In another post, I shared this photo as part of Phase Three of the Retail ReDesign Project at Poppyseeds. Not two days after that room was restyled, two people fell in love with the table & chairs - within five minutes of each other! After being in the store for a year, it sold. LOVE that! That's what effective displays can do!Of course, the sale of large pieces of merchandise is wrought with its own challenges - getting it OUT of there, and then the gaping space that is left. When the shop owners asked me 'So now what do we put there?', I was able to expand on one reason why using the 'Zone' concept works: I told them to get another white or red table & chairs set and put them there. Why? The room is set up as a retro kitchen, with cabinets, a vintage stove, a china hutch, and another vintage kitchen dinette set. It makes sense to stick with the theme and the color scheme that we have chosen to focus on for the summer season in this room.
Following this guideline, they know that tables & chairs painted in red, white, or aqua will fit in here - when one set sells, bring the next one in. Each one will be unique, because the furnishings they sell are vintage and recycled items, so the look stays coordinated while the product is always fresh. Even a patio table & chairs in white metal would be appropriate. It's a way of simplifying choices, focusing their marketing message for the season, and saving them time & effort.
The girls already had a few items in stock, awaiting a paint job, so they created a new white table and some red & blue chairs, and brought them into the room. Now, it looks like this:
Can you see how this continues the same story with a new twist? They can just keep doing this in this room - and all of the others, according to the color scheme and design theme - all summer long. Then, for fall, we'll come up with some new themes and restyle the rooms again. You can do this in your stores, as well, by using the Zone concept for developing themes & displays. Need help? Give me a shout!If you are in the Seattle area and like what you see here, check out Poppyseeds in Stanwood. Just 60 miles North of Seattle and 24 miles North of Everett, the shop is a great place to visit on a sunny weekend! The girls of Poppyseeds will be taking their wonderful treasures on the road for the first time in mid-June, appearing in the Funky Junk Sisters Antique & Flea Market Show in Puyallup, Washington. Click here for more details on the show, and come out to see how they bring all the charm of the shop into a show booth!
