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Brick-and-mortar retailers have just a few seconds to attract—and hold—a buyer’s eye with a window display. In New York City, 10,000 people pass the Macy’s window every hour. That’s nearly 1.7 million people each week!

Your shop doesn’t have to be world famous or located in the middle of busy Manhattan to benefit from a well-designed store window. According to NPD Group research, window displays influence purchases an average of 24% of the time.

The right window display design can engage shoppers enough to cause them to stop, look back, and walk into your store, where your floor staff can help close the sale. Not only do attractive window displays help bring in customers, they also let you display new products, highlight promotions, enhance your brand image, and differentiate your store from the competition.

With increasing competition from ecommerce, and the COVID-19 pandemic keeping shoppers at home, store windows are more valuable than ever. In order for window displays to benefit brick-and-mortar retailers, Mujica says, “it’s important they have a very specific vision for the people they are pandering to.”

Window displays can help your store boost foot traffic and brand awareness, highlight products and promotions, and differentiate itself from the competition.

Window displays preview what’s inside your shop. You can use them to entice customers with products they’ll like and to highlight new arrivals, limited-edition products, or even holiday gifts.

Leverage windows to let customers know about sales. If you’ve ever entered a store after seeing a huge “SALE” sign in its window, then you understand how effective this tactic can be. Synchronize in-store offers with online promotions to increase the impact of your displays.

Let’s say there are two shoe stores in your neighborhood that feature the same shoes in their window. Store A displays the shoes in a creative way, while Store B unimaginatively places each pair on top of its box.

Which store do you think attracts more customers? Most likely Store A. Making an effort with your window displays will help you stand out from the local competition.

They’re great for exhibiting clothes on mannequins and body forms and showing off your store’s interior design. However, open window displays are revealing, making it difficult to hide fixture accessories, like wires.

Closed window displays have a wall or backdrop separating them from the store floor. These displays emphasize the products on view by eliminating distractions from inside the shop. Yet, they block natural light from entering your shop, so you’ll have to compensate with ample lighting on the floor.

Shadowboxes are small, box-like, and most often used to display petite, detailed items, like jewelry, shoes, or makeup. They’re usually only big enough for one or two people to look at at once.

As the name implies, you get a corner window display when two windows come together in a corner, creating a large, box-like display. Corners are optimal for attracting shoppers approaching from any direction and showing off products from more than one side. But, it can be difficult to arrange products in these displays, since they need to look attractive from multiple viewpoints.

Setting up your first retail window display may sound a little daunting. Luckily, you don’t need to have a design background to create a compelling store window display. Even if you don’t have the budget to hire a visual merchandising professional, it’s possible to DIY your own display.

Here, we’ll help you set your fears aside so you can master the art of putting together unforgettable window displays. We’ll guide you through the process of assembling your store window display, as well as offer some window display ideas to get you started.

Use Shopify’s analytics and reporting to make the right merchandising decisions at each of your store locations. Spot seasonal trends, see which products require promotion, measure your promotions’ impact on product sales, and more.

Before you start brainstorming complex ideas for your first retail window display, let’s start by making sure we"ve got the necessary tools to set you up for success. In other words, you don’t want to be halfway through the process only to notice you don’t have a tape measure or another essential tool.

Depending on the design of your store window display, you may need other materials to complete your project. However, these tools will keep the ball rolling and can serve as a skeletal shopping list to start your display design.

When it comes to conceptualizing a store window display, it’s best to start with a pen and paper. Before sketching out your window display ideas, start with a story based on a theme. Yes, your window display design should tell at least a basic story. After all, it"s proven that storytelling can serve as a strategic business tool.

Doing so will help you determine where your focal point should be. The focal point is where you want your prospective customers to look first and concentrate their focus. The central point of your display should be big enough to catch a shopper"s attention, even on the other side of the street.

Start thinking about the arrangement of products based around your focal point. Will you arrange your products on wires or shelves around the focal point? Or maybe set them up in a pyramid? Explore different configurations to see what would work best for your window display.

Let’s be honest: society’s attention span is shrinking to about less than a millisecond, and your buyers are no exception. You can bet that most people walking by your store will either be engaged in conversation with friends, texting, or walking their dogs. So, you’ll need to pull out all the stops to make sure you catch their attention. At the very least, you can create a store window display they’ll want to take photos of with their smartphone and share them with the world.

So, when creating your retail window display, don’t be bland. Be bold with colors, shapes, and props. Think outside of any cookie-cutter colors and opt for more eye-catching hues like fuchsia, orange, or electric blue. Just remember to exercise your best judgment and keep everything consistent with your brand.

With all the window display ideas available for you to use as inspiration, it’s easy to get carried away and create an overly complicated display. However, too much clutter is likely to repel and overwhelm potential passersby, rather than draw their attention. Don’t try to do too much or you’ll just end up with a busy, unfocused display.

Always keep your goal in mind: ultimately, you want to draw attention to your products and help customers quickly understand why certain products are grouped with others. That also means keeping your display clutter-free and being able to justify why each component of your display is included.

When you’re creating a display, you’re going to have small and large objects, dark and light colors, lights and shadows, and so on. It’s important to balance the different elements you’ll be deploying in order to create a pleasing aesthetic.

