by Rosie Schulz | Jun 19, 2019 | Trends, Visual Merchandising, Visual Presentation, Window dressing |
The world of retail is big and crowded. How does one stand out from the rest, develop lasting relationships with customers, sell their product and create a beautiful space all at the same time? From a creative perspective, we’ve put together our five top tips for retail success. 1. Create an experience in your shopping centre through memorable activations. Design interactions Allow visitors to play with and experience a product. From pop-up activations and champagne bars, to school holiday workshops and personal styling sessions, there are many ways to interact with your customers to create an engaging space with a point of difference. Energize your precinct Engage and evoke emotions and creating relationships. School holiday activations and workshops invite families to extend their stay in the centre as well as create repeat trips to your shopping precinct. Design a late night shopping experience with a glamorous pop-up bar for friends to catch up at, or lay down some vibrant green artificial turf for a secret garden themed space with pallet furniture and tepee tents. With zones brought to life, customers will be inclined to increase their dwell time. Unexpected areas such as workshop pop-ups with greenery and colour strike interest and evoke emotion of wanting to be included in the activation. Disrupt, adapt, react and innovate. (WGSN) Activate stagnant zones by encouraging involvement and inviting interaction with customers. Encourage retailers to become involved in activating a space by instructing a demo therefore leading to sales. Inspire people to photograph and share your space onto social media for advertising and publicity. Add some signage with a hashtag and watch it...
by Rosie Schulz | Mar 27, 2019 | Custom Design, Shopping Centre, Visual Merchandising, Window dressing |
“Sometimes the most inspiring person you’ve ever known is the first person you’ve ever met” Spoil mum this month in your shopping centre with a Personal Shopping Experience, Pop-up Champagne Bar or a deluxe Gift Wrapping Station. We also have endless ideas on how to dress your windows for Mother’s Day and celebrate in style. Champagne for Mum Create a late night shopping experience for the mothers out there with a glamorous pop-up champagne bar. Make it glow with hanging disco balls over head as they reflect the petals of a cherry blossom tree. Add some extra luxury with velvet furniture for mum to relax on as the family spends time hunting for the perfect gift. Keep it classy with marquee letters to catch the attention of passersby, LOVE or MUM are the perfect words to express admiration. Pink Power Decorate and design your windows for Mother’s Day with pretty pink flowers and love hearts. By choosing a colour, there are many ways to show love for all of the mums around us. Fill your windows with strawberry tones and use repetition to encourage present purchases. By filling your store windows with pink motifs, it is a reminder to shoppers that the occasion is coming up, your store front will stay in their mind and remind them to come back or go straight in as they know they will find a gift in-store. Luxury Pods A personal shopping experience or styling lounge is the perfect way to treat mum to a little luxury experience. If you don’t want to commit to a complete styling experience, create ‘luxury pods’...
by Rosie Schulz | Feb 19, 2019 | Children's Play Space, Custom Design, Shopping Centre, Trends, Visual Merchandising, Window dressing |
“Follow the Easter bunny… He has the chocolate” There are many ways to celebrate Easter. This year we’ve decided on four looks for various Easter activations and displays that you can bring into your shopping centre or store front display this year. Invite the Easter bunny into town with chocolate eggs and pastel bunting as children hunt for eggs in a bright garden party theme or create a sanctuary with a neutral look featuring DIY activities. Bright as a Bunny Vibrant green artificial turf, a life size fig tree, market carts filled with flowers and pastel seating for tired shoppers. The ultimate Easter activation! If your centre is thinking of promoting a school holiday activity area this year, look no further than VM+ to create a whimsical experience for both children and parents. From little moss bunnies to giant sunflowers, activation spaces can be created to ensure your promotion is the focus and time spent in-store is increased. With white picket fencing and kid friendly pallet furniture, our kids school holiday activations are memorable and unique. View our activation gallery on Facebook here. Carousel Capture Get your hashtags ready and the Instagram filter prepped. Photo backdrops are the perfect way to share that your centre is current on social media platforms. With Easter around the corner, backdrop displays encourage shoppers to linger, take a snap with friends and share their location on social media. By avoiding the classic Easter motifs, target the next generation with beautiful visuals and your customers are more likely to share their experience. We love the paper fan blooms, cherry blossom trees and our white...
