Name-Arunava Roy Department - MRM Roll Number - 4 Topic - Effect of Five Senses of Retail On Visual Merchandising

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Name- Arunava Roy

Department- MRM
Roll Number- 4
Topic- Effect of Five Senses of Retail on Visual
Merchandising
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Introduction
We all know that visual merchandising is both an art and a science and getting it
just right is sometimes excruciatingly hard. While many people think only of
displays, signage, arranging merchandise and a couple other tedious tasks,
visual merchandising should actually take into account all 5 senses if possible.
We know…visual…it’s somewhat misleading. But more than a few renown

stores take advantage of the senses of smell, hearing, taste and touch to entice
their customers to spend more time in the store, buy specific items, predispose
them to spend more or simply leave them with a pleasant feeling after visiting
the location.
Below I have discussed about The 5 Senses of Retail and can use sight, hearing,
smell and sometimes touch and taste in retail store’s visual merchandising
strategy to improve customer experience and increase sales. It is discussed
below.
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5 senses
1. Sight
Impulse purchasing is primarily driven by seeing, (according to the Specialty

Retail Report paper). As a result, you’ll need to start with delighting the
customer’s visual senses to boost sales.
Sure, this starts with the basics of well-presented and well sign-posted aisles
and products. You’ll hoover up a lot of custom this way, but to truly delight the
customer’s visual sense you need to make effective use of sales or promotions,
as research from shopper marketing agency, the Integer Group shows that the
main reasons that shoppers make impulse buys is due to a promotion or sale on
a given product, followed by them finding a coupon to make a purchase,
followed next by them wanting to spoil or pamper themselves.
So, retailers who can make effective use of colourful and contrasting store
signage to highlight these three opportunities to customers will create a visual
environment that: delights customers, triggers emotions and maximizes impulse
purchasing. A common trick of the trade here is to utilize images of people
enjoying your products who look like your target customer – this creates
empathy and reassures people that the product is ‘right for them’.
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2. Smell
You don’t need me to tell you what a bad toilet smell would do for custom in a
cafe. Alan Hirsch, neurological director of the Smell & Taste Treatment &
Research Foundation in Chicago asserts that smell has a greater impact on
purchasing than everything else combined – and that if the product smells
goods, it’s perceived as good. Most car manufacturers spray on the ‘new car’
fragrance in cars to boost sales. Think about having nice fragrances in the
entrance to create a great first impression, or in the washroom or toilet to make
customers feel great about hygiene in your eating establishment.
3. Sound
Pay attention to sound too, because up-lifting music can boost spirits and make
your customers buy more. Studies also show that fast music can make people
move faster which might work well if you have a fast paced, hyper busy coffee
shop, or sandwich bar, but it might not work well if your customers need to
dwell to make their purchase. Altering the speed of music, (and in store time-
perception), can boost sales by a third, according to data on triggerpulling.com
Also a retailweek.com article suggests you choose music to suit your brand and
specific product.
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4.Touch
As I said at the start, supermarkets don’t put toilet cleaner at the front of their
stores for a reason. Utilizing fresh fruit and vegetables in this space excites
senses. It is visually appealing sure and it provides a welcoming scent, but it’s
easy to overlook the way it targets the customer’s sense of touch. The process of
product selection in this space is also more tactile, as people squeeze fruit and
pick up weigh their produce. It provides a chance to feel the quality of the store
in your hands.
Research is beginning to show that customers are more likely to buy certain
products if they can touch them. Take this research by Lindstrom which reports
on how Walmart saw huge sales of their home brand toilet tissue after they cut
some of the wrap on toilet paper brands so shoppers could touch and compare
textures. The books also revealed that 35% of consumers say that the feel of a
phone is more important than the look. If you are selling personal products, give
people the option to touch them before buying.
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5.Taste
Taste can be an incredibly powerful sales tool in food, confectionery and

beverage stores and/or restaurants. Wine is an area which can really benefit
from tasting. R Research from Napa Technology which shows that nearly half
of merchants noted that consumers will spend between 5-15% more on wine
after they taste a variety of wine that is new to them.
As you can see, tidy and ordered presentation of products in your store will
catch the attention of the purposeful customer who knows exactly what they
want, but this alone won’t drive profits. To go to the next level and increase
sales by 100-200% over the baseline, you need to drive impulse selling by
developing creative marketing that captures customer attention by delighting all
five of the human senses.

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1

Name- Arunava Roy

We know…visual…it’s somewhat misleading. But more than a few renown

Impulse purchasing is primarily driven by seeing, (according to the Specialty

Taste can be an incredibly powerful sales tool in food, confectionery and

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