What is VISUAL MERCHANDISING

WHAT IS VISUAL MERCHANDISING

Visual merchandising is the practice in the retail industry of developing floor plans and three-dimensional displays in order to maximize sales.
Both goods and services can be displayed to highlight their features and benefits. The purpose of such visual merchandising is to attract, engage, and motivate the customer towards making a purchase.
Visual merchandising commonly occurs in retail spaces such as stores.

Figure 1 : Example of window display

HISTORY


When the giant nineteenth century dry goods establishments like Marshall Field & Co. shifted their business from wholesale to retail, the visual display of goods became necessary to attract the general consumers. The store windows were often used to attractively display the store's merchandise. Over time, the design aesthetic used in window displays moved indoors and became part of the overall interior store design, eventually reducing the use of display windows in many suburban malls.
In the twentieth century, well-known artists such as Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol created window displays.
In the beginning of twenty-first century, visual merchandising is forming as a science. Nowadays, visual merchandising became one of the major tool of business promotion which is widely used to attract customers and increase sales.