Display and Promotion Ideas for Boutiques

Boutiques are in an exclusive position to really get creative with their displays and promotions. What might seem out of place or over the top in a traditional retail store can make a boutique interesting and unique. Use this fact to your advantage when you are creating your displays. You might just find that certain merchandising tools, such as mannequins, can help you to brand your image, sell your clothing and accessories, and help you to make a lasting impression on your customers. Actually, an interesting window display can bring in a lot of new customers on its own.

To create an exceptional display utilizing mannequins, you need to first consider your store image. If you want your boutique to be recognized for its individual style and unique décor or standards, then you need to make sure that your displays communicate this message. Having an ordinary display can make your boutique appear dull and boring. This is the last thing that you want when you own a boutique.

Shoppers are interested in boutiques for many different reasons. They love the charm, the interesting decorations, the personal service, and the unique products and brands that boutiques usually offer. You can use your window display to quickly communicate to passer bys that you, in fact, offer just the things they’re looking for.

For example, you can display signs or window clings provided by the companies whose brands you carry. This tiny form of advertisement will attract people looking for those hard to find brands that you carry. You can then attract people looking for personal service by advertising your services. A small sign should be sufficient. Have it communicate the unique services that you offer, such as free alterations, personal styling, custom fittings, whatever the service may be.

Nothing in your window display is as important as the mannequin display. Mannequins communicate to customers the atmosphere and attitude of your boutique. People connect with mannequins on different levels as soon as they lay eyes on one. This marketing phenomenon has mad mannequins the number one selling tool in retail for decades.

Customers rely on their first impressions to determine if they trust the business. They need to trust you in order to decide to buy. They need to see what you’re offering, imagine themselves owning, using and wearing your products, and be able to determine how that would make them feel. If a customer does not go through this process within the first few seconds of looking at your display, then they are not likely to enter the store or buy anything.

Use this knowledge to your advantage. Set ups female mannequin displays to attract women. Use mannequins that are specifically designed for your products, for example, use a dress mannequin for dresses. Be sure to select clothing and accessories that communicate the style of boutique that you run. If you use mannequin displays and window displays to accomplish that positive first impression, your sales could really increase and your customers will stay interested and loyal.

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.

A Professional’s Guide to Consumer Behavior

Understanding consumer behavior is essential when you are preparing your store for the new year. Marketing and merchandising are centered around how you will make consumers feel, think, and act. The main goal of marketing is to influence the way that consumers think. Motivating them to decide to buy what you want them to buy is what must be accomplished to ensure a profitable selling season.

Customers are as influenced by experience as they are by product positioning and presentation. Training your employees to offer customer service above and beyond what the customer expected can go a long way in influencing consumer behavior. When an escalated situation is handled professionally, nicely, and effectively, an aggravated customer is likely to make a purchase and return in the future. One reason is that they now have a connection with your store and your staff.

In real life, going through an ordeal that ends with a favorable outcome draws people closer together and strengthens their relationship. The same applies for customers who have a problem. Try not to dread dealing with irate customers. Look at difficult situations as ways to bond and turn problems into favorable relationships than you could not have originally obtained.

Make sure that customers feel as if you understand and acknowledge their problem. Listen more than you speak. Solve their problem in a way that exceeds their expectation and you’ve struck gold. Not only does the customer have a stronger bond with you, but they have an incident to talk about with their friends. If they walk away feeling like you handled the situation in a professional and personal manner, then they are going to spread the word.

Product positioning is also important when your intention is to influence consumer behavior. First you must understand what type of customer you are trying to influence. Are your customers looking for deals? Are they looking for quality? Are they shopping for others? Determine which sets of customers you would like each display to appeal to and go from there. For example, a table set up with sweaters that would make great gifts may be tied with ribbon to resemble a present. You could place a sign here that informs customers about your free gift wrap services.

