Manufacturers of jackets and pants have it easy. They can slap a hang-tag on their products and throw them on a hanger, and they’re ready to go. But what about you – maker of knit hats or scarves, neck gaiters, headbands, messenger bags? Not so much.
When the obvious solution just won’t do, packaging and displaying your products at retail can be a real challenge. Awkward items require extra attention.
Avoiding the Bargain Bin Look
When small merchandise like scarves or gaiters are piled into a box or floor dump, it can degrade the brand’s value in the customer’s eye. Not to mention, who wants to sift through a laundry hamper to find what they’re going to pay for?
Make it a no-brainer for the retailer to coordinate your items with complementary merchandise on the floor. A branded shelf-friendly container that neatly displays folded or knotted scarves can be placed atop an outerwear floor fixture. A hang-tag at the end of each scarf completes the presentation.
Make It Easy for Your Retailers
Stand-alone fixtures with a small footprint can make it easy for retailers to comply with your branding guidelines – headwear and socks are prime examples here. After the initial investment of the floor display, you can update the rack seasonally by sending new P-O-P designs to insert into available spaces.
If a retailer is not willing to use your display, have a back-up plan in place. This could be as simple as including in your workbook a rendering of how your products can be merchandised on a table, etc.
Eliminate Sloppiness
Bags with a single strap – messenger bags and purses – can get sloppy on standard wall hook fixtures fairly quickly. A tangled mess of webbing is simply not inviting to customers, and won’t represent your brand well.
Consider alternate ways your product can be displayed. Can the strap be folded into the cavity of the bag, making table- or fixture-top display possible?
Additional Design Ideas
Want more solutions for hard-to-hang items? How about:
- A removable (and replaceable) branded band or wrap that neatly contains a folded scarf for easy display at the cash/wrap area.
- Hang-tags attached to hats with hook pins, rather than “I” pins, allowing them to be displayed on slatwall hooks.
- A low-profile wall display that holds shoulder bags on shallow shelves, rather than on hooks. It works for shoes!
- A shallow display box with dividers that can hold hats, gaiters AND scarves in orderly rows.
Please share below what has worked (and hasn’t!) for your brand when it comes to challenging retail display.
