Many consumers plan to take advantage of the beautiful summer weather by engaging in outdoor activities – some of them just don't know it yet! By strategically using mannequins in your retail space to sell the idea of recreational adventures, you can effectively boost sales and get your active-wear merchandise flying off the shelves.
The effectiveness of active poses
Positioning mannequins in active poses and dressing them in sports gear or workout clothes is a great way to captivate the attention of shoppers, according to Visual Merchandising Store Design. Ryan Clinkscales, Reebok's senior manager of global retail and head of visual merchandising, demonstrated just how successful this display strategy can be in the Reebok New York store. The process of determining which poses the mannequins would have took a lot of thought, as Reebok's design team partnered with CrossFit trainers during the selection process. They ultimately decided on a woman holding dumbbells above her head and a man checking his watch as he steps onto a knee-high box.
"I wanted active mannequins that would inspire people to get fit, and showcase our products in ways that they are designed to be used," Clinkscales told VMSD.
Benefits for upselling
Upselling is a sales mechanism used by retailers in order to convince customers to buy a larger quantity or higher-quality products than they planned to originally. Effective implementation of this strategy can significantly increase floor sales. Athletic mannequins can act as a inanimate sales team to promote upselling in your retail store. According to Management Study Guide, mannequins help merchants visualize how an article of clothing would look on them. Additionally, it shows customers what items would pair well together.
Think about Reebok's male mannequin stepping on the knee-high box, for example. Perhaps a customer in the store also frequently uses these boxes during his exercise routine. The customer might have come into the retail store to purchase only workout clothes, but the watch the mannequin is looking at demonstrates just how convenient that tool could be in his own life. The watch sitting on the shelf, on the other hand, does nothing to promote the product. The watch on the mannequin's wrist demonstrates how the item can be used in real life.
The utilization of mannequins in your retail store is a key visual merchandising strategy. The mannequins not only accurately demonstrate how an outfit will realistically look on a customer, but they also give the patrons something with which to identify. Creating that ability for merchants is the ticket to boosting sales.
