Shelving is an extremely powerful tool for companies seeking to build customer loyalty. By wisely organizing its products at the point of sale, a company can make the buying experience easier for consumers, and keep them coming back for more. In this article, we take a closer look at how shelving can be used to maximize customer loyalty.
What is shelving?
Shelving is a sales strategy for the retail trade to promote products, attract customers' attention and influence their purchases. It's a practice that involves thinking about how products are organized and presented on store shelves and racks. Effective shelving is fundamental to maximizing customer loyalty and simply improving sales.
Ergonomic shelving can be seen as an art form, because when it comes to arranging products on store shelves, aesthetics as well as accessibility and visibility have to be taken into account. Products are arranged by category, size, color or other characteristics. This enables customers to quickly find what they're looking for, and thus optimizes the salesperson's results.
Is it just a way of selling more?
In fact, the right placement and order of products plays a role in how consumers react to products on the shelf, making the shelf an integral part of the item being sold, adding credibility to the sale, and can be used as a marketing tool to promote the brand or encourage consumers to buy more.
Products can be placed in highly visible areas, or close to other products likely to attract additional sales. The customer experience is an important factor that is greatly enhanced when care is taken to display products in an optimized way.
For example, many stores use promotional signs such as posters or billboards to highlight and give greater visibility to a product. This marketing strategy is highly effective, but it's even more so when coupled with strategic product placement.
The strategic advantages of shelving
A good shelf layout is a tool for maximizing the chances of conversion between viewing and purchase in a store. Many people think that it's important to make products accessible and to always have well-stocked shelves, but that's as far as they go. But it also has other advantages, which we will now explore.
Securing the customer journey
When customers visit a store, they often head for a specific aisle to find the product they're looking for. Shelving is used here to reassure the consumer and, why not, encourage them to choose one product over another. Many companies use this technique to highlight certain ranges or items that are on the typical customer itinerary.
Adapting logistics
On the other hand, set-up is a costly stage in the logistics process. It is this step that enables companies to manage their inventories efficiently and ensure rapid delivery to points of sale. Good shelf organization is essential for suppliers to avoid wasting time in this crucial stage. Companies can make considerable savings in handling and storage costs when they can get shelving right quickly and accurately. This helps to improve their profit margins in the long run.
Customer loyalty
Shelving is very useful for maximizing customer loyalty and improving sales results. Customers often want what they came for quickly and easily. If they are well guided by an optimized system for choosing between a store's many product references, they will make a more informed choice and therefore hesitate less to buy. They'll also be more likely to repeat a purchase if they've enjoyed the experience. Good shelving can therefore be a major asset for all companies seeking to build customer loyalty.
The marketing approach
The way a product is presented can reinforce a brand's visibility and identity. Shelving is often used to promote a specific brand or product, helping to create a positive image with consumers. Careful presentation of products on the shelves can also help to improve the customer experience and generate more interest in the products offered by the company.
The opposite is also possible in certain specific cases. Hard discounters like Lidl organize their shelving in a very crude way (pallets directly on the floor, cardboard packaging still visible...). However, this is also a way of setting the company apart from its competitors. The idea behind this type of set-up is to reinforce the "attractive price" aspect by letting consumers think they're getting a good deal by buying in this type of store, which spends very little on shelving.
In reality, in this example as in all others, shelving is a marketing tool to promote a product or service to the general public.
Case study: IKEA
An example of the clever use of shelving is IKEA. IKEA is known for its carefully planned and organized shelving, with customers encouraged to browse the entire store by a system of markers to discover new products. IKEA also uses merchandising strategies to encourage customers to buy additional products. For example, decorative items such as cushions or rugs are often presented with matching furniture to show customers how these items can be used together.
IKEA also uses product grouping techniques to encourage related sales. For example, kitchen shelves can be arranged next to matching kitchen utensils, or beds can be presented with matching sheets and blankets. This technique encourages customers to buy additional products different from what they were initially looking for, resulting in increased overall sales.
IKEA is an excellent example of a company that makes optimal use of shelving, with excellent results in terms of customer experience, since it is one of France's favorite brands.
The feeling of confidence
Getting into the customer's mind is a long-term goal for any company. Over time, a relationship of trust must be established between a company and its customers. This is an essential step in ensuring the longevity and sustainability of a business. Stores that take the time to lay out their products properly create a sense of trust among their customers and improve the overall shopping experience.
Presentation is essential, not only for aesthetic reasons, but also so that customers know where to look for what they need and how to navigate the sales area. Consumers have their own habits, and this is often what they're looking for to make their shopping more efficient. With a freer mind, a customer will be able to let themselves go and discover another object, they'll be more sensitive to their surroundings and therefore more inclined to buy something else or come back more often.
Clearly, thinking about how best to optimize shelving means focusing on a quality of service that will improve results over the long term. By taking this element into account in sales optimization strategies, a company can be sure of establishing a lasting relationship with its customers.
