take full advantage of them.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail displays, including mannequins, dress mannequin forms, female mannequins, gridwall and slatwall store fixtures. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com.

Dress Up Your Boutique

The holidays are a perfect time to get your boutique looking out of this world. You’re going to have a lot more traffic than normal and you need to make a good impression. These steps will help you to keep things fresh, impress your customers, makes sells, and showcase your merchandise.

1) Make sure that your clothing racks and displays are kept nice and neat. People’s first impressions are important. You don’t want them to feel like you don’t care about the way your boutique looks. Make an effort to constantly straighten racks and stacks of clothing so that it looks presentable. This also helps to keep the clothes wrinkle free. Use nice hangers, like wooden hangers, to keep clothing separated on the garment rack. Little touches like this will keep your store looking fabulous.

2) Keep your clothing displays stocked. People think that you are about to put something on clearance if the rack is looking lean. Studies show that people bypass racks that are not stocked because they either think that something is wrong with the clothes and you are no longer going to carry them, or they think that their size is likely not there, so they don’t want to waste their time. During the holiday season, especially, you need to keep the inventory coming. If you notice something selling quickly, make sure that you have plenty of stock on hand to keep that display full.

3) Keep it fresh. People will often visit a store more than once during the holiday season. Keep it interesting by rearranging your displays daily. An easy way to do this is to use mannequins. Your mannequins are an easy way to keep things changing while helping to make sales. They are bar none the number one most effective merchandising tool on the market. They show people, at a glance, what items look like when worn. This serves many purposes. Customers don’t have to try on something to see that they like it. It draws attention to feature displays. It personalizes outfits, making it easy for customers to imagine themselves in the outfit.

Using a dress mannequin or female mannequin designed for dresses makes a huge difference in the way that dresses are viewed. Test out the theory by putting a different dress on your dress mannequin every day and see how the one on the mannequin outsells the rest every time. Women especially imagine themselves in clothing. They want to know how it will make them feel, not just how it looks, so mannequins posed correctly help to drive that feeling right into their consideration, boosting sales and the impression of your store.

Keeping things organized and using your mannequin displays to help sell certain items is a great thing to focus on this holiday season. Stay on top of it and your boutique may have its most successful season yet!

About the Author: Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail displays, including mannequins, dress mannequin forms, female mannequins, gridwall and slatwall store fixtures. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com.

Boutique Visual Marketing

Creating a visual marketing approach for your boutique should be part of your business plan. Creating your own visual scheme can be fun and easy. Using this information will help you to narrow down decisions that you need to make when designing the look of your boutique. It can help you avoid mistakes and keep you from sending mixed signals to your customers. Stick to a good visual marketing plan, and you can more easily and effectively establish a brand image with your target market.

Price Suggestion: This is the first thing to consider. Once you know who your target demographic is, you should begin to get a feel for what your prices should look like. When you have decided on prices, the next step is to design your store around the idea of “price suggestion”. You can get a general idea of a store’s prices when you simply look at it. Lots of empty space, low racks, no price tags and no fluorescent lights suggests high priced items. Colorful giant sale signs, crammed garment racks, and bad lighting suggests discount bargain store. Planning the look and feel of your store around your prices will not only help to attract the target market, but it will also discourage those who are unlikely to spend any money in your boutique.

Layout: The layout of a store is another reflection of price and quality. Aisles in straight lines big enough for shopping carts are for discount department stores. They usually have a tile “track” for carts that surrounds carpeted areas that slow down wheels for department lingering. You will see promotional items and impulse items around the track to stop and entice passing customers into entering the carpeted area.

A boutique, however, has a much different objective. Boutique owners want customers to enjoy being there. They should be surprised, dazzled and pleased at the unique items that they find as they go deeper into the store. Boutiques often have a very random layout meant to stop and engage the customer every few feet. Sections of the boutique may even be completely hidden by other displays until the customer rounds the corner. This helps to facilitate the surprise factor when the merchandise is revealed.

Consumer Response: Boutique owners want to further engage their customers by delighting the senses. This adds to the boutique experience. You will often see interesting lighting, colors, textures and designs. Lights will be pleasing to the eye, not harsh or bright. Smells of incense, perfume, soaps or candles will get the customer even more involved. Calming scents can encourage more browsing. The smell of suntan lotion can put the customer in the mood to buy swimwear. The possibilities here are endless.

Merchandising: The customer needs to be able to see what kind of items you offer by glancing, not by digging. Slatwall or gridwall displays can keep the clothing facing outward where it is easily seen. But, you still need to show what these items look like on. Displaying a 3D visual, like a mannequin, is the most effective strategy of visual marketing. If someone can see what items actually look like on, then they are more likely to walk over and check it out. Limp clothing on a hanger doesn’t attract much attention.

Use these tips to help with setting up your boutique in an effective manner. It can save you time, money and help you make loyal, long-term customers.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail display cases including mannequins, mannequin forms, gridwall and slatwall store fixtures. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com.