What is visual merchandising, display and store design?

Every shop, department store, supermarket and boutique is designed and set out in a certain way. Ever paid any attention to the luxurious looking window displays, the fact that the women’s clothes are on the ground floor and the men’s clothes are upstairs in Top shop/man, the ‘two for the price of one’ deals conveniently near the entrance, or the tempting packs of sweets near the checkout counter?

You probably don’t think about it when you’re storming into a shop, hungry for a bargain, but the fact is that everything in every shop is designed that way for a reason. More importantly, it’s somebody’s job to make those decisions and design everything accordingly.

Careers in visual merchandising, display and store design are all about enhancing the look, image and accessibility of a shop’s goods and services, with a view to improving sales. The clever people who work in this area are integral to making shopping enjoyable, allowing people to find things easily and making sure that people continue to make ‘impulse buys’.

These careers involve using a mixture of logic (driven by sales objectives) and creativity. The art of designing a store and its displays is functional, but still requires an expert creative command of space, colour, light, music, digital displays and interactive features.