Typically, you’ll want to place larger, darker items near the bottom, and items that are lighter and more colorful at the top. This arrangement will prevent your display from looking top heavy. Similarly, if you place all the large items to one side and all the small ones on the side, you’ve got an unbalanced window display. Imagine you’re balancing items on a scale, which means doing things like balancing a large item on one side with lots of smaller items on the other.

Trust your judgment and get a sense of what emotion your display is evoking. With a balanced display, you’re more likely to create feelings of happiness, excitement, and joy, whereas an unbalanced display may signal anxiety or instability.

When it comes to creating an effective window display, lighting is often an afterthought, or something to consider if you’ve got the budget for “extra costs.” But lighting can be a crucial component in getting people to stop and notice your display.

Lighting can create moods, highlight certain products over others, and establish a dramatic setting for your store window display. Being strategic with lighting can pay dividends in helping you get your focal point right on and directing onlooker’s eyes to where you want them.

We don’t recommend lighting displays directly from the top, as this can lead to unattractive, harsh shadows. Instead, consider lighting displays from the sides and front. This technique will bring out the 3D quality of the display. Plus, you can really have some fun when you have light coming at it from different angles.

Once you’ve got all the pieces where you want them, make sure to take a look at your window display from every possible angle. Very rarely is a person going to only notice a display when they’re standing right in front of it. Walk up to it from different directions and check things like your focal point, how visible your signage or calls to action are, and if it all appears balanced.

Your audience will impact the products you choose to display, colors you use in it, and the stories you tell in your windows. Keep your ideal customer at the forefront of your strategy.

When you design your windows with a target audience in mind, you’ll draw those people in and make them excited to shop with you. If you try to create a display that appeals to everyone, you’ll end up watering down your design and appealing to no one.

It’s a well known fact that grocery stores display cereals for kids on lower shelves and cereals for adults on higher shelves. Why? Because this is where these customers’ eyelines land, and therefore, where their attention will be.

Keep window shoppers’ eyelines in mind while building external-facing displays. If you own a children’s clothing boutique, for example, you could display products that would appeal to kids, like toys, low enough for children to see, and more practical products at parents’ eye level.

Beyond considering eyelines, it’s important to remember that you’re designing a 3D display and not a flat one. Make sure that products and props can easily be seen—and look good—from various angles.

According to McKinsey, technology will help retail double its profitability. Interactive technologies like augmented reality, touchscreens, and QR codes help give a new meaning to the term “window shopping.” Embrace them to engage passersby and influence purchasing decisions.

Augmented reality (AR) technology enhances real-world objects and settings by placing virtual objects over them. AR lets shoppers try on products, like makeup and jewelry, virtually. This technology helps customers make purchasing decisions, even when your store is closed.

When placed within a window, touchscreens help customers learn more about the products on and off display. They also make it easy to entice window shoppers with coupons in exchange for contact information, which opts them into your email marketing efforts.

Touchscreens are best for stores that sell valuable, high-consideration items (i.e., electronics, furniture, or vehicles) since they can be used to share product specifications and details. They’re also commonly used in the real estate industry to show listings that aren’t featured in the main display.

Quick response (QR) codes are bar codes that open up a link, share a phone number, send an SMS, or share a plain text message when people scan them with a smartphone. Follow the example of Rose City Goods and put them in your window display to link to your ecommerce website, product pages, and more.

QR codes make it easy for window shoppers to make purchases even when your store isn’t open. They’re also cheap and easy to implement through a QR code generator.

For its Hallucination campaign, Gucci extended the technology to its window displays by installing classic artworks reimagined with characters dressed in designer clothing. What makes this display unusual is that most of the mannequins are facing away from the window, as if they were visiting an art gallery.

Toronto apothecary Leaves of Trees unveiled a window display featuring oversized tubes of its skin care products suspended upside down, with cascades of dried roses, grapefruit, and lavender “pouring” out.

The display is striking not only because of the scale of the props, but also because it explicitly highlights the natural ingredients the retailer uses in its products.

Leaves of Trees’ unique window displays attract a lot of walk-ins, but this wasn’t always the case. When the shop opened in 2014, its displays featured colorful florals made from paper, but none of the brand’s actual products.

Founder Roohi Quereshi soon discovered that people were stopping to look but didn’t know what she was selling. The shop was mistaken for a restaurant, a juice bar, and even a pot dispensary.

Creativity in any window display is important, but for smaller retailers, it’s crucial that products be clearly presented, not only so passersby know what you’re selling, but to target the right buyer.

Known for its elaborate window displays, Saks’ collaboration with French design collective Vetements did a complete about-turn by featuring nothing but a pile of old clothes.

While many walking by did a double take assuming the display was a work in progress or even a mistake, it enhanced Saks’ image as a retailer with a conscience.

Highlighting a good cause in your window display can help boost your brand image. Also, putting something in your window that is unexpected will grab the attention of passersby.

Fashion retailer Alice + Olivia highlighted its playful side in New York by setting mannequins in front of a giant backdrop of sugary cereals and salty snacks.

The goal of this window display wasn’t so much to attract a new audience to the brand, but to tap into the nostalgia of its existing young buyers who grew up eating Frosted Flakes and Corn Pops.

