Maximizing Your Shelf Space with Retail Merchandising Strips

Shelf strips are a convenient tool for supplying customers with more information about a product at a glance. They can also encourage impulse buys when paired with the right products.

For example, a retailer could merchandise hair accessories alongside shampoo and conditioner, or a grocery store could display cooking tools alongside a display of food items.

Adjust the Height of Each Shelf to Accommodate Different Products

If you aren’t using retail merchandising strips in your store, you are missing out on a simple but highly effective tool for increasing impulse purchases. These strips, which are attached to gondola shelves with brackets, are a great way to display different types of products in a single space. They also give retailers the flexibility to switch up the assortment on a regular basis without needing to restock entire aisles.

Retail Merchandising Strips are long strips of U-shaped steel with vertical slots along their length. These slots are designed to hold brackets and other retail display accessories, such as hang rails and face-outs. Retailers use them to occupy empty space on gondola shelving units in stores, and they can be mounted as low as 12 to 15 inches from the floor to accommodate different product heights.

Shelf space planning is a common retail challenge buyer, planners, and merchandisers face. This is because the merchandise volume varies from season to season, and new products are regularly introduced into the market. Moreover, the availability of some merchandise can be affected by promotions and discounts. To address this problem, Bianchi-Aguiar, Hubner, Carravilla, and Oliveira 2021 proposed a method to optimize shelf space allocation using an exact solution approach.

This approach ensures that each gondola/planogram has an optimal arrangement of merchandise and is not overflowing at any time. This method has been used in a number of applications, such as book retailers, online bookstores, and webpages, to optimize their shelf spaces and displays.

Another advantage of merchandising strips is their ability to accommodate hanging products, such as baskets and bins. While squeezing these products onto a shelf might be possible, it is better to use a strip in this case, as this can increase the visibility of the product and encourage customers to take notice of it.

In addition, a strip can accommodate a product with a strong impulse appeal but might not sell well on its own. This might include seasonal products such as BBQ skewers with pre-packed meats, mulled wine kits with red wine, Easter confectionery, or tanning mitts with self-tan.

Organize Your Shelves by Aisle

Retail store shelving is available in a variety of lengths and heights to suit the products you want to stock. One way to optimize this type of display system is to divide it into aisles that allow customers to move easily from one section of your store to the next. This will make the store more visually appealing and encourage impulse purchases by allowing customers to see new products at every turn.

The ideal aisle width for a shelf system is three feet. This will allow you to stock many items and leave plenty of space for customers to move around the store without bumping into merchandise. If you have a smaller store, you can opt for narrower aisles, but be sure to keep the aisles as wide as possible so that your inventory isn’t overcrowded.

To make your shelves look a little more stylish, consider mixing up the objects you put on them. You can do this by layering objects together or pairing shorter items with taller ones. Try to distribute decorative objects with more practical ones too, and always aim to leave at least 20 percent of your shelf space empty. This will prevent the collection from looking cluttered and more like the knick-knack aisle at Goodwill.

Another great way to maximize the use of your retail shelving is to cross-merchandise products with merchandising strips. For example, consider including hair accessories on your merchandising strip beside the shampoo and conditioner products if you have a Hair Care aisle. This will encourage customers to buy both at the same time and may boost sales as a result.

Another effective way to improve the look of your shelves is to use grid trays to organize similar products together. This will help minimize the visual mess on your shelves and make it easier for customers to find the right product when they’re rummaging through your inventory. Be sure to regularly review your shelf layout and adjust it as needed. What may feel quirky and charming one month could start to look cluttered and messy at some point, so don’t be afraid to experiment with different styling options.

Add More Shelves to Your Store

You might not have the budget to install additional shelves in your store, but you can still increase shelf space by adding a retail display strip. These strips are long, vertically hanging strips with hooks that are ideal for merchandising small products. They can also serve as a good cross-merchandising tool by spotlighting items that complement each other, like a bag of chips with salsa or lip balm with toothpaste.

While a strip may not seem like the most exciting point of purchase display, it can effectively attract attention and increase sales. These displays are usually small and can provide price and promotion information as well as simple branding messages to help shoppers decide what to buy. They can also be used to promote special offers and promotions that can boost your bottom line.

Another way to maximize your shelf space is by installing adjustable retail display shelves. Instead of a set height, these shelves allow you to mark multiple pilot hole locations at the same time and mount brackets at different heights. This can free up space and make your shelves easier to reach, allowing you to stock more items in the same area.

Retail display shelves can be a cost-effective way to increase your shelf space, but it’s important to plan carefully before you install them. Using the right tools and measuring the space to determine stud locations can ensure that you are mounting them correctly, making it less likely that they will fall or damage your product.

If your gondola shelving is becoming overcrowded, consider moving high-performing products to a clip strip, which gives them more room to stand out and encourages impulse purchases. You can also use these strips to cross-merchandise products that would not normally be paired together, such as hair accessories with shampoo and conditioner or disposable straws with plastic bags and paper plates in your convenience store.

By taking these simple steps, you can easily improve the appearance of your store and create more space for products that will help boost your revenue. You should always consult your retail data before deciding how to merchandise your shelves and aisles, as this will give you the information you need to optimize your store for maximum performance.

Promote Impulse Purchases

Clip strips are thin pieces of metal (or plastic) with hooks at regular intervals on which merchandise can be hung. They are also known by various names, including display strips, hang strips, and merchandising strips. Regardless of what they are called, they are powerful visual merchandising tools that can serve multiple purposes within your store.

While they are often used for promoting impulse purchases, they can also be effective in enhancing the visibility of other items that deserve to be in your customers’ baskets. They are particularly useful when you need to promote a small number of items in a relatively limited space.

For example, let’s say you have a product, such as paper straws, which needs to be positioned in your soft drinks aisle. However, it doesn’t merit a full shelf drop from a sales and unit movement perspective. In this situation, you can use a merchandising strip to highlight the product alongside the more important products in your store, such as shampoos and conditioners. This enables you to cross-merchandise the two products together, which can lead to an additional basket sale for your business.

Similarly, you could use a merchandising strip for a particular season in your store. For example, if you’re stocking a range of soups, your supplier may want to try out a new flavor before ordering a large batch. You can promote this new flavor by hanging a display strip featuring the soup on your shelves. This way, your customers are aware of the new offering as they browse your store.

Retail merchandising strips are simple and effective retail display solutions that can improve your store’s exposure and sales. They can be used alongside other merchandising tools like endcaps, entryway displays, and freestanding displays to get your products in front of more shoppers.

Keep in mind, however, that the effectiveness of any retail display largely depends on its positioning and placement. So, don’t be afraid to experiment with different placement options until you find the one that works best for your business. Be sure to take note of the display types that perform well so you can replicate those in the future.