Category: INDUSTRY NEWS

Factors to remember about retail display in the digital age

Despite the rise of the internet, retail display remains a powerful tool to draw in customers. Even if they are predominantly online buyers, many shoppers actively browse stores on the high street first, offering retailers an opportunity to convert them into customers. To appeal to these customers, retail displays must become entry point to a multichannel retail experience, integrating your digital and physical retail channels and guiding the customer through a curated, experiential, retail journey. Here are five things to remember when crafting such a display:

1: Storytelling is key
Unlike the technology all around us, the human brain has not changed in the past decade. As a species, we are motivated by narrative structures – by stories. Retail displays should embrace key themes to exploit this factor.

2: Think about physical space
At P2, we are manufacturers, so we are very used to thinking in terms of physicality. This is also an important skill for designers, who must decide which plane each element of their retail display will sit on (very few displays, for example, are exclusively at eye-level).

3: Use surprise to maximum effect
We can produce a wide range of bespoke POS material to help capture shoppers’ attention. Depending on the brands involved, you could use elements like vinyl, free-standing display units, PVC banners, or free-standing cut-outs to make an impact.

4: Use targeted propositions
It is vital to ensure that your retail display, no matter how creatively designed or perfectly manufactured, remains targeted on particular products and customers.

5: Integrate offline and online
Retailers should consider embracing the trend towards ecommerce by integrating an online store with their brick-and-mortar one. This can be done by adding tablet devices, digital displays, and targeted incentives (such as online discount codes) where appropriate.

At P2, we can manufacture a wide range of bespoke assets to help you create powerful retail displays. Get in contact on 01455 288 922, or via our contact form to make an enquiry.

How to dress your store this holiday season

With Christmas just around the corner, retailers are gearing up for what will probably be their busiest few days of the year. At P2, we always find ourselves busy in October, November and December, helping shops design festive window and retail displays. And let us give you one piece of advice: as people take to the high street to find gifts for the people in their lives, you want to stand out. When footfall is at its highest, you do not want to fade into the background. Here are our four top tips to help your store dress to impress over the holidays:

Focus on lighting
Light is key to making displays work in winter, when afternoons and evenings get darker earlier. As Christmas approaches, you want to stick to traditional themes. That means soft glows lighting up your displays, reminding shoppers of nativity scenes and nights in front of a roaring fire. And it means miniature lights: stick with white or yellow for high-end displays that focus on traditional themes, or go multi-coloured if you’re looking for something fun.

Colour matters – and it’s easy to get right
When it comes to design, colour is a big deal. And because the iconography of Christmas is so well established, that’s doubly true this time of year. For the same reason, though, it’s easy to get your colour palette right at this time of year. Christmas has an established identity – stick with seasonal colours: think holly, ivy, Santa, and snow. Alternatively, if you’re looking for something more modern, you can take a colour palette from Christmas-themed movies… Frozen or Home Alone, anyone?

Use props to tell a story
Everyone knows that Christmas decorations are a major part of the season. That means trees and baubles, fairy lights, and Santa hats. But you can also use props to create a narrative experience through your store. That could be snowy footprints leading to Santa’s Grotto, a “Christmas Party” themed mannequin display, replete with Christmas jumpers and mistletoe, or something led by product. Whatever you decide to do, the key is this: make sure there’s a pay-off for the customer. Christmas 2019 will see the trend towards in-store experience increase, not die down.

Use signage to create Holiday messages
Guess what – now is the perfect time to use signage to your advantage. Christmas is probably the only time of year when you can guarantee that most of the people coming into your shop aren’t just looking for a product – they’re looking for inspiration. That means they are particularly receptive to targeted messages. You can use signs (suitably festive in appearance, of course) to literally tell people what to buy… and they’ll probably be thankful for it. So feel free to label that perfume “the scent she’s been waiting for” or describe this whisky as “What every dad wishes Christmas tasted like” – you’re doing them (and you) a favour.

All retailers that take themselves seriously will be making an effort over the next four weeks to look their best. The tips above should help you to keep up, but if you really want to stand out, it pays to get in an expert. At P2, we work tirelessly each Christmas to guarantee that our clients have the best-looking festive stores possible. If you’d like to join them, please get in touch with us on 01455 288 922.

What it takes to make it at P2

Whether it’s from prospective hires looking to join us, or new clients who want to find out what they can expect from our team, we often find ourselves being asked: ‘what makes a good employee at P2?’ This month, we thought we’d take the time to make that knowledge public, offering clear guidelines for new members of staff, and putting our best asset (the people we employ) front and centre. Some of those people have been with us since we first opened our doors nearly five years ago – so we must be doing something right when it comes to picking the cream of the crop!

The first and foremost quality we look for in any member of staff is an ability to problem-solve. We can teach people how to think about problems, but the problem-solving mindset is something a person has to supply themselves. Because our work often presents unique requirements (to showcase products in a certain way) under equally unique limitations like time scales and design restraints that are non-negotiable. As a rule of thumb, all our employees should be able to think of a minimum of two solutions when a problem presents itself. As a team, we then expect them to pool their resources if necessary and work towards the best solution.

Teamwork is not only important when solving customer problems. If you can’t function as part of a team, then you are fundamentally unsuited for life in a workshop. For this reason, we take collaborative skills very seriously, and insist that our employees are able to work well with others. But that doesn’t mean compromising on what makes you unique. Individuality is a key factor in P2’s business. By embracing what makes you unique, you open the door to finding original solutions.

There are certain strengths that are advantageous in any job – and at P2, we expect all our staff to embody them. It is essential, for example, that employees have a healthy work ethic, as shop fitting and retail display are not easy areas to work in. It’s equally important that our employees are reliable – our clients have tight turnarounds, and if we want to guarantee that we’ll meet them, we need every person to do their part. We also expect our staff to be disciplined everyone needs to do the right thing… even when no one is looking.

There are only two more qualities that we consider “must-haves”. The first is a benefit to joiners in any industry – an eye for detail. The devil, as they say, is in the detail… that’s where you’ll find what turns a good piece of work into a great one. We’re proud of every member of our team’s attention to detail and ability to notice things others might miss. And the second is, in some ways, the most-important: a desire to improve. P2 is its employees – if they’re all getting better day-by-day, then so is the business. We encourage our staff to be proactive in this regard, and use regular reviews to help people stay on track – but again, no one else can be ambitious on your behalf. We want employees that yearn to be the best.

If, after reading all that, you think you’ve got what it takes to work with P2, please keep an eye on our vacancies page – eventually, we’ll want to hear from you. And if you’re in the market for retail display furniture or shop fitting and like the sound of our team, give us a call on 01455 288 922 to see how we can help.