According to a study in the Journal of Consumer Research, people are more likely to spend more when they’re feeling nostalgic. To tie in the product with the display, the clothes were carefully curated to match the color grading of the boxes behind.

A bright and well-lit window display is always eye catching, especially at night. “By lighting it properly, you avoid negative shadows that can make garments look small or dowdy,” Mujica advises.

In order to woo and impress its wealthy buyers during the holiday season, luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman spends upward of six figures on its window displays.

While Bergdorf’s resources exceed the budget of most high-street retailers, this window display makes a very strong statement about its brand and the high-end products it sells.

Putting extra resources into your window display at certain times of year can really pay off. Holiday windows attract extra foot traffic, and, according to NRF research, holiday spending has reached an all-time high.

Tiffany & Co. has been famous for its window displays ever since the brand was immortalized in the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s. So iconic is the retailer’s window that several people have chosen the location to pop the question.

The retailer’s window displays are most notable for their simplicity. Unlike Bergdorf Goodman, whose windows are a targeted celebration of decadence, Tiffany’s creative is often quite minimal.

While it can be tempting to fill up a window to maximize the space, cramming too many items into a display can devalue your products by making them look cluttered. Focusing only on one item communicates to passersby that it’s special.

Carvers from Japan’s Okamato Studio sculpted holiday-themed blocks of ice while wearing designer jumpsuits, gloves, and scarves. The live-action demonstration set to music not only highlighted products found in-store, but also grabbed shoppers’ attention for an extended period of time.

A creative window display that is completely different from what your competitors are doing not only attracts eyeballs on the street, but also extends the reach of your content through social media sharing.

The juxtaposition of high with low end “made the brand seem more approachable to passersby,” says Mujica. “It drew shoppers into the store like a carnival game.”

One winter window display paid homage to hygge, the Danish word for comfort, and featured books on crafting and cooking, with each nestled inside Nordic-style houses.

Created on a modest budget, TYPE’s unique window displays consistently lead to an increase in foot traffic. There’s no couture or Swarovski crystals, but by honing in on a specific theme, TYPE Books attracts the attention of both new and existing customers.

In fact, so many people enter the store asking about a specific title that the retailer set up a special display inside featuring all the books found in the window.

The prominence of the color orange ties in well with the brand’s signature color. In fact, WindowsWear was so impressed with this display that it named it Best Orange Window of 2017.

Color is a key component of visual merchandising and can help influence buyer behavior. If you’re looking primarily to attract customers, using red and orange in your window display will draw the attention of passersby.

Philadelphia-based sustainable fashion brand Lobo Mau could teach a master class on how to ensure passersby don’t just browse window displays, but shop them.

“When the pandemic caused all non-essential businesses in Philadelphia to close, we had to think of a way to keep people engaged with our brand and to also make it easy for people to shop the store,” says co-owner and Designer Nicole Haddad. Co-owner and CEO Jordan Haddad “came up with the idea of using QR codes in our windows to allow customers to view the products and then order them straight from our website.

“Our boutique is situated on a corner, and it has four big windows. It’s prime real estate for window displays,” says Nicole. “When building out the store we asked our architects to create modular displays that we could constantly update and change around. One week we could have a sweatshirt hanging in the window, and then the next week the same window can be all shelves to display our ceramics.”

“We start[ed] using QR codes [in our windows] to provide visitors with context to our exhibitions,” says Art Center Program Manager Meg Wachs. “We want to allow any passerby on the sidewalk a chance to learn about the work on display, even if our space isn’t open in the hours that they may be passing.”

“Due to COVID-19, we had a gap in our Window Gallery exhibition calendar at the holidays that seemed best optimized by adjusting the work on display to products from our retail space” that are featured in the organization’s holiday gift guide, Wachs explains. Wachs also configured “the QR [code] to lead to our [digital] Holiday Gift Guide. Even within a retail space, we try to educate the public beyond what their experience with glass is.”

Take a page out of UrbanGlass’ book and use your window display to educate customers, in addition to selling products. For example, you could link your QR codes to landing pages that explain the process behind how you create your products.

Window displays are a powerful sales tool. They draw customers in, keep them engaged, and help initiate sales. By getting creative with your displays, and enhancing them with technology, you’ll convert passersby into customers.

With Shopify’s mobile POS, you can serve customers anywhere in your store, banish lineups at the checkout counter, and speed up your checkout. Use any smartphone or tablet to process returns and exchanges, accept payments, and check out customers wherever they are.

New York City’s Macy’s is the quintessential example we think of when we think window display. With gigantic windows across their flagship store give them the perfect space for building some of the world’s most creative window displays, especially during the holidays.

To create a unique and eye-grabbing window display, you’ll first want to spend some time brainstorming creative ideas first. Then start gathering the merchandise and materials you’ll need and bring your window display idea to life.

Clearly, human beings are highly visual in nature, and this is a fact that is particularly important when you’re running a physical store. One of the main reasons why people decide to shop offline is to see merchandise in person, and this is all the more reason to design winning retail displays.

The best way to make a lasting impression is to immerse your customers in a particular environment or setting. Check out the example below. The displays themselves are simple, and the retailer only makes use of a few simple racks and fixtures.

