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Unit 30: Visual Merchandising in Retail

M2b: Compare how three retail outlets uses space and psychology in their visual
merchandising and display techniques to encourage customers to purchase goods
In this task, I am going to compare how three companies use psychology and different
techniques in both merchandising and display, to convince customers to purchase goods
...
Tangible techniques are something you can touch, see,
hear or smell such as packaging, displays, promotions, etc, whereas intangible techniques
evoke certain emotions from the customer in order to convince them to buy products ie
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The three companies I am going to compare are Tesco, Marks & Spencer and River Island
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When you analyse both Tesco and M&S’ tangible display techniques, you can see they are
quite explicit in what they wish to achieve, as we can see that M&S use window displays
(used to catch the customers eye and also evoke certain thoughts from customers
depending on the season and themes) and packaging designs (used to express eye
catching imagery, add value to the product, as well as express information regarding
ingredients and health information), in order to express the quality of their products and to
show the general quality of the store, and Tesco is also rather explicit in terms of what they
wish to express to the customer, as their tangible techniques mainly revolve around pushing
their own brand to customer, as well as giving information regarding promotions in order to
increase profits
...

However, from this we can see that there is some level of overlap between M&S and River
Island, as I assessed that they both still focus on creating space in the store, as Marks and
Spencer’s layout allows M&S to give different angles and sight lines to the customer which
gives the impression that the store is more spacious than it really is, and with this the
customer is then able to see more of the store allowing them to be able to look at other
products across the store much easily, and with River Island, the fixture positioning is very
important in terms of the store,as they have their fixtures positioned around the store, in
open spaces, meaning that the customers have more space to roam and browse other
products, which means the customer is more likely to browse for longer, so this is where
these stores are similar as they want to b be able to create space to let the customers
browse, and this is where Tesco differs, as they aren't focused on this type of merchandising

technique, as their layout is revolved around categorising products, and utilizing the space,
as they have so many products, the need to fit as much as they can in, in order to serve the
customers, so this is where M&S and Tesco differ
...
The
customers can see that M&S are trying to express different thoughts and emotions through
different mediums, as we know they wish to express different themes, as well as show off
their products through the use of window displays, and along with the packaging designs,
the customer knows that M&S is aiming to eye catching imagery to convince them to buy the
food, so from this the customer can see that they are trying to give information regarding
their products and themes, whereas from Tesco, we can see they are far more explicit in
terms of their end goal, as their tangible techniques revolve around advertising their brand,
by ensuring the customer is constantly think about Tesco, as well as advertising promotions
such as BOGOF and seasonal promotions, so we can see that from what I have gathered,
Tesco is far more explicit in terms of advertising as the customer can clearly see that their
end goal is to boost sales by advertising their promotions, whereas, M&S is slightly more
subtle in terms of informing the customers about their products, so this is where these
companies slightly differ
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Between River Island, Tesco and Marks and Spencer, we can see that the intangible
techniques mainly revolve around displays, as River Island uses coloured displays, in their
stores, River island usually have white walls, with some displays in pink, green, etc, in order
to emphasise the colour through the store in order to brighten it up and make the store look
more visually interesting and by contrast different colours, customers are more interested in
the displays, and are more likely to stay in the store for longer
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There are many different examples of how M&S may try and activate the five main senses in
order to make the shopping experience more interesting
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For example, during a specific
season such as spring, Tesco will aim to brighten up the store, and try to bring that specific
season into the store, by having more flower displays at the front of the store, to give the
impression of the season, and also to give the scent of the season throughout the store, so
through this method, the customers will be more interested in the displays and are more
likely to come back due to the presentation
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From going through the different techniques that the three stores, we can see that M&S and
River Island are more balanced in terms of the techniques, whereas, Tesco are more
focused around tangibles and explicit techniques, as in the work previous and also
expressed in this task, they have one only tangible technique, which is still somewhat
connected to tangibles with the seasonal display, so this is where Tesco greatly differs from
the other stores

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