Make a splash for summer!

This month's guest speaker is Sarah Mayell, a local food adviser on our Making Local Food Work Programme. Sarah frequently visits community shops around the UK helping them maximise their sales through eye-catching displays.

Here Sarah talks about how to make a splash for summer...

"As Merchandiser for the ‘Look for Local’ strand of the Making Local Food Work project, my role is to help Community and Rural shops to show off all their delicious local food so as to maximise the sale of these products.

Merchandising is all about influencing what and how much your customers buy so what better way than to create an amazing display to catch their eye and encourage them to purchase. Did you know that products sell three times faster from an impact display than in a relay (i.e. on the shelf)? Worth a bit of thought isn’t it!

A few tips for creating that high-impact display:

• Identify the ‘Hot Spot’ in your shop – stand at the entrance and look across the shop – what is in your sight-line, is there a well lit, highly visible area, focal point or special fixture or feature?  There may be more than one and there may be a place outside as well as in.
• Draw up a calendar for this area deciding on a theme then consider Point of Sale Material (MLFW has some great stuff!), promotional leaflets, producer visits, tastings, recipes, competitions, press coverage and props. Involve the whole team as everyone has wonderful ideas for this! So that it changes regularly maybe delegate responsibility to different people for each month.
• Design the display to create maximum impact. Triangular shapes create the strongest impact so a pyramid is excellent but ensure that the centre of the display is at eye-level – if necessary raise the products with relevant containers eg crates, a picnic basket or even cake tins. Good lighting on this display will make all the difference (try Argos clip-on LED spot lights – £14.99 each – for instant brightness).

An impact display is the perfect way to promote your local, seasonal produce!

I would love to hear your brilliant ideas for creating the perfect ‘Splash for Summer’ especially if you are utilising an unusual place or using something really special.

Happy building – and don’t forget to monitor the increase in sales!"

Sarah is available to answer any questions you have on making the most of your shop displays. If you would like to hear from Sarah please post your comments below.