Keep this example in mind for your next display. Recognize that you don’t necessarily have to build something fancy. If you have a strong theme and ensure that all the components of your shop are in line with the story you want to tell, you can create a compelling and immersive experience using just a few simple products and fixtures.

In a survey by Ripen eCommerce, they found that the top reason people shop in brick and mortar stores instead of ecommerce is that physical retail enables shoppers to touch and feel items in person.

The key takeaway here? Create displays that encourage people to touch and feel for you products. If your items are sitting on a shelf or a table while still inside their respective boxes, you could be missing the chance to connect with your customers.

So, take your products out of their packaging and get shoppers to really experience your merchandise. Ulta Beauty, for example, does this with their hairdryers. While other stores keep the products in their boxes, Ulta has their hairdryers out for people to touch and feel them.

Need an easy and affordable way to breathe life into your visual merchandising? Use plants. Doing so doesn’t just make your displays more attractive, they can also create healthier and more pleasant shopping experiences.

Having more “green” displays clearly has some benefits, so consider incorporating plants into your designs.For inspiration, look no further than homeware retailer Harper & Grey House. Plants are a staple in their displays and the greens do a tremendous job in accentuating their merchandise.

Cross-merchandising is a subtle but effective way toincrease basket sizes and average order values. The practice promotes product discovery and entices shoppers to look at items that complement what they’re already buying.

There are a number of ways to implement cross-merchanding. One is to merchandise items that go together. You could, for example, create a display with a blouse, jacket, and matching purse.

Another idea? Display gift cards next to relevant products. Have a look at what Target is doing. The retailer has some baby-centric gift cards next to some toys in the store’s baby section to remind shoppers about their gift cards.

Speaking of little ones, have you considered creating kid-friendly displays? The practice can be quite effective particularly if you cater to Gen X and Millennial consumers.

Even the most creative displays will fall flat when they’re not well-lit. So invest, in the equipment to make sure that your products are displays in the best possible light.

Is your store on the small side? Consider using portable displays so you can make better use of your space. Such displays are easier to move so you can quickly re-merchandise your shop or make room for other things if necessary.

Portable displays can also help in keeping your visual merchandising focused and on-point. Since you have limited space, you’re forced to only display the most important and most high-impact products.

The following cookware display at Crate & Barrel does exactly that. The top part of the display has images of the items for sale along with a quick description of what each product is and what it does.

Colors can make or break your retail displays, which is why it’s essential to select the right color scheme. A big part of this will be driven by the colors of your products. If most of your items are come in pastel shades for instance, then those colors will be quite common in your displays.

That being said, how those products are displayed together matters a great deal. There are various ways to mix and match colors, so have a think about how you’ll do it in your displays.

The folks at Live By The Sword salon did an amazing job merchandising their shelf of Amika products, which come in a variety of colors.By really leaning into the colorful nature of Amika’s items, they were able to set up a vibrant display that pops.

Take this example from The LifeStyled Company. The team created a display featuring Babe Australia’s products, most of which come with predominantly white boxes and labels.

Timely displays are sure to grab the attention of your customers. Keep a close eye on your retail calendar and make sure that your visual merchandising coincides with relevant shopping events and seasons.

For instance, during last year’s back-to-school season, Target dedicated an entire corner to school supplies and relevant merchandise. The area of the store was filled with large, back-to-school displays that were impossible to miss.

If you’re running multiple stores, make sure your displays reflect the tastes and preferences of each location. Pay attention to local trends and popular products in the area and ensure they’re front and center in your displays.

Got a bunch of quotable quotes up your sleeve? See if you can incorporate them into your retail displays. When done right, a bit of text can complement your products and encourage shoppers to take a closer look.

And as a bonus, walls or displays with quotable quotes are a magnet for Instagram users. With the right display, you’re bound to gain a bunch of social shares and tags along the way.

If you’re looking for ways to showcase your full product lines without cramming your shelves and racks with too much merchandise, then see if you can use technology to “extend” your displays.

Case in point: when the online retailerShowpolaunched their pop-up store in Los Angeles, they chose to display a small selection of products in the shop.

In retail, space conveys value. The more space there is in a store or display, the higher the perceived value of the merchandise. This why many luxury retailers display items in standalone cases while discount stores overstuff their shelves with merchandise.

The right amount of space to use in your store depends on how you want to be perceived. But one thing is clear: if don’t want people to think that your products are cheap, then you’ll want to use fewer items in your display.

Take a look at this window fromSaks Fifth Avenue. The display features a single mannequin and table on which there’s just one pair of shoes. Aside from the paintings on the right, there aren’t a lot of details to distract people from the products.

Upcycling — the practice of using old or discarded materials to create something new — can help you build out-of-the-box retail displays. In the example below, we can see that the retailer used old chairs to create racks on which to hang their merchandise.

Now, don’t get us wrong: traditional racks and fixtures are still essential. But hopefully, this example encourages you to reimagine the use of old items. You never know — that old chair, box, or frame could be just the thing that would get your display to stand out.

If you’re celebrating a special holiday or occasion in your store, use your shop displays to show your festive side. Materials like balloons, tassels, garlands and other party supplies could help your displays pop.

