Webinars

Visual merchandising is one of the most influential trends in retail that has forced retailers to re-think the purpose and design of their physical store. It’s not just about design anymore; it’s about creating an experience that compels shoppers to want to buy. This webinar explores how you can easily shape this customer experience in your store!

What if it were possible for your customers to experience something new every time they come into your store? Find out how as retail anthropologists, Kizer & Bender, industry designer Connie Post, and Kim Cornish, Visual Merchandising Director from 1915 South, discuss what is working in furniture retail stores today.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS WEBINAR

• Today, your in-store personality and experience are more important than your product.
• Your website, social channel presence, and in-store experience need to match to present a consistent image to your customers.
• Focus on a visual experience and inspire shoppers with your displays.
• Lifestyle and seasonal displays can freshen your store’s experience.
• Being on-trend with textures and colors will improve your image.
• Make sure that you display items that people can take home immediately.
• The best way to create a WOW factor is to improve your front entrance experience. It’s the first and last thing your customer sees. Dramatic entrances will engage customers.
• Using scents in your store can also transform the customer experience.
• To renovate on a budget that will push the needle, focus on the first vignette in the door.
• Well-lit showrooms move people around the store. Avoid fluorescent lighting!
• People like to look at product information themselves, so make sure tags and information are easy to read without reading glasses.
• Change the accessories at least once a week.
• It would help if you had some degree of change at least four times a year with a complete change twice a year.
• The exterior of your store represents over 57% of your marketing brand, so change the landscaping, awnings, and in-store fixtures a minimum of every five years.
• Walk around your store with a pad and pencil and write down all the things that would bug you as a customer.

OUR PANEL OF EXPERTS

Rich Kizer & Georganne Bender – Partners, Kizer & Bender Speaking

Georganne Bender and her partner Rich Kizer are consumer anthropologists, keynote speakers, authors, and consultants who have helped tens of thousands of retailers. They are experts on generational diversity, consumer trends, marketing and promotion, and everything retail. As consumer anthropologists, they stalk and study the most elusive mammal: today’s consumer. The result of their research is literally straight from the mouth of the consumer: solid ground-level intelligence you can use to better serve your own customers. They are listed among the Top 40 Omnichannel Retail Influencers, Top 100 Retail Influencers, and the Top Retail Industry Experts to Follow on Social Media, were named two of Retailing’s Most Influential People. Their award-winning Retail Adventures Blog ranked high on the Top 20 Retail & Marketing Blogs for 2022.

Connie Post – CEO/Owner, Connie Post International Affordable Design Solutions & Connie Post Affordable Designs, Furnishings & Fashion retail store

Renowned as a retail design strategist, author, trend translator, and developer of both products and brands, Connie Post has built a career on understanding where consumers are, what they want most, and where they are going next. As the standard-bearer of visual marketing in the home furnishings industry for the past three decades, she is responsible for the look of more than 20 million square feet of retail and wholesale space around the globe. Post also owns the “Connie Post Affordable Designs, Furnishings & Fashion” retail store in Jamestown, North Carolina.

Kim Cornish – Director of Visual Merchandising & Design, 1915 South

With over 20 years of experience in the industry, Kim has extensive knowledge in the visual merchandising and accessory/furniture buying field. She oversees 21 stores in the Southeastern markets for 1915 South dba Ashley Furniture Homestores. Kim has spearheaded store openings, remodeling/resets, and led a team of visual merchandisers and CAD designers, ensuring the implementation of all visual merchandising goals and strategies.