No sooner are retailers over the Christmas, New Year and back-to-work-and-school rushes. The whole cycle of annual marketing and merchandising campaigns starts up again. The first major event, Valentine’s Day, has been and gone, meaning the next important date for small business calendars is Easter. Which stretches from Good Friday on March 30 to the Easter Monday public holiday on April 2nd.

Traditionally Easter is a family-orientated holiday which in the Northern Hemisphere heralds the start of Spring. Therefore celebrated as the first holiday of the year connected with outdoors activities and good weather. In New Zealand, Easter still carries all the significant themes of family, Easter eggs and hunts, the Easter bunny, and, of course, the Christian festival. Celebrating the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, on which the holiday is based.

But because New Zealand is heading towards autumn at this time of year (Daylight Saving ends the previous weekend on March 25th). Retailers are able to draw on traditional Northern Hemisphere themes for their merchandising and displays. As well as pointing their customers towards products more suitable to autumn and winter. So to make sure your small retail business has an egg-sellent Easter (sorry for that), here are a few Mills Display tips and ideas to attract customers and transform your store.

1. Be prepared and start early

Your planning for specialised displays and Easter-specific items should be under way already – plenty of stores already have hot cross buns and Easter eggs for sale and the sooner you get them on the shelves the sooner they’ll end up in shoppers’ baskets and trolleys. The same goes for any displays you’re planning – make sure you’ve already got or ordered additional signage, props or display cabinets before your Easter stock arrives.

2. Plan and create a window display

The first impression your business makes is via your shop window so it has to reflect both what you have in stock and the type and style of business you run. Some retailers might choose to run a religious theme over festivals such as Christmas or Easter but the more typical theme – even in the Southern Hemisphere – is centred around spring using themes of Easter eggs, the Easter bunny, egg hunts and flowers.

3. Staging and styling your shop window is an artform but some golden rules include:

• Tell a story rather than simply display your products (eg take elements of an Easter egg hunt and create “hidden” items as part of the display.
• Don’t clutter the display and be clear with you message (if you have an Easter sale, make it very clear)
• Be bold and use bright colours, strong lines and eye-catching props and products to attract customers.

4. Think about customers’ buying patterns before the long weekend

New Zealand trading rules over Easter might mean that your business isn’t able to open through the weekend so it’s important to stock up on items (especially food and drink) which people buy in bulk ahead of Easter Sunday. Long-weekends are also traditionally times when Kiwis do work on their homes and gardens or get away to baches and holiday homes – you might want to theme your Easter weekend displays along those lines too.

5. Devote an area of the store for Easter products

If you are using Easter as the reason for a large merchandising campaign, gather all the related products into one area of the store so customers don’t have to work too hard to make decisions. You might be using Easter to sell chocolate and buns, DIY products or fishing gear, or you might run an end-of-summer Easter sale – but if it is all tied to one campaign, it makes sense to devote a specific part of the store to how you display it.

6. Choose merchandise which points towards family

Overall, Easter is a family holiday typified by presents (mostly chocolate, admittedly) for the children, large get-togethers over meals (possibly the last time to crank up the barbecue before Daylight Saving ends), and journeys to visit relatives or the family bach. When you’re merchandising your store – even the areas not designed just for Easter-related products – consider extra stands or strip clips which push related items for family meals, gifts or travel. High-volume retail periods such as Easter ae great opportunities to cross and up-sell products.

7. Use Easter as a marketing and community opportunity

Easter is the ideal season to run community or family-minded events and to reward customer loyalty. You can promote your displays by bringing in entertainers or arranging themed competitions and by promoting your business through social and local media. And, remember, whenever you are engaging with new or familiar customers, it’s an opportunity to get feedback and information from them – and that data is vital to help drive your business forward.

8. Keep track of your sales data to help prepare for next year

Take photos of your displays and keep notes on how you planned this Easter campaign. You’ll be able to compare this data and sales data both year-on-year and alongside other seasonal marketing and merchandising campaigns to see what works and how your displays and products can be improved.

Enquire Now with Mills Display

If you want Mills Display to help your business get a unique look by sourcing the best retail display products from around the world, message or LiveChat us via the website or call us on 09 634 5962.

Follow us on Facebook and Google My Business for our latest products and NZ Retail updates. Also, take a look at our 8 innovative retail merchandise display ideas for you.

Mills Display can supply all the point of sale accessories you require for your retail shelving, display cabinets, signage for your retail products. We can even produce customised products to help enhance your brand. But merchandising takes more then simple hardware. Read our top tips for effective merchandising displays.

Make the most of your store with these effective merchandising displays

1. The golden rule is to be innovative…

   Customers are bombarded constantly by new products sold through superlatives (the best this, the most that…). It’s up to you as retailers to make them stop and think. This is crucial for effective merchandising displays.

2. Talk to your suppliers

   What works for you is going to benefit them too? Ask your suppliers what has worked for other retailers or what they can do to help your merchandisers.

3. Talk to your customers

   Find out how they are using the products and incorporate that into your merchandising. Alternatively, find out any issues your customers have and try to find solutions from your existing stock. Then market those solutions direct to the customer.

4. Test and measure

   Trying new ideas might not work at first. However, if you have a way of gauging how well a merchandising idea is working then you can drop it quickly, adapt it, reinforce it or grow it. Accurate measurement and analysis allows you to be flexible. For effective merchandising displays, you definitely have to obey this rule.

5. Have long-term strategies

   Don’t focus on what’s working or not working right now. Use point of sale data alongside information canvassed from suppliers, employees and customers. This is how you can create easy-to-access databases on each of your products. You need to know how many items are sold, at what price and when to have a grip on what’s working. Do that and you can have seasonal merchandising strategies rather than knee-jerk reactions.

6. Appeal to the senses

   Nearly all the latest trends in in-store marketing and merchandising revolve around the five senses: touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. This is because of the reaction to impersonal shopping practices of the past. Another reason is the growth of interactive and social media, which helps the effective merchandising displays.

   

7. Mix your merchandising strategies according to your products

   Your key areas are:

• Promoting frequently purchased items to increase customers
• Increased margins on high-quality products to push profits
• Push impulse purchases to increase value of transactions
• Generate better cash flow by pushing greater turnover of top sellers
• Back up your store’s “narrative” and what you stand for by strategizing around specifics like price, customer service and variety.
• Create authority and loyalty with aggressive pricing, comparisons to other stores, loyalty programmes etc.
• Generate urgency among customers by pushing seasonal, impulse and media-savvy products.

For more information about how Mills Display can provide you with the right retail display products to support your sales staff, email us or talk to one of our salespeople on Live Chat. Also, take a look at our 8 innovative retail merchandise display ideas for you.

Enquire Now with Mills Display

If you want Mills Display to help your business get a unique look by sourcing the best retail display products from around the world, message or LiveChat us via the website or call us on 09 634 5962.

Follow us on Facebook and Google My Business for our latest products and NZ Retail updates. Also, take a look at our 8 innovative retail merchandise display ideas for you.