With retail being more competitive than ever, there’s just no room for uninspired and mediocre retail displays. Now, more than ever, you need to constantly cook up in-store visuals can stop people in their tracks and encourage them to buy, share, and come back.

And remember that no matter what kind of display you have, it won’t be effective if it doesn’t showcase merchandise that your customers want to buy. That’s why it’s important to make data-backed decisions when it comes to merchandising. Use your POS or inventory management system to generate sales and product reports that will inform your decisions around what items to show off in your store.

While great products and excellent customer service can keep customers coming back, your visuals and branding are going to be the elements that get people to walk into your shop in the first place. Your store’s window display plays a big part in this, which is why you should take the steps to make it as fresh and attention-grabbing as possible.

Your window display needs to be targeted enough to entice the right shoppers, but not too specific that it’ll alienate potential customers.This is something thatSessions Music, a music education company learned.

According to its marketing director Adam Williamson, since 75% of their students were under the age of 15, they initially stuck with “child-centric” imagery in their displays. They soon realized, however, that this alienated and misled potential customers into thinking that Session Music was just for kids.

“Even after we changed this, we still constantly had people saying ‘Do you have programs for adults?’ Of course, we do but our window displays did not properly showcase that,” Adam said.

Aside from considering your target audience, you also need to think about their perspective, advised Sophie Darling, the community manager at WeddingDresses.com and a former bridal shop owner.

Check out this window display from Christian Louboutin, and notice how they elevated certain products (i.e., the purse and shoes) so that they’re either at or close to eye level.

Is your store in a shopping center where people can leisurely walk around, or are you in a fast-paced environment? Will they be with their kids or shopping alone? Will people be on foot when they see your displays or will they be in their cars?

For instance, at Sessions Music, they make it a point to limit the use of text in their displays because they know that a lot of their customers only have a few seconds to look at their window.

“We realized that many people who see our window displays were in their car. If our message was not clear to someone who has 1-3 seconds to view it (not nearly enough time to read anything), then we would not run with it,” said Williamson.

Stories, whether they’re read, heard, or in this case,seen,are far more effective in grabbing and keeping people’s attention. In other words, stories stick. This is true for speeches, articles, and yes, even window displays.

Your displays should go beyond showing off your products; they should tell tales that pique shoppers’ interest and encourage them to come inside. You can do this by selecting a theme, and finding stories in line with it.

Check out what Anthropologie is doing. The apparel retailer changes the window displays of its stores depending on certain seasons or events. What makes their window displays great though, is that Anthropologie always finds a unique angle or story within its chosen season theme.

For instance, when Halloween rolls around, it might be tempting to fill your display with pumpkins or ghouls. This might be a bit superficial. Find ways to go a bit off the beaten path and come up with something unique.

Keep your designs clean and avoid including too many items in it. Your window display should provide a peek at what you have to offer, not give everything away. In addition, a cluttered window display can devalue your brand and merchandise. As display consultant Linda Cahan of Cahan & Co. toldEntrepreneur, “in retailing, space equals luxury… if you cram items together in a window, they’ll look cheap.”

“Cluttering your window will dilute the impact that your best merchandise would otherwise have on passersby, and simply make your shop easier to ignore.”

The following display from Hugo Boss illustrates this tip quite well. Notice the clutter-free environment of the window, which allows the brand’s products to stand out in their own right.

You’ll be changing your window display regularly, so devote ample resources on the materials and equipment that you’ll be re-using. This could include frames, fixtures, lights, mannequins, and more.

At Sessions Music, for example, Williamson says that they “invested in quality storage materials (such as hard poster tubes for our window graphics) and reserved a clean, dry area to store them in for future displays.”

If you sell a variety of products, use your window display to show off your range. Incorporate pieces from multiple departments and categories and use them to form a cohesive display.

Kolkid, a children’s boutique that sells apparel, toys, and decor, did just that for its back to school display. Notice how the store’s window contains merchandise from various categories, thus showing the different items offered by Kolkid.

It might sound obvious, but you’d be surprised at the number of retail stores with poorly-lit displays. You’ve put a lot of work in crafting a great looking window, so you need to ensure that everyone can see your handiwork, especially at night.

In some instances, your store’s overhead and built-in lighting are enough to keep your displays well-lit. However, this isn’t always the case. There may be instances the call for lights made specifically for your windows.

To find out, step outside your store at night and view your window from a pedestrian’s perspective. Are your products highly visible? Can people appreciate your display even at night time? The answers to these questions should guide your lighting efforts.

Inspiration is everywhere — just ask Laura Watkins, the owner of Pink Pointes Dancewear, a UK-based dance shop. “I get inspiration from a range of sources, the season, a film or song, a product we want to showcase or if I’m feeling really stuck Pinterest boards are helpful too,” says.

“When I first took over running our shop the new Bloch Militare boot has just come out. It’s a split sole dance shoe but looks like a boot. It happened to be September and the leaves were beginning to change so I made a display with hundreds of leaves in beautiful autumnal colors and this pair of boots on top as they looked like Dr. Matens and great for stomping in piles of leaves.”

“To go beside this we had a really elegant ballet tutu in browns and greens with leaves on it and I finished the display off with leaves on fishing line so they looked like they were falling.”