by Rosie Schulz | Dec 6, 2018 | Christmas, Custom Design, International VM, Visual Merchandising, Window dressing |
“Meanwhile… I’m putting up more twinkle lights.” – Kathleen, You’ve Got Mail Hands up. Be honest. Who’s favourite holiday has rolled around for another year? Two hands up over here – we love Christmas! We could start listing all the things we love about the silly season; decorating the tree, dinner parties with friends, but of course, one of our favourite things is the unveiling of department store windows. We’ve searched through the cities and have found our favourite selection of dreamy, vibrant and comical Christmas displays. From Paris to New York, get ready to travel through the best festive windows of 2018. LONDON: Harrods When it comes to Christmas windows, we can’t go past the legendary Harrods. This year, the series of Harrods windows draws inspiration from our own visions of a traditional festive season; a fridge bursting with seasonal treats and parties filled with gold glitz and glamour. Designed off the concept of sensory storytelling, Harrods maintains its focus on luxury while relating to the themes that everyone loves and can relate to around the merry season. Harrods has mastered their designs by utilizing scale, repetition and colour… and also our love for roast potatoes. PARIS: Galeries Lafayette Christmas dreams became a reality this year as Galeries Lafayette Haussmann let the Parisian children bring the window characters to life from their imaginations. Children between 5 and 11 years old entered to draw their Christmas character and the winning drawings were chosen to be transformed into soft toys and displayed in the vibrant window display. The imaginative friends can be seen enjoying a Christmas party in a candy...
by Rosie Schulz | May 31, 2018 | Visual Merchandising, VM Training, Window dressing |
Start Your Career in Visual Merchandising It’s time to develop creative confidence. Whether you’re looking for a career change, creative outlet or have a keen business mind and looking to enhance customer engagement and sales, our VM course will provide skills to keep you up to date with the retail industry. WHY STUDY VM? If you have a creative bone waiting to dance, an eye for detail and mind full of imagination… We think you’re ready to join our visual merchandising course! We see people from all walks of life stroll through our doors – whether you’re ready to start your creative career, looking to enhance your retail business, or want to increase customer engagement as they walk past your market stall or window display. Learn all the theory behind visual merchandising but also how to apply these theories to tangible displays, tell a story and increase sales. – Attention store managers, marketing managers, shop assistants & creative business owners. Up-skill, add VM to your CV and bring brand-new skills, current trends and knowledge back into your shopping precinct. – Learn about the elements of design and implement them into your own displays – Get ready for a career change in design – Enjoy visual merchandising for a creative outlet – Learn hands-on skills and problem solve – Increase sales on your merchandise – Increase customer engagement, evoke emotion and customer store duration – Style and construct your own displays and arrangements from an collection of provided props and materials – Become a competitor with different and explosive eye-catching displays – Learn to understand your consumer, tell a story through...
by Rosie Schulz | Apr 18, 2018 | International VM, Shopping Centre, Visual Merchandising, Window dressing |
“I got it from my mama”- will.i.am Mother’s Day is a wonderful excuse for us to celebrate the incredible women in our lives. In the world of visual merchandising, May is the perfect month to jazz up your shop front, window and shopping centre with themes hinting to these special people. We’re loving sweet picnic scenes, feminine florals, bright pom pom mania and delicate neutrals inspired by the ocean. Hampton Hideaway This style ranges from coastal Hampton vibes, to Byron Bay interiors and everything deluxe and neutral. Create a display with shades of coconut creams and Aegean blues. Focus on texture and height through hanging lanterns and layering linen throws and cushions. Head out to your local river park to pick up drift wood pieces or pop into our showroom to pick up some vine twirls; perfect for a coastal inspired arrangement. Art Mania Is your mum a lawyer, fitness coach, stay-at-home mum or nurse? It doesn’t matter, because there is no denying that almost all women have a creative side (or can at least appreciate it). Tap into that energy through striking window displays featuring copious amounts of colour. Candy red, teal and violet will capture the attention of all and celebrate our art and craft mums who love to get their hands dirty. Using bright colour is a clever way to draw out a shade found in a single item being featured in a window, or just a way of capturing the attention of passers-by. Used in repetition, paper pom poms demand to be noticed, as does our delicious lollipop prop. Picnic Play Who...
