Fall 2009

Working Fixtures

Every gift shop has one or two favorite staple fixtures that can be redone to showcase seasonal displays. Here’s how one retailer works her favorite antique side table using basic principles of visual merchandising.

Retailer Cynthia Sutton-Stolle of Silver Barn, in Columbus, TX, has over 25 years’ experience in retail, handling public relations for retailers such as Sanger Harris Dept. Store, Units Clothing, Montgomery Ward and Claire’s Accessories.

Along with her business partner, she launched The Silver Barn in March 2008 and recently expanded store size. The Silver Barn now has about 3000 square feet of baby, wedding, gifts, antiques, Texas foods, home decor and bath/body products. The Velvet Frog, a clothing store inside the store, was also added. Cynthia’s daughter, a recent college graduate, owns this clothing store.

In June, the Chicago Market: Living and Giving honored Sutton-Stolle as their Retailer of the Month. Sutton-Stolle is a strong believer in online social networking (she is an active blogger) and above all in the power of visual merchandising. Store displays have greatly contributed to The Silver Barn’s success.

Cynthia will regularly provide GIFT SHOP readers with ideas for creative displays. If you have any visual merchandising questions you would like to see addressed, please email Poornima Apte at papte@giftshopmag.com.

Displays, whether for holiday, or any time of year, should be about helping your customer “see” the potential of what they can do with a product you have; this also helps them visualize your product mixed with something they may already have at home; something that just needs a little boost to make it special and unique.

Mouse over images below to view.

Display #1

Most of us have one or two accent pieces in store that can be used to showcase product effectively. Don’t clutter an accent piece with lots of little items. Shows options for holiday displays, as well as a groupings of similar product.

Fill the remaining space with items that complement the piece as well as each other.

Display #2

Give the piece a center of focus and keep the customer enjoying each element—the tall center, the lamp to the left, the gathering to the right slightly lower than the lamp, and of course the basket of ornaments to complete the look.

Marketing bonus: To take the display one step further, we promoted our gift cards as a gift idea using the holiday card display at back. This display also serves to frame the whole unit well and adds height.

Display #3

When setting up a tabletop display like this, have a central focus. Here we have the star on the wall and the largest frame. Fan out from there going smaller until you reach the outer boundaries. For added balance add a few small display items (here we used the metal bug and the plate).

Marketing bonus: Photo frame displays are a great way to subtly reinforce your brand. Consider putting your store logo in some of the frames as we have done here. Frames are also an opportunity to display ads or any press your store has received. For example, at Silver Barn, each bride receives an ad featuring the bridal couple. These ads also show up throughout our store in frames, giving our brides a connection to each other. This is especially important when you are in a small town like we are.