“It may seem quite burdensome and expensive to constantly be changing window displays but their effectiveness is directly correlated to their relevance to your current promotions, the season, the weather, and so on,” he says.

At their store, he shares that they change their window displaysat leastonce a month; and during busy seasons such as the holidays, they do so every week.

“As a brick and mortar location, we often have repeat walk-by traffic. The same, tired displays eventually get ignored but a constantly changing array will keep people’s attention peaked until they are ready to purchase(or enroll as in our case).”

Instagram– This social networking app is a goldmine for retail ideas. Searching for hashtags like #windowdisplay, #shopfront, and  #retaildesign will bring up photos of what other retailers are doing and inspire your efforts. And don’t forget to follow theretail-centric Instagram accountsdedicated to storefront design.

Pinterest– As Laura mentioned, Pinterest is another great source. A quick search for “window displays” will return tons of pins and boards that you can peruse for ideas. Be sure to pin, like, or follow the good ones (such asVend’s Beautiful Window Displays board) so you can always come back to them when you need to.

design:retail– Another great source for inspiration, design:retail covers retail design news and trends, and showcases layouts, designs, and displays from other retail stores.

“Retail is both an art and a science,” says Marc Gingras, CEO of Foko Retail. “Those who focus solely on aesthetics risk missing the full picture. Because creating show-stopping displays that stand out from the competition is one thing, but being able to replicate the results at scale is another.”

According to Marc, you need “to think of window displays as not just opportunities for stunning artistic achievement that boost brand awareness, but as a way to increase profits through systematic analysis, refinement, and execution across multiple locations.”

To do that, analyze your customer data. Measure your foot traffic to see which displays are drawing in visitors then figure out if they’re converting. If they are, says Marcm then drill down on what makes a display effective.

Step outside your store and snap a picture of your entire window to see what it looks like. The camera can capture aspects of the display that may seem off and it can shed light on components that you may need to reposition or adjust.

These things aren’t always obvious, especially if you’re too close to the display, so viewing your work through a photo helps you see it through a fresh perspective.

At the heart of every great digital signage display is this: content. Make it look good and people will stop to look at it. Make it look bad or outdated, and chances are they won’t be looking at your screen again.

The most obvious is social media. If you invest your efforts in social media, why not use this to bring your digital screens to life too? You can also utilize user-generated content.

Walls.io offers a unique feature to showcase sponsored ads from brands you partner with. This feature is called Sponsored Posts, and they are special posts on your social wall that aren’t filled with regular social content from your sources. Instead, you can upload specific images (or videos or just text) that you want to display there and have it show up on your wall in regular intervals.

ScreenCloud supports pretty much any image formats, including JPEG, PNG and GIF, so you can upload images from company workshops, events, product showcases - anything you like really. Create your own image showreel within a Playlist simply by uploading the images, setting the duration of each one and then leaving them to play.

If you need to create a quick notice, perhaps detailing a room change or a meeting time, there are a wealth of apps to make that happen. Like Noticeboard - an app that can be found in the ScreenCloud App Store. It allows you to create a quick and easy display in seconds, and also allows for real-time edits.

This type of content works well as ‘filler’ content in between video, ads and social media displays to stop your viewers from getting digital-overload.

Food is such a big part of our lives, it’s natural that we’re drawn to images, descriptions and menu boards showing it. Enter the digital menu board digital signage display.

This is one of the most important content displays you’ll create if you work in a restaurant, fast food chain or bar. It also works in an office cafeteria, an event setup or even as a fun noticeboard where you can swap menu items out for things you’re working on or fun descriptions of your team members. If you’re a franchise, this works especially well as you can change the price of an item across all screens and locations from one ScreenCloud login.

Data-driven companies are more likely to succeed – because they can easily see the areas that need attention. But most of the time this business-critical data is siloed and not seen by the teams that can make an immediate impact. Historically this data hasn’t been shown on screens due to security fears, which is why ScreenCloud developed Dashboards.

We love Slack at ScreenCloud. Like many startups, it’s how we do about 90% of our communication. So when a room’s really crucial to what we do, like our #praise room, we share it on our digital signage screens. This is made really easy with the Slack app.

How much time do you think your reception staff spend directing people to the right floor or meeting room? We love using the building directory app to share details of where everything is through our digital signage screens. The best part? If a room changes, you can update the screen easily unlike your static signs. Here are some non-obvious benefits of wayfinding in retail.

Imagine having a method of internal communication that allowed you to broadcast to your entire company, at the click of a button… That’s exactly what ScreenCloud Broadcast can do for you. This makes it easy to share company broadcasts that go out to all screens simultaneously with news, praise or health and safety announcements. Broadcast can securely live-stream meetings or announcements to screens in your office, and also onto the mobiles or desktop screens of remote or deskless workers, making sure everyone gets the news.

Everyone likes to see where they are in a leaderboard, whether that’s in sales or counting reps in the gym. Use your digital screens to show off this leaderboard and add an additional layer to your customer/employee experience. You can create it easily using Google Slides, or for something more automated, check out a tool like Bonusly, as shown below.

