Deck the halls of your retail business with boughs of holly, because the Christmas shopping season is in full swing!

You'd be surprised just how much money is spent on gifts around the silly season. In Australia, for example, a whopping $45 billion was estimated to be spent on Xmas pressies in 2014, according to research by the Australian Retailers Association. What's even more impressive is that this amount was spent in just a few weeks, between November 15 until December 24.

If you own a retail business, now is the time to let it shine brighter than Santa's workshop on the North Pole. Your window display decor and store's interior design and layout play a very important role in enticing customers inside, not to mention persuading them to open up their wallets and shop your products.

Luckily, these decor tips will help you out, as many of them are inspired by consumer psychology research. Ho ho hope they drive your sales forward to conclude 2015 with a bang!

Window wonderland

Think of your shop window as a prime piece of real estate. It's all about its location, location, location facing foot traffic as consumers walk by. A study published in the Journal of Consumer Research proved that the window display and also the shop entranceway as a whole are the most powerful spaces for influencing consumer behaviour because their shopping goals are not yet finalised.

Use this to your business advantage by showing off your best deals, discounts and promotional products on signs hung onto the window. Catch a customer's eye by installing custom window glass in bright colours backpainted with Resene Imperite.

For your entranceway, use planks of wood to build a small pop-up sign stand that folds. Paint the border in a shimmery metallic hue such as Resene Blast Yellow, but the sign planks with Resene Blackboard Paint. This gives you freedom to write daily specials with chalk, grabbing the attention of shoppers as they stroll past. You could also write lyrics from Christmas carols for a festive mood, or draw little snowflakes and snowmen on with chalk for a welcoming feel.

Group your luxury items together

A consumer marketing study by the University of Houston found that when we buy an expensive item, we are more likely to purchase equally high-end items to go with it, so it feels part of a luxurious set. Use floating shelves on your store walls to display your prime products, but style them so that similar price point items are exhibited alongside. Paint your shelves with Resene Double Alabaster or Resene Rice Cake, sleek white minimalist tones that will let the product be the star and not distract attention away from it.

Another trendy way to show off your best goods is to display them on wooden crates. This is a rustic-chic organic look, very on trend right now, that won't cost your business a fortune as you can find crates from any warehouse dump yard. Paint these crates with Resene Colorwood Whitewash, a white hue that is a neutral backdrop for your products but with a worn, textured feel that suits the rustic vibe. Or opt for pops of bright using fashion colours like Resene Adrenalin and Resene Irresistible.

Christmas feature wall

Finally, bring the spirit of the season into your store by designing a Christmas feature wall, that you can use all year around. Simply apply Resene Magnetic Magic then topcoat in Resene SpaceCote Low Sheen. You can then create seasonal designs and use magnets on the back of each piece to hold them onto the wall and move them around to suit. Then when you're ready to change themes simply change your magnet pieces to new designs to fit with your new theme. Stored well, these magnets can be re-used for every Christmas.

November 30, 2015

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