Summer 2010

Tried and Tested: Testing Station Basics By Natalie Tan

Providing customers with experiential shopping promotes sales. This is especially true when you’re selling bath and body products. Testing stations, however small, are essential for effective selling in the merchandise category. Here are some do’s and don’ts to consider when setting one up in your store.

Testing stations come in various styles, sizes and formats. If bath and body products are only one part of your merchandise mix, chances are you set your testers out right in front of the display.

Since the brand experience (and therefore, sales) hinges on how well your testing station performs, it might help to pay attention to a few basics when setting up and maintaining one in your store. Learn from the examples in this article and set up a testing station that really pushes product for your store.

Height Matters

The optimum height for product testers is between eye and waist level.

Here, merchandise is located below the optimum level and fails to encourage customers to try the products.

Here all test products are grouped and housed within the units at eye level. A bonus: A great sign that encourages customers to try the products.

Easy Access

Ultimately your goal is to have customers try the product and then buy it. To buy product, they need access to it. Remove fixtures that block the very units that hold merchandise.

Here two units are displayed side by side, thereby hindering easy access to products.

Here products are within easy reach. Another bonus is that prices are prominently displayed upfront.

Eye on Inventory

Keeping units full of products conveys abundance and product availability. The purpose of a testing station is to allow customers a full experience of the range of merchandise.

This unit is in dire need of replenishment or simply needs to be taken off the floor.

This testing station shows a wonderful range of products in the best possible light.

Cleanliness is Crucial

Ensuring for a positive experience at this crucial selling point is vital to sales performance. This means not only filling in empty slots but also ensuring that test products are shown in their best possible light.

This unit is just begging to be cleaned or refilled.

This station wins big for being fully stocked and clean. The lipsticks are free of smudges and the unit is very well maintained.

Natalie Tan

A retail specialist passionate about store atmospherics, Natalie Tan loves working with retailers and speaks at gift shows and conventions. Visit her website at www.retailexcellence.com.