In the same way you might use your digital signage to share leaderboards, you could also entice employees or customers in with competitions. Promoting giveaways or asking them to submit something (like an Instagram image) for the chance to win, is a great use of your digital screens. Create a poster using Canvas and add a QR code to link through to a competition landing page.

Screens are great for all of the good stuff we like to put out into the world, but they’re also a good vehicle when you need to make an emergency notice that needs to reach a lot of people. For (planned) fire drills, you can schedule the alert to pop up on your screens, otherwise, have a template at the ready to push live should you need to display it in the moment.

Ever had a bad meeting room experience? Someone waiting awkwardly outside? Knocking before you’re finished to ask ‘how long’? Same. It’s why using small screens, iPads or tablets you have laying around is an awesome use of digital signage. We wrote more about how to set this up here.

For retailers looking forward to the holiday season for a much-needed revenue boost, joyful and eye-catching Christmas displays will convince more shoppers to buy from their stores.

We’ve pulled together more than 40 creative Christmas display ideas to dress up both your brick-and-mortar and online stores. We also share quick and easy tips to help you build the perfect display this holiday season. May your holidays be filled with peace and joy—and may the register bell ring brightly!

According to a historical stat from Vistaprint, small businesses spend an average of $347 for their retail Christmas window displays. Plus, the seasonal decorations market has grown 2.5% annually since 2016. While some businesses might have bigger budgets, it is simply the ability to connect with passing shoppers that will ultimately determine your holiday sales success.

This digital display from Ted Baker’s London store seems like a simple strategy compared to other creative Christmas window displays out there. Adorned with Christmas garlands and lights, it completes the perfect festive look that lets you showcase ads to attract shoppers passing by.

Quick Tip: Consider using digital displays. They’re not only visually attractive but easy to repurpose for any occasion. Furthermore, the influx of shoppers during the holiday rush can be overwhelming, even with the best point-of-sale (POS) system in your store. Digital in-store displays help reduce shopping fatigue and stress brought about by waiting in long lines at the cash register.

A small stationery store in Brussels opted for a simple Christmas display using chalk paint to add a wreath design to a see-through shop window. The handwritten text and warm lights inside the store complete the message, inviting shoppers to come inside. You can also use chalk to create a holiday-themed design for a sandwich board or on the sidewalk outside your storefront if the space is available.

Quick Tip: Consider your location. Knowing what the customer needs is key to making a sale, or in this case, convincing them to come into your store. The owner understands that shoppers would be cold and tired, so using a Christmas window display to draw a crowd with the promise of comfort and warmth is both simple and effective.

Another simple yet creative take on a winter scene is with frosted, see-through windows. The designer used the store view as a backdrop to come up with the right colors and accents for an attractive Christmas display.

Pufferbellies in Staunton, Vermont, hired a visual merchandiser to help create its Christmas window displays. It went with a full-on holiday theme, complete with handmade reindeer, buildings, and accents.

Quick Tip:Use the store window as your backdrop. Some displays can look deceptively hard or expensive to make, but the natural look of your store from the window can be the base of an elegant design. This featured display can be recreated using felted wool for snowball garlands, cardboard cones, and frosted glass spray paint you can find in any DIY store.

Here’s another interesting retail Christmas window display idea. Marshmallow garlands are used to create a three-dimensional white background for this store’s front window. The designer then added warm, accent string lights to create a snowing effect.

This Watches of Switzerland store in London takes a minimal approach to its Christmas displays. It puts garland outside and around its windows, bordering whatever window displays are inside. This retail Christmas display idea is accessible to all budgets.

Quick Tip: Leftover garland? Place it elsewhere—add it to in-store signage and displays, add a border to the checkout area, or use it to line countertops. There are plenty of ways to get creative and festive with garland in your store.

The Selby Rocks Christmas window displays line London’s Regent Street every year. Foot traffic slowly passes by as holiday shoppers admire the displays and even stick around for a show.

Quick Tip: You don’t need to be as elaborate as Selby. You just need one window and one character to make a holiday scene to lure shoppers to your store.

Quick Tip:You don’t have to cover the entirety of your windows and building. You can also create smaller banners and decorations to make this Christmas display idea more feasible.

You may not sell holiday-themed products, but you can place your products into holiday-themed scenarios. This holiday window display from Anthropologie showcases just two mannequins in the brand’s clothing—the rest of the space is taken up by a festive holiday backdrop.

Quick Tip: Your products don’t have to be seasonal to fit into a holiday window display. You can also choose a winter theme, much like Anthropologie, to give the display a longer shelf life.

Disco balls look similar to holiday ornaments, and you can use them as such in your window displays. You don’t even need a tree—or to hang them. The example above shows the disco balls creatively scattered around the floor to give a holiday vibe.

Getting customers through the door is just half the battle. A consumer study found that people who look for new, unique gifts prefer to shop in person. And, in-store shopping is making a strong comeback. Holiday retail sales in 2021 increased more than 14% compared to the year prior, surpassing the National Retail Federation’s projections. Business owners will have to put more effort into their in-store Christmas displays to make a sale.

This brand designed its store around a theme and blended its featured items into the scene. The effects allowed the owners to display their inventory in mood lighting and background that best compliment the look and design of their products.

