How to Fix Bad Merchandising?

Visual merchandising is one of the key factors influencing customer behavior in the retail space. However, even in large retail chains there are often systemic merchandising mistakes that prevent effective traffic management, complicate the selection process and negatively affect sales.

What is Bad Merchandising?

Bad merchandising is systematic mistakes in the visual and physical display of merchandise that lead to lower sales, poorer customer experience and higher costs. It can be either a lack of strategy or a failure to follow basic visual merchandising principles.

As a result:

• the product appears unnoticeable;
• the customer finds it difficult to navigate;
• sales of key categories fall;
• the brand loses its image and employees lose motivation.

The key task of visual merchandising is not just to show the goods, but to organize the space in such a way that it helps to sell. If this doesn't happen, the store loses potential revenue every day.

Typical Visual Merchandising Mistakes

1. Lack of Logic in Displaying Products

When product categories are placed chaotically, without consideration of compatibility and logic of the customer's route, it is disorienting and reduces the average receipt.

Example: dairy products are next to household chemicals, or impulse items are located in hard-to-reach areas.

Recommendation: implement a category approach and strategic planning of the sales floor.

2. Overcrowded or Irrelevant Front-End Areas

The front-area (the front of the store) is the most important area that forms the first impression. Overloaded with banners, price tags, outdated promotional materials or clutter reduces engagement.

Recommendation: keep only relevant materials, emphasize one strong offerer, and simplify the visual structure.

3. Weak or Outdated Storefront

The storefront is the face of the store. If it doesn't reflect seasonality, isn't updated, and doesn't evoke an emotional response, it loses its key function of attracting attention and encouraging entry.

Recommendation: implement a calendar of window updates, keep it clean, creative and thematically relevant.

4. Insufficient Navigation

Lack of signage, incorrect price tags, confusing routes inside the store - all this makes it difficult to find products and provokes irritation.

Recommendation: Develop a well thought-out navigation system - horizontal and vertical. Color coding, arrows, clear category designations significantly increase convenience.

5. Empty Shelves and Underfilled Areas

Empty shelves create the impression of poor service and lack of assortment. Even if there is product in the room, a visually incomplete display reduces trust and sales.

Solution: automate checkout control with digital tools. One of them is the PlanoHero service, which allows you to track shelf filling, analyze planograms, identify deviations in real time and optimize the team's work.

6. Inconsistent or Outdated Price Tags

The price tag is the most important element of visual communication with the customer. Different formats, poor legibility, outdated data and visual clutter in the price tag area hinder perception and cause distrust.

Recommendation: standardize price tag templates, update information regularly, implement digital solutions (e.g. electronic price tags) whenever possible.

7. Visual “noise” and inappropriate creativity

Over-decoration, incompatible design elements, irrelevant themes and cluttered POS materials cause visual fatigue. Bad creative may not only fail to work - it will repel the customer.

Recommendation: stick to the brand's visual guide, use creative with a clear idea relevant to the audience. Less is better, but more precise.

How Does Bad Merchandising Affect Business?

• Decrease in revenue by 15-30% - due to impaired navigation and loss of interest;
• Reduced customer dwell time in the store;
• Increased number of incomplete purchases;
• Decreased effectiveness of promotions;
• Increased workload on staff - due to the need to constantly answer questions, resolve conflicts, and move merchandise;
• Negative effect on brand perception.

Customers judge the quality of a product by how it is presented. Cluttered shelves, dust, crooked price tags - it's not just aesthetics, it's distrust of the brand. It is especially critical in the FMCG and cosmetics segments.

Which points of contact are most often forgotten:

• Foot level - inexpensive goods or children's products can be placed there too;
• Areas in front of the cash register - huge potential for impulse sales;
• POP (point-of-purchase) stands, which often sit idle without function.

If you put juices to water in one store and baby food in another, no amount of centralized marketing will save the day. Visual merchandising is part of the brand. It must be systematic.

How to Fix Bad Merchandising?

Here are a few areas worth implementing:

1. Visual audits - regular walkthroughs, photofixing, benchmarking.
2. Digital planograms - not Excel or Word. Real planograms with analytics, team access and templates by category.
3. Staff training - not just how to lay out, but why. People need to understand the logic of laying out.
4. Execution control - through photo reports, checklists, KPIs.
5. The use of automation services - PlanoHero service allows you to centrally manage layout, control compliance with planograms and optimize work at the level of the entire network.
6. A clear system of planograms - taking into account seasonality, movement logic and product priorities.
7. A/B testing of layouts and routes - data is always better than intuition.

How PlanoHero Helps Avoid Bad Merchandising

Bad merchandising is not just a matter of aesthetics. It is a factor that directly affects sales, customer experience and sustainability of a retail business.

Only a systematic approach to space organization, visual control, and merchandising area management can achieve high performance. Tools like PlanoHero help make this process transparent, measurable and scalable. It allows you to create and implement digital planograms, monitor compliance with standards, quickly update layouts, and collect analytics from retail stores. All of this in one interface.

Manage your store's visuals as accurately as your financials and you'll see results.