Position your displays in areas where customers are likely to decide to make purchases. Your big attractors should be in the front of the store to draw customers in. However, you do not want all of your best finds to be right in the door, or customers will get more disappointed as they move through and leave with a bad impression. Use mannequins and signage to draw customers back further and further into the store. Impulse buys along the aisles that receive the most traffic will help to lure the customers in. Using a mannequin, like a female mannequin or male mannequin, can help you to position your product where it can be easily seen. For example, someone standing twenty feet away may notice your dress mannequin wearing a coat that they really like and move back to that area. If the coat was simply hanging, the customer would have never gone back there.

Use mannequins, spread out your merchandise, and always treat your customers with respect. You will keep the sales going through busy and slow seasons year round.

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.

Green Your Boutique

Want to make a good impression on your customers and feel better about your boutique’s impact on the environment? Use these tips to get your boutique or retail store headed in the right direction.

1. Recycle and use recycled products. Let people know that you care about recycling by providing recycle bins as well as normal trash receptacles in your store.

2. Offer online offers instead of mailers. Turn your business into a paperless environment if possible. Urge customers to let you e-mail a receipt to them instead of using paper. If you can, use recycled printer paper and receipt paper.

3. Use bamboo and organic fabrics whenever possible. People are actually looking to buy more organic cotton and renewable bamboo fabrics. Not only are these fabrics safer for our skin, but they are safer for the environment as well. Pesticides and toxic fertilizers used in cotton fields contaminate our water supply and farmland. People are becoming more and more aware of the dangers of conventional farming and they don’t want to support it. Using organic fabrics when you can will get the attention of these environmentally conscious consumers.

4. Post signs about charities that you donate money to. Give customers the option to donate to organizations that help the environment by cleaning up waste, recycling or planting trees. You can put brochures or signs near your checkout letting customers know that a portion of your proceeds will go to charities that help save the Earth and our precious natural resources.

5. Make it obvious that you are helping the environment by using bamboo instead of wood all over your store. Floors, tables, hangers, desks and doors can all be made of bamboo. You can use bamboo hangers to make sure that the message is loud and clear that you care about the environment, without sacrificing the look and feel of your store’s image.

6. Utilize as much natural light as possible to save on electricity. Sky lights are cheap to install and can even be used as spot lights. Use sheer curtains so that light can always come in. Use fans instead of central cooling whenever possible.

7. Advertise to your customers the ways that you are helping the environment and be open to suggestions. You can use a male or female mannequin to help. You can come up with creative ways to use your mannequins and displays to spread the message of saving the earth. It can be something as simple as using a dress mannequin to display your organic cotton or bamboo wear. Their shirts could have positive messages about recycling and using Earth friendly products. You can even post little signs next to their mouths with messages to your customers. Using a mannequin to spread the message is an effective way to spread the word that your boutique is an environmentally friendly one.

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.

How Mannequins Influence Consumer’s Decisions to Buy

If you don’t have mannequins in your store or boutique, then you could be making a big mistake. There are so many benefits to having mannequins in the store that you probably haven’t even begun to imagine how they could help you.

Most retailers invest a little in mannequins simply to fill out their window displays. Well, they soon discover that there are so many other benefits! Mannequins can not only help you to make money, but can actually save you money, influence your customers to buy, reduce your losses, and save your employees’ time. Here we’ve listed just a few ways that mannequins can help you. Once you start getting into them you’re bound to discover new and exciting ways to use them.

Almost all sales are unplanned. This is why it is so important to influence the people that pass by your store. Consumers have a deep seeded desire to fit into a group or vision that they have of themselves. When looking to buy clothing, they go through a process of imagining themselves wearing the clothes, what they might be doing while they are wearing them, and how that might make them feel. If all areas of their decision making process are satisfied, they are likely to make a purchase.

Using a mannequin not only gives them the subconscious approval of other human beings, but also forces the image of the clothes being worn into the mind. The consumer instantly starts going through the process in their mind whether they planned to or not. Even if they would have never looked twice at the clothes on the rack, seeing them on the mannequin almost forces them to consider it. This is a powerful marketing tactic that helps boost sales.

