Key Merchandising Principles for Beauty Retail Chains

Table of Contents:

What is a Drogerie Retail Chain (health&beauty)?

Visual Merchandising of Beauty Stores

The Benefits of Using Planograms

What is a Drogerie Chain?

Drogerie is a type of self-service discount store located near the house or in a shopping center, specializing in the sale of non-food everyday goods: beauty and personal care products, home care. 

In Western Europe, the assortment of drogerie stores (health&beauty stores) also includes over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, parapharmacy and dietary supplements. This format of stores usually has a functional interior and simple shelves, price tags and layout. Due to the wide range of everyday goods, drogerie stores have high turnover per unit of retail space. In addition, almost the entire assortment in such stores does not require special storage conditions due to the absence of perishable goods. Therefore, there are no refrigerated display cases or freezers in the sales area.

As for the location, the traffic of people is important for beauty stores. Therefore, the location is often chosen in proximity to the place of residence or work of customers. The target audience of a beauty&health stores is women. However, when creating a display of cosmetics, do not forget about men. The segment of men's personal care products is in great demand in the consumer goods market.

Visual Merchandising of Beauty/Cosmetics Stores

For beauty/cosmetics stores, it is essential how customers visually perceive the products and their layout. The visual part matters when making a purchase decision. The correct layout of goods attracts attention and evokes positive emotions.

The right way to present products on the shelves affects sales, especially if the product or brand has recently appeared on the market. An effective visual merchandising strategy will help retailers convey the right information about the product and the store to customers. It helps to differentiate from competitors. 

Brands strive to stand out by grabbing attention and building loyalty and, ultimately, increasing sales. Products in beauty stores are often quite small and have unusual packaging. This makes it difficult to create an effective display. It seems that a wide assortment is good, but in fact, a large selection can overwhelm customers. The customer gets tired of making decisions and may refuse to buy. Especially those customers who are always in a hurry and want to quickly navigate the products.

That's why brands think about functional product layout to optimally present their offer, with a clear design that allows customers to recognize the brand immediately.

Who are your customers? Who are you targeting? 

Here you need to know your target audience. Information about demographics, buying habits of your regular customers, what they buy and when they buy it will help you create an effective shelf layout. When working with shelf layout, you should create planograms - visual diagrams of the placement of goods in the store. 

The Benefits of Using a Planogram 

By creating planograms in the PlanoHero service, you can customize the placement of products in full detail, taking into account customer preferences, demand, and agreements with suppliers.  

Beauty stores usually have numerous products, and it is difficult to control their availability. Moreover, the absence of a certain product can lead to the loss of customers.

What to do?

Organize your work with planograms.

A well-designed planogram includes information about the parameters of products, equipment, the layout itself, and detailed information about sales and product inventory. Therefore, the use of a planogram helps to prevent shortages of goods, simplify the process of replenishing stocks, expand the retail potential of the space, and ultimately increase sales.

Don't forget that planograms are created with all the principles of merchandising in mind, and they also convey information to customers about your brand's individuality and its differences from others on the market.

Layout Principles 

The rule of three

Place sets of three products to attract the customer's attention for a longer time. This is because the human eye is more likely to linger when looking at something asymmetrical. For example, customers will pay more attention to products arranged in height from the lowest to the highest item.

Group complementary products for impulse purchases

Place complementary products together. This way, you increase the chance of impulse purchases. For example, by placing mascara with makeup cleanser, or day and night cream.

Micromerchandising

Draw attention to certain products in the middle of a long aisle with micromerchandising. To do this, use a different type of shelf or equipment than the rest of the aisle, or use a different color scheme. Shoppers may be interested in a change of scenery to stop and look at the product.

Placement of equipment

For higher sales, place products on open displays and shelving to demonstrate different brands. Island stands are eye-catching and can be placed in the center of the sales area. Individual display cases of various shapes with a bright design attract the attention of customers.

Customers want to try the cosmetics they are planning to buy, so there should be product samples (testers) in the displays and mirrors nearby.

Suppliers can provide branded containers or signage to complement the displays. Vertical branding on the shelves, i.e., displaying several different products of the same brand, can encourage customers to buy more than one item from the same line.

Conclusion

Planning the merchandising of cosmetics chains takes a lot of time and effort if you do it manually and do not use special tools. The planogram helps to unify the layout in all stores and simplifies the work of the merchandising department and store managers.

Using the PlanoHero planogram software helps merchandisers to organize their work properly and automate the process of planogramming across the entire retail chain.

Another advantage of planogramming in the PlanoHero service is the ability to control the execution of the planograms in stores. To do this, store managers use the PlanoHero Layout mobile application. With the help of this app, managers receive new planograms that need to be executed. After the manager places the goods on the shelves according to the planogram, he sends a photo report of the completed layout via the app. With the help of photo reports, the central office checks the correctness of the layout and, in case of errors, sends the planograms back to the store for execution. 

Simplify the work of store managers and merchandisers. Customize the planogramming process with PlanoHero and increase sales in your retail chain.