Hi All,

Midwest Displays provides all kind of retail display products like window displays, estate agents display, acrylic displays, rotating displays, exhibition equipments and much more.

Fore more details visit http://www.midwestdisplays.co.uk

Regards

Indu Dennis

Webmaster

What are you featuring in your windows and front zone displays right now? Have you restyled them to reflect the season, new merchandise, and new inspiration? It's simple to refresh existing merchandise to look new and appealing to customers...

It's important to get a fresh start after the holidays - your customers will be coming in with gift cards, gift certs, and money they received, and they deserve to see fresh new ideas. Inspiring them to buy what you offer can be as simple as taking what you already have and combining it in a new way to reflect the season...

1. Color, my approach to store design is simple use paint to change the mood. Your store should be neutralized with wall colors like Benjamin Moore: Delaware Putty, White Sand or even Bronze Beige. Pick 1 area in your store that you can color block - one of my favorite colors for the Xmas season is Rouge by Benjamin Moore. Try this one -  all it takes is a quart of paint.
 
2.    Special note about  merchandising - only products that sell well should be on your floor at this time. You should have reports in hand that show you what sold and what didn't from last year. I hope your products reflect what your customers want and will buy. Make sure you are  bringing products out from the stock room daily.

3.    Staff training must continue weekly - focus on selling, product knowledge, store procedures and customer service. I know it's busy but a weekly check-in with your staff is a must. Never stop training; never stop getting feedback from your staff on how things are going.

4.    Daily work plans for every staff member are a must - your goal setting doesn't change when things get busy. It can be even more crucial at this time. I believe if it's in writing it keeps the work that needs to be done in the forefront of your staff's mind.

Joanne Versaggi says she should have joined Facebook a long time ago. She had pooh-poohed the social networking site but finally gave in.

"Facebook is one of the main ways I market the company," she told me. Her friends became "fans" and they recommended the store to their friends, and the process snowballed. Versaggi has welcomed shoppers from 40 miles away who found the store through Facebook.

Versaggi founded melange Home Décor, a 1,200-square-foot store in Marlton, NJ, in 2005.

Over the years, she has changed the way she markets the business and the website.

"I rarely do publication advertising," she told me. Partly that's because she is watching her advertising and marketing costs. "But I believe there are other, less costly ways to do so," like Facebook, website marketing and e-mail. She does very little direct mail.

There are many ways to look at kiosks. You know, the kinds we find in malls and strip centers.

For some they are bread and butter.

For some they are a foot up to what the kiosk operators/owners may call a "real" store.

For some they are pains in the neck--competitors who pay less for their space, don't have the build-out expenses nor (sometimes) the common area maintenance (CAM) fees that the full-fledged, built-in stores  have. And that makes them tough competitors indeed.

Good capitalists argue that competition keeps everyone on their toes, including the kiosk owners. And one can hardly argue with that.

So, maybe everyone should take a second look at the possibilities here. Let's play what would happen if . . .

Bobbi Ogle has her hands full. She's getting used to a new location, figuring out a new clientele, building her Facebook presence and looking for new sources. Welcome to retail, right?

Ogle owns Interior Motives, an interior design business in Nevada, Mo., a city  of about 13,000 located between Kansas City, Kansas, and Joplin, Mo.  In February, she moved her studio and store from a historic area to a building she bought on the square downtown.

The increased visibility has meant a new clientele, one that seeks gifts. In response, Ogle has added more cash-and-carry items. While shoppers might find a design showroom intimidating, they aren't shy about browsing in a retail store, she said.

Tough economic times often call for tough decisions.  Independent book seller Jan Loveland has experienced this firsthand.  She's closing her small bookstore, Cranesbill Books, at the end of the year.  ''I think that the small ... bookstore/gift shop is going to be a rarer and rarer thing to find,'' Loveland said.

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending Ocean City, NJ's annual congregation of small retailers, its mile-long Block Party, where over 400 independent retailers set up stands and invited the public to stroll freely amongst them as the people ate, shopped, and perused the offerings.  Everything from cookies to clothing to crafts lined the street, and musicians played family-friendly music while kettle corn was popped and pizza was baked.  A first-class fireworks show ended the evening.  A full description of the event can be found here.

When people talk about your business what are they saying?  Do you know?  More importantly, are people even talking about your business?  Have you given them something to talk about?

Roy H. Williams, aka Wizard of Ads, mentioned three ways at a recent conference to help you get WOM (word-of-mouth) from your customers.

First, you could choose to be over-the-top excellent in Design.  Your store layout, merchandising, decorating, facade and mood could be so unique and outstanding that people talk about it for days and weeks afterward.  Have you ever seen the Ferris Wheel at the Times Square Toys R Us?  That's over-the-top Design. 

Seeing the first Christmas ad of the year is a lot like seeing your first gray hair - it's a wake-up call.  It's become almost cliché to acknowledge how early Christmas envelopes our advertisements, circulars, and window displays, but every year it seems that the twinkling lights and singing snowmen work their way closer and closer to summertime as businesses look to start the holiday rush early. 

Pre-Halloween Christmas displays aren't as crazy as you'd think.   A John Lewis store in Hampshire, England put up its Christmas display in September.  By doing this, they've made headlines.  And as they say, any publicity is good publicity.

So while an early Christmas display might bring some novelty to your storefront, it might also seem a bit overbearing (especially in economic times such as these).  Now might be the time to start planning for your storefront's holiday décor.