Mannequins throughout the store can help your customers to locate items that they may be interested in. If they pass the front of the store and nothing really grabs them, they are likely to stop wasting time and leave. But mannequins offer a big visual clue as to what is in store if they keep travelling deeper in. They may see dress mannequins in the back that catch their eye. Big hats or brightly colored clothing are helpful here, too. This gives you the opportunity to have customers check out your other promotions along the way.

Mannequin displays can also help you to reduce losses. Put them in areas where shoplifters might think that they will find some cover. Mannequins, especially tall or elevated ones, give people the feeling that they are being watched. This is often enough to deter a thief. It is especially effective if you spotlight the mannequin or arrange things in a way that give the shoplifter little cover. Don’t put circular racks in a back corner, it is too easy to hide from the cameras, mirrors, employees, etc. Open bottom tables are better displays for these areas, or simply leave the floor clear and rely on spaced out gridwall or slatwall displays.

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.

Mannequin Displays for the Holidays

The holiday season is the perfect time for retail stores to get back into the black. Make sure that you take advantage of the extra traffic that you’ll have passing your store. Your window displays are a perfect place to grab attention, showcase your best apparel, and draw in new business. Use this guide to make sure that you’ve considered every angle in your visual merchandising plan.

1. Create a meaningful display. When customers can identify with a scene in a window, you tap into the reason that they are shopping. People make emotional connections with visual displays that they can relate to. Mannequins are perfect for this reason. If you can create a scene that pulls at their heart-strings, then you have really accomplished establishing that connection.

2. Shoppers are generally in a hurry to get their shopping done. They want good deals and they don’t want to shop for longer than necessary. They are often stressed, so a calming display can help to soothe their nerves and not want to turn the other way when they see the commotion inside your store. Christmas lights, fluffy snow, soft music, and touching scenes will do the trick.

3. Mannequins also help to slow customers down. If they see a scene, they will take just a moment to figure out what is going on. Give your mannequins a personality and have them interact with other mannequins. This accomplishes a lot of goals. One, the customer can quickly see what you have to offer, outfits, accessories, etc. Two, they can immediately see what those items look like when they are worn, automatically saving them some time. Then, before they know it, they have slowed down, their interest has been peaked, and they can see that the items in your store will fit their needs.

4. Utilize your window and mannequin displays to save shoppers time, but also to save your employees from constantly having to manage the fitting rooms and straighten your displays. When you use a lot of mannequins or hangable mannequin forms, not only will you be showing off merchandise that is normally hidden on a rack, but you are also showing them what it will look like on. Often times this will keep customers from unfolding things and trying them on, saving your employees precious time during the busy season.

5. Use the mannequins for their intention. There are so many on the market that you can really get detailed in your display. For example, dress mannequins are designed to make tailored dresses look their best. The expression on the female mannequin face, fitting hairstyles, and posability are all things to look for when you buy a mannequin. Imagine what feeling you want to get across and then shop for the mannequin that best suits your needs.

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.

Marketing with Mannequins

Mannequins can be your greatest asset when marketing your apparel. Mannequins have unsurpassed effectiveness in visual merchandising schemes. They get a lot of attention from customers and help to boost sales.

Mannequins show customers and even just people passing by what clothing will look like on. Mannequins are great for showing just how certain garments can be worn. A lot of clothing hangs limp on the hanger. This is especially true of light or flowing fabrics.

Dress mannequins are extremely effective in selling dresses. This is because almost no dress looks good simply hanging. Dresses need to fit the body in a certain way. A lot of simple dresses would just look like a long t-shirt hanging on the clothing rack, but may look stunning on a dress mannequin.

Accessory sales can skyrocket if you use your mannequins to promote them. Assemble the display with accessories that fit the style of the outfit. Hats, gloves, scarves, earrings, necklaces, purses, shoes, tights, and backpacks can all be included in your display. Don’t overload your mannequin with too much stuff or it can take attention away from the outfit that you really want to sell. But, using accessories will entice people to purchase more than they planned.

