Retail Shelving Tips for Success

The way you arrange your shop shelving and the way you stack your shelves can have a great impact on your retail success. Driving traffic around your store and catching each customer's eye with well-displayed products is half the battle, and there are plenty of ways to boost your sales simply by being mindful of the way you organise your store. Here are our top tips on arranging and maintaining your retail shelving to optimise your shop's success:

• Choose stock wisely: do your research and keep on top of trends and local preference when stocking your store. Make sure that you are providing two main types of product: items that your customers need and are specifically looking for, and items that they will be prompted to buy on impulse when they see them on your shelves. Both these types of merchandise require a little psychological profiling on your customers and may change over time, or from season to season;

• Keep your shelves well-stocked: under-stocked stores look run-down and neglected, while over-stocked shelves look messy and are awkward to use. Before opening, ensure that your store looks neat and welcoming and that shelves are adequately stocked. Any end-of-line items that are starting to look thin on the shelves can be placed onto promotional bays, dump bins, or stacking wire baskets;

• Stock shelves at the right height: The height at which you stock your products can affect how well they sell - popular and premium items should be placed at eye-level, while cheaper or less-popular products generally go on higher or lower shelves. However, you can make the most of this eye-level popularity to get rid of less popular items, too!

• Co-ordinate your store: Separate your store into different sections according to product type and colour co-ordinate using signage or Epos ticket strips so that customers can easily find what they're looking for. Placing similar items or products that go well together in the same area can double up your sales!

• Dedicate an area to sale items: If customers know that a particular end bay or wall shelving unit always contains reduced-price items, it will be well-used! Clearly mark where your sale items or promotions are, and position these areas at the back of the store so that customers have to walk past the rest of your stock to get to them, encouraging impulse buys;

• Be versatile with your shelving: Adapt and adjust your shop shelving according to your needs, and while your core products should stay in the same place, there's no reason why you can't change the configuration of other items occasionally and provide a bit of variety! Use pegboard shelving, extra shelves, risers and dividers to organise your shop shelving and you'll find it easy to accommodate different sized and shaped products;

Visit our website to find out more about any of the items above and to browse our huge range of new shop shelving and accessories, including:

• ·     Gondola shelving - A popular choice in many stores due to its versatility and functionality, gondola shelving is a staple shelving option for stores of any size. You can use this shelving to create aisles within your store and the range of heights and widths we stock mean that we have the shelving size for you.
  ·     Wall shelving - Use wall shelving around the edge of your store to provide plenty of shelving space while optimising the floor space you have available.
  ·     Shopping baskets - By having stacks of baskets at the front of the store and dotted around the aisles you will encourage customers to purchase more items as it is easier to carry them in a basket than with their hands.
  ·     Wire stacking baskets - These are an excellent way to display sale and impulse purchase items in your store. As these are freestanding they can be used to fill empty spaces and can be easily moved to create new interesting displays.
  ·     Corner shelving - Utilise every inch of floor space you have in your store by using specialist corner shelving to bring life back into an overlooked corner.
  ·     Peg board shelving and pegs - Not all products sit well on classic flat shelving, our range of pegboard shelving allows you to hang products to ensure they are displayed in the best way possible. All of our bays can be slotted together to ensure a seamless shelving display.

For more tips on retail shelving, or information on the different kinds of shop shelving available, visit www.shelving4shops.co.uk or drop by our shelving showroom in Leicestershire to speak to one of our expert retail shelving team.