Unit 30
Visual Merchandising in Retail
M1 - Analyse the visual merchandising and display techniques used to present goods in retail outlets.
D1 - Evaluate how retail businesses use psychological visual merchandising and display techniques to
influence customers to purchase goods.
In this task I will be talking about how businesses present and display merchandise using different
techniques and virtual merchandising. Additionally, I will evaluate how businesses use psychological
visual merchandising to influence customers into purchasing goods. My chosen businesses are
Selby's and Nags Head Market, both running in the retail industry thriving for successful sales and
profits from satisfied customers, similarly both located in Holloway, North London.
Both businesses may sell some similar products, however due to their target audience these would
vary, such as on pricing, quality, and brands. Selby’s is a British department store selling different
clothing’s, beauty, household items and other accessories and goods. Their most common age
spread is around 20-40 years old, this is due to their up-to-date fashion trends in store and as a
result try to aim at a younger demographic, although due to this being a department store, their
well-known brands target a variety of different ages.
On the other hand, Nags Head Market is predominantly aimed at local residents as their convenient
goods suit the needs for a diverse range of people, selling products and providing services such as
fresh foods, clothing, hairdressers, and cafes. As a result, this does tend to meet the needs of an
older demographic as this consists of elder’s everyday purchases.
Both businesses can easily be accessed through local transport links, with Holloway road
underground station being the closest train station to both stores, in addition to local buses.
Selby’s and Nags Head Market use different floor plans in their store to accommodate customer’s
needs, this helps in multiple ways, such as with a spread-out layout allowing customers to browse
more around the shop, this would help customers to be exposed to impulse buys.
Selby’s use a Free-flow layout in their store, this is when merchandise is grouped into free-flowing
patterns, this is due to their variety of brands and products sold in store. This is advantageous as it
provides a relaxing environment for customers to shop that also encourages browsing. On the other
hand, if this is not planned through effectively, using an inefficient use of space could cause a
significant loss for the businesses with a restricted number of products being shown.
Whereas, inside Nags Head Market, the use of a racetrack layout helps to control the path of what
customers see and are exposed to before reaching the end of their centre. This provides an efficient
merchandise mix as this allows customers to view all different stores such as a cafe to then a fashion
store. However, this may be susceptible to blockings and overcrowding of customer flow as people
may want to view a product or service from a previous store.
