Strap in and prepare to talk all things visual merchandising!
Visual merchandising is the process, normally considered by merchandisers, which is responsible for creating a space that attracts customers and sales. It is a combination of product display, window/walling display, signage and customer experience, which can be enhanced through lighting, colours, styling props, furniture, graphics and so much more.
Design School Online is an online space of courses and resources for design-lovers who are looking to step up their knowledge in the world of interior design. The platform is more than an educational talk-piece, as it offers practical experiences through interactive live sessions and industry guest speakers. Specifically for retail spaces and popups, they have a course in Visual Merchandising, to boost confidence in sharing your product or service in the most captivating way.
Tim from Design School Online used our services as a part of his Decor & Design and Life Instyle set ups in 2024. He chose the rental units for his set up via the rental section of the Market Stall Co website and placed his order online with our event delivery services.
We asked Tim, why did you choose to VM your stand at Life Instyle the way that you did?
This year, Design School Online showcased at Life Instyle Melbourne to debut our new Visual Merchandising short course to the retail industry. For our stand, we were drawn to Market Stall Co.'s raw plywood materials and on-trend arch shapes. These ‘blank canvas’ designs allowed us to easily apply our own vinyl lettering, which we could remove without damaging the hired surfaces. Market Stall Co made the process seamless—we rented everything online from interstate, and it was ready for us when we arrived. To add contrast, we wrapped the backdrop in our signature ‘Design School pink’, creating an eye-catching space to call home for the event.
DSO Operations Manager Markus Beuke attended the trade fair, saying “Being at the DSO stand at Life Instyle Melbourne was an incredible experience. It was great to engage with so many industry professionals and showcase our training courses. The positive feedback and interest in our offerings including our accredited Certificate IV in Interior Decoration, plus the new Short Course in Visual Merchandising were really exciting.”
Why is Visual Merchandising Important for Popups?
Pop up retails are your brands opportunity to demonstrate and highlight the products or service you provide. Ensure you create lasting impressions through drawing attention to your popup to optimise interaction and establish new relationships with customers. This can be achieved through various visual merchanding methods such as your display, the signage and customer expererience created.
We asked Tim for his advice and tips on creating a pop up that is engaging and provides the best visual representation of your brand.
We love how pop-up spaces have surged in popularity, as they offer brands the chance to test a market in a specific location – trade fairs like Life InStyle work in a similar way. From a VM perspective, these short-term setups usually come with tight budgets to match the tight timeframes, requiring creative visual solutions that are easy to install and remove. The display should command attention focusing on memorable visual messaging that can instantly introduce new customers to the brand. Highlighting the temporary nature of the space and using that as part of the visual messaging can also be a fun way into solving the brief. In short, pop-ups require fresh approaches and high-impact solutions, be brave and go for it!
Five Top Tips for Visual Merchandising:
- Engage all the senses: Go beyond visuals—incorporate scent, sound, touch, and even taste to create a fully immersive experience for your customers.
- Tell a story: VM is storytelling. Bring your product to life with a visual narrative that resonates feelings and draws people in.
- Product placement: Ensure products are accessible and easy to shop by positioning them at eye level or within reach.
- Effective signage: Reinforce your key messaging with seasonal words. Simple, removable vinyl lettering is a great way to achieve this.
- Create visual breaks: Avoid overcrowding and embrace negative space between products and displays. Just like Coco Chanel’s advice—sometimes it’s best to remove something than to keep adding more.
Resources for Visual Merchandising
At Market Stall Co, we like to keep up to date with relevant retail trends through subscribing to 'Shopping Centre News', which provides industry trends and each issue provides a deep dive into a few company profiles. Our marketing team also love to take trips to shopping centres, such as Chadstone, to scoop out the common display practices across the stores!
When selecting from our 105+ rental designs, you will be taking into consideration your floor space and layout. If you're a visualiser who would like to see how your selected pieces will look in your floorplan, or require it for sign off of the hire, we offer 3D floorplan drawings, which can be ordered here - www.marketstallco.com.au/shop/rent/3d-floorplan-drawing-for-rental.
We have 30 readily curated floorplan packages for hire that you can check out to gain some inspo for your next popup layout. And you don't have to stick to the configuration we have demonstrated! We aim to make the selection process for you by curating the hire products which work well together, but you have the freedom to set this up in whichever way best fits you and your floorplan.
Design School Online offer further education and the opportunity to attain nationally accredited units that demonstrate comprehension in developing creative concepts, producing drawings and applying the designs to 2D form. If this sounds like something you would be interested in, then we highly recommend taking part in the Design School Online’s 5 week course - www.online.thedesignschool.co/VM.
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