People like to see a mannequin showcase in stores because it gives them fashion ideas. A lot of times, the display will feature a new style that someone hasn’t thought of. For example, wearing combat boots with a sun dress, or a scarf with a short-sleeved blouse may not have occurred to them before they saw it in your display.

Putting outfits together keeps people from having to dig through racks and come up with the ideas on their own. Layering is an effective marketing tool because shoppers may not have purchased any of the items alone, but love the look of them layered together. So, instead of buying one shirt or nothing, they actually purchased a camisole, a sheer long-sleeved shirt, and a pullover sweater.

Displaying clothes on a mannequin won’t automatically make sales for you. You have to be creative enough to give your mannequin displays feeling. People can envision themselves in outfits worn by mannequins that they can relate to. Develop a scene that gives the display personality, or that creates a mood or feeling. These kind of displays help people to feel a certain way. Think about what feelings your customers have when they decide to purchase something. Do they feel sentimental, athletic, or beautiful? Help customers to get that feeling that they need to decide to go through with a purchase and your displays can be incredibly effective.

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.

Holiday Child and Teenage Mannequin Displays

Are you looking for ideas for bringing your mannequins to life this holiday season? Good for you! So many retail stores simply throw a Santa hat on their mannequin and say that they’re done. Getting your displays ready for the holidays should be a fun and creatively satisfying experience. Your efforts are more beneficial if you actually create scenes that evoke holiday feelings of wanting to give in your customers.

Here are a few ideas that you can use in your retail window displays. Use them as a guide or simply as inspiration when designing your showcase display.

A lot of parents will buy clothing for their children during the holiday season. Parents will want to see their children in a certain light. If you create a display that makes children look precious, loving, excited or happy this holiday season, you are sure to pull at the heartstrings of the parents.

Use child mannequins to create Christmas morning scenes. Lighting is important here because harsh lighting and fluorescent lights can detract from the feeling you are trying to communicate. You can even have your window display box dimly lit with lamps, electric candles, or Christmas lights. This is the time of year when you can really increase your sales, so go all out on your displays. You can build a staircase coming down with the children peeking through the bars. They could spot Santa playing with the puppy that he is leaving for them. Another idea is to communicate a child’s excitement when they are opening a gift. Or, you can show a child sleeping peacefully by the fire.

Here are some ideas for older children. Teenagers are really like young adults and often buy presents for each other. So, you really don’t have to target parents to have an effective teenage window display, but you do want to keep parents in mind. Teenagers are really into accessorizing, so use a lot of your accessories like purses, hats, and jewelry when you set up your mannequins.

An idea involving teenagers could be something like a female mannequin opening her locker to discover a small wrapped gift from a secret admirer. You can have a group of male mannequins hanging around, seemingly uninterested, but one boy is secretly looking at her. You can also set up a “best friends” scene. You can use a dress mannequin or two to show two girl friends giggling and whispering. Behind them, you can place a shy looking female mannequin and a male mannequin passing her a gift.

Whenever you come up with an idea, ask yourself if it purposely communicates a feeling. Is this a feeling that your target audience is looking to find when they shop in your store? If so, then your mannequins can make a big difference in your sales this holiday season.

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.

Retail Impressions with Mannequins

Designing a retail merchandising display takes a lot of thought and preparation. Use this guide to gain an understanding of the presentation process and how mannequins can make a difference in your sales. Here we will discuss mannequins as they relate to product presentation, showcase and customer impression. Mannequins, in particular, are effective, time-tested mediums for delivery of several marketing messages.

The first step is to analyze the marketing data as it relates to your target market. Meticulous planning will help you to zero in on the buying rationale of specific customers. You may even decide to survey your current customers to gain insight into their buying patterns, reasons for buying, their overall impression of your store, and more. Learning what turned a customer from considering a purchase to making one can be very valuable. Furthermore, you want to find out what draws them to your store in the first place.

