Fall 2009
GIFT SHOP Magazine’s 2009 Ultimate Makeover By Poornima Apte

Makeover Expenses

Colored Panels & Miscellaneous Hardware
$100

Children's soft form mannequin & Two full body mannequins
$350

Total
$450

This year’s makeover went to Le Papillon, a long-standing gift store in New Jersey. Find out how some tested merchandising techniques executed by OneCoast’s visual merchandising team—on a $500 budget—worked wonders for the store.

Le Papillon is a wonderful store in Rumson, NJ, with a focus on both apparel and gift items. Storeowner Mary Louise van der Wilden explained that many years ago, in 1984, her husband had a separate high-end decorative brass hardware shop in the area called The Brass Horn. Then when Home Depot showed up, he gradually started adding gift accessories to the store’s offerings. In 2002, he passed away and Mary Louise decided to merge The Brass Horn and Le Papillon into one.

This year, Roberta King, territory manager for OneCoast, nominated Le Papillon for a store makeover for several reasons. “This store has been in business for many years, owned by Mary Louise and her husband. When he passed away a few years back she rose to the occasion and with her strength, kept it going. It has so much potential but I felt it could use some enhancements to support the love Mary Louise has for her store and especially her customers in this beautiful town,” King said.

Le Papillon employs eight part-time staff and van der Wilden says she is constantly reorganizing to keep the store looking fresh. She really appreciated having the store makeover to give things a breath of fresh air. “You always have to keep an open mind and look for new and fresh ideas,” she said.

Paul Thompson, the vice president of creative and visual merchandising for OneCoast and Marc Dudley, also an employee with OneCoast, executed the makeover over two days. In addition to his responsibilities at OneCoast, Thompson is also adjunct instructor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in the Home Products department.

GIFT SHOP thanks OneCoast for sponsoring the makeover. Jeremy Hirsch, vice president of marketing for the company, said terrific merchandising was one way that retailers could keep customers coming back to the store. “Retailers need to give their customers great reasons to visit their shops—particularly in today’s challenging economy,” Hirsch added.

For more images, please check out our Makeover site at http://giftshopmag.wpengine.com/makeover

Mouse over images below to view.

More of the redesign

The cluttered shelf is reworked to create one central “kids” theme. The soft mannequin positioned at the top serves to emphasize the point. Unsightly apparel has been moved out of the way. Notice also how the green fixture which was previously in the middle of the store has now been rearranged and set against the wall to diminish clutter.

As shown in the picture below, the bath and body products were getting lost because of all the apparel obstructing access. Thompson moved these products out to a separate shelf. The glass fixture with lighting has a white background applied to the cabinet. It makes the product group stand out and even better, blocks the “unsightly view of the sale rack of clothes that is behind this fixture,” Thompson said.

One of the primary goals of the makeover was to make product groups stand out better. Colored backgrounds such as those shown here tend to do this effectively. Notice how the yellow flowers placed on top of the shelf tie in the screen’s background color really well.

Thompson noted how the apparel section of the store was often separate from the gift section and he tried to cross-merchandise between the two. To this effect, two full body mannequins were bought as part of the makeover. This way, “the fashion component of the store could be seen in the home section of the store,” Thompson pointed out.

This coastal, summery display got the store ready for the summer. “Using summer beach theme is appropriate and the new mannequin is dressed in summer cocktail/casual adding a cross-merchandising element that is sophisticated,” Thompson said.

Another goal of the makeover was to create elaborate “tablescapes” that effectively showcased relevant merchandise in the store. These examples show how color and height are worked in to create beautiful displays. In the sunflower shot, for example, the effort to give more “volume” to the table included hanging the hand-forged brass light above the table, adding the large sunflowers in a vase and large rooster for dimension, Thompson pointed out.

Mary Louise van der Wilden was delighted with the makeover results. “Everything looks great and we are constantly getting the most positive comments,” she said. She added that the Beatriz Ball items were doing great and that she had to send away for reorders twice since the makeover was executed. “Many thanks for giving us a new lease on retail life,” she added.

Paul Thompson was happy to note the store’s success and pointed out that the fact that van der Wilden moved product so well spoke to the power of visual merchandising.