Sunday, December 15, 2013

A Ladder for Display

This first photo is not from a shop.  It's from a lovely home.  Booth inspiration can come from anywhere!  And this photo has several ideas for vendors.

THE LADDER

What first caught my eye in this photo was the ladder with packets hanging from it.  It turns out that it's an Advent Calendar. That's a great idea, but get your mind off that for a moment and think of the booth possibilities.

With some large S hooks, you could hang all sorts of things from a ladder.  You could have a display of all similar items or a hodge podge.  The possibilities are endless.

Photo Source

FLOOR DISPLAY

Another takeaway from this photo are the bottles in the tray under the chair.   Displaying things on the floor can be hit or miss. This bottle display is a hit.

When things are displayed on the floor, the floor needs to be clean.   Even if the booth floor is as clean as the floor in the photo, there are some things you shouldn't put there. For instance, I have a problem with pillows being displayed on shop floors. Eeewww.   Bottles can be easily cleaned.  They are fine.  PLUS, the photo bottles are in a crate, so they don't have actual ground contact, which makes a psychological difference somehow.  The only thing wrong with these bottles as a booth display is that the crate is too large to be easily scooted out for a better look.  But then, this is not really a booth.

An item displayed on the floor must be noticeable.  Will people see it if it's on the floor and under something?  These bottles do stand out and get your attention... as long as you are standing a few feet away.  If they were displayed like this in a tight spot where a viewer only has enough space to stand close to the chair, the chair seat would block the view.  But from a slight distance, a customer could glance there and if they were at all interested in blue bottles, they'd probably be willing to stoop down and take a closer look.

LINEN DISPLAY

One more takeaway from this photo - note how the linen on the top of the stack is tied and has a berry stem tucked in.  Nice touch.  A nice touch like that wouldn't have to be done for every piece of linen being sold.  But adding things like this here and there gives the impression that the items are nice.  It's sad, but true - people are willing to pay a bit more for something purchased in a place that feels high end.  If those same linens were heaped in a cardboard box for people to dig through, they'd expect the price to be really cheap.  Display matters unless you truly are selling at bargain basement / thrift store prices.