Take a look at your competitors, particularly ones that are more successful than you. The store displays, store layout, showcases, and merchandising displays are probably crucial to getting customers and keeping them. You need to lure specific customers inside, and then deliver on the promise that you made them.

Making the first impression is, in general, telling the customer what they can expect when they enter. Gaining the customer’s trust is how you gain loyalty and business. Make sure that you keep the trust building at all times. For example, if they see fluorescent lights, big signs, and garment racks outside of the door, then they are being promised some good deals.

Once they enter, the “big sale” theme should continue and your prices should meet their expectations. They will probably be expecting mediocre customer service, low inventory, and very little personal attention as well as low prices. If you are having a big sale and are advertising it with big signs and bright lights, then this is your chance to exceed the customer’s expectations by treating them really well while they are in your store.

If you have really nice window displays with mannequins dressed in exciting new fashions, then that better not be all that you offer. Make sure that you continue to show the customer that you are on top of things once they enter. Mannequin displays and showcases should be throughout your store. They communicate more than you could tell a customer with words. Their position, expression, location and situation can say as much as the outfit that they are wearing.

If a customer is going to buy, they will need to somehow identify themselves with your store. This is why mannequins are so effective. People can identify with the human form, recognizing its attitude and place in society with a single glance. The more your customers identify with you, the more they will trust you and bring you business. When you position a dress mannequin, make sure that you are considering the attitude and social scene that your target market identifies with.

Using your mannequins to convey a message to your customers is a good way to gain their trust. Not only will you be luring people into the store, but you’ll be continually bombarding them with three dimensional impressions of how they wish they looked and felt. This technique of building customer trust can make a world of difference in your retail sales.

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 Mannequins Used for Networking

Boutiques have a lot of creative freedom when it comes to creating a showcase in their store. Mannequins make wonderful additions to a unique boutique’s displays and can be used to encourage customers to participate in networking for your business. You can use them in so many ways that the possibilities are truly endless. Here are a few creative ideas for you to make the most of the showcase mannequins in your boutique while encouraging customers to network with you and other people on social web sites.

A showcase display that uses mannequins is more of an attention-grabbing focal point than just a way to show how clothing looks when it is worn. To showcase something, you need to consider location, lighting and other creative elements. Many stores and boutiques create this kind of display in their entrance or in their window displays. But, you can use them all over your store to grab attention and keep it. This can be useful for drawing customers into areas of the boutique that get less traffic.

One idea is to have mannequins lounging around the store wearing your merchandise. If you have the space, you can place couches, chairs, tables or other furniture in different areas. Position mannequins on the couches, as if they’re just hanging out there. You can have female mannequins on the phone or powdering their noses, sitting on the couch. People will stop and look in surprise because they will initially think that they are real people. This kind of positioning will get more attention than a mannequin simply standing in front of a garment rack!

Another couch idea is to have the mannequin sitting and smiling with one arm on the back of the couch. When you see customers laughing at the cheesy grin on the mannequin’s face, you can ask them if they would like for you to take their picture posing with the mannequin. You can get the e-mail addresses of the customers and send them the funny pictures with your logo on the photo. The customer will then, most likely, post the photos to social networking sites and give you good exposure and free advertising.

Another idea is to use your mannequins as decorations. Dress forms (or dress mannequins) are sometimes produced in a vintage style. These are a lot like human shaped cages. You can use them to display clothing, but you can also use them in more creative ways. You can stuff the hollow inside with flowers, colored paper, packing peanuts, whatever you think is interesting. We saw an idea at blisstree.com for using a dress mannequin as a place card holder at a dinner party. You could do something similar, encouraging your customers to place their business cards on the dress mannequin for a chance to win something.

Coming up with interesting ways to create a showcase or to network with your customers will keep them interested in coming back to your store. People want to be inspired when they shop in boutiques, so make sure that you do not disappoint!

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