Seasonal Visual Merchandising: 4 Key Considerations
As the smell of wet soil vanishes and spring approaches, retailers start their preparation for the next festive season. It’s time for crowded stores, with sparkling decor and colour banners all over the streets with magnificent seasonal delicacies being produced. However, seasonal markets have various objectives to overcome. Stores must manage their compliance with handling their merchandising in various seasons with various customers as they must cater to a diverse audience in a huge market to ensure profits rain high during each season.
In simple terms, seasonality in visual merchandising refers to products relevant during a specific time of the year. Predominantly products are targeted during a specific time frame due to a certain cultural or geographic event. Seasonal visual merchandising is the practice of designing and arranging store displays and layouts to reflect seasonal themes or events, such as festivals like diwali, holidays or changing weather. This approach aims to enhance the shopping experience, attract customers, and boost sales by aligning store aesthetics with current trends and seasonal demands.This could mean anything from unique discounts during Diwali or New Year, or sales of products like cold drinks rising during the summer season, as there is a seasonal boost in the demand for such products.
Seasonal visual merchandising is more than just visual presentation as it is a purpose for selling the brand story to the customer and driving sales by creating a memorable shopping experience for them. Highlighting certain products such as traditional dresses during festival time or sweaters during winter causes enthusiasm and creates a place for impulsive buying in the market. Furthermore, they create a festive atmosphere for your store through the variety of changes witnessed during the year and changes in the store during the year.
As each season changes, there are changes in the environment, which should be displayed by POSM. Keeping your POSM updated with messages and promotions resonating with changes in the season to create an atmosphere that encourages the feeling of the featured season. Use eye-catching colourful signage with local celebrities or models featuring various languages to reach a wider community and in-store audience with specialized tailored PSOM.
2. The Hiring of a Seasonal Specialist in Visual Merchandising
Example: Hiring a well-experienced visual merchandiser through companies like Channelplay which would provide a visual merchandiser specializing in Indian cultures and design to make sure displays are striking and culturally appropriate.
The usage of digital signage is more cost-efficient as it creates more opportunities for more creative and technologically advanced signage. Through digital signage’s flexibility, many different seasons can be covered through a single signage reducing the need for buying new signages. But to create cost efficiency, the use of chaos boards and handmade signage such as Warli paintings can add pride in culture and create a unique aesthetic look for your seasonal display.
4. Keeping up Fixture Maintenance
Example: Proper fitting of racks and seats that are well maintained would allow them to have a longer lifespan and would be useful and could be used in more creative ways in different seasons.