Quick Tip: Work on a theme for your window and in-store display. This holiday shopping season, people are eager for a safe and exciting space that invites moments of surprise. While doing so, keep in mind that your product should remain the hero, so your overall design is in keeping with an effective point-of-purchase marketing strategy.

This Christmas tree idea did not come from a retail store but is still share-worthy and perfect for smaller retail shops. It’s a space-saving design where you can set up a Christmas tree on a blank wall if your store is not big enough for centerpiece decor. This is also a budget-friendly alternative to digital displays if you’d rather invest in upgrading your cash register to a POS system in time for the holiday shopping rush.

Media Ace created 1,000 tartan boxes for Ralph Lauren’s in-store Christmas displays. The gift boxes were made in colors that reflected the brand’s theme and were used to give extra dimension and height to the featured product displays.

Quick Tip: Upgrade your POS display. The objective of getting customers into the store is to convince them to buy your products, so point-of-sale displays are a critical factor in their decision-making. Use colors and elements that give depth and height to create an attractive display.

Dashing Group included floor decals in its Christmas display design for David Jones Australia. This strategy effectively completed the istore’s POS display look, giving customers a more rounded visual experience. The font choice and design kept the style of the store’s brand both professional and elegant.

Quick Tip:Do a walk-through. It doesn’t hurt to do a walk-through starting from the entrance, around the aisles, to the checkout counter once you’re done putting up your in-store Christmas displays. Let employees do the same and ask how they felt about the lighting, colors, and other elements as they move around the store. This helps you determine if you need to add more decorations, even them out, or dial back a notch or two.

Anthropologie is known for its artistic and on-brand holiday displays, and this example is no different. Retail designer Emily Barton created fake trees with oversized holiday pinecones to highlight areas where mannequins display the brand’s apparel.

If they’re small enough, you can turn products into ornaments and decorations themselves. Instead of a string of lights, hang a string of lipsticks. Or, use baseballs and tennis balls as ornaments on your Christmas tree. You can also put products in clear balls and hang those as ornaments throughout your shop.

Quick Tip: If you purchase clear balls to display products, think of ways to repurpose them for other display uses. You can add pink tissue paper for Valentine’s Day and green confetti for St. Patrick’s Day, for example.

Gift cards are a great way to generate revenue and spread the word about your brand, especially during the holidays. Nearly half of American consumers have at least one unused gift card. And, while the goal is to get a new customer in the door to make their first purchase which will hopefully lead to many more, even if they never visit your shop, you still earn that revenue. Arrange a nice holiday display of gift cards in the shape of a tree, star, or other holiday-themed figure. You can even hang them as ornaments or from stringed lights.

Quick Tip: You can also hang holiday balls in your store and around your storefront. Consider hanging some from any trees or light poles around your store.

Holiday lights are always a foolproof way to add a festive flair to any space—and outside your store is no different. This example from Amsterdam shows holiday lights creating somewhat of an archway for passersby to walk under. You can also string lights across the street if you’re DIYing this Christmas holiday display idea.

This year’s holiday shopping might just be the biggest ecommerce event in history. About 86% of consumers plan to holiday shop as much or more than they did pre-pandemic. Business owners will have to step up their game and make sure that even the Christmas display for their online store is on point.

Quick Tip: Create a large ad for your collection. For online shops that carry a wide variety of inventory, create a segment for your holiday collection and advertise it on your landing page. Make sure that your ad includes a great title and an engaging CTA and that it can redirect your visitors to your Christmas catalog page.

Macy’s has long been promoting a cause to make kids’ wishes come true on Christmas. It included this campaign in its online store with a 2D Christmas display reminiscent of old-school, paper cutout, classic Christmas designs that connect immediately to one’s childhood. The image is also animated, which only boosts the website’s nostalgic appeal.

Quick Tip: Use images that appeal to your website visitor’s emotions. With all the forced isolation for the sake of health and safety, people are always looking to connect. Images that evoke the right emotion will help motivate shoppers to purchase from your store. Use your business brand to decide the best strategy to connect emotionally with your target customers.

Amazon called its 2018 Christmas sales series “12 Days of Deals,” which is very easy to associate with a popular Christmas carol and remember. Combined with an eye-catching banner, this Christmas display makes it easy for website visitors to recall and eventually revisit the shop long after they’ve left the website.

Quick Tip: Use familiar Christmas carols on your campaign slogan. Many brands connect their sales series to a familiar Christmas carol because it’s easy to remember. Recall is an important factor to consider because you want to make it easy for shoppers to remember your online store even after they’ve visited other websites.

Quick Tip: Explore creative ways to make your product stand out. Use your website landing page to showcase products that may not be the most sought-after items during the holiday season. Shoppers are always looking for unique gift ideas, so take this opportunity to showcase out-of-the-box ideas.

Neiman Marcus offers an annual catalog for the holiday season: The Christmas Book. Shoppers look forward to this to get the best discounts and prices for quality products, which is why the brand’s website features this on its landing page. Shoppers who eagerly anticipate its release would regularly visit the website and ultimately purchase from there.

Quick Tip: Feature an annual holiday collection. If you are a small retail business owner, consider starting a holiday catalog that you can feature on your online store. Start small, with a few well-chosen products. Display a well-designed ad on your landing page to announce the start of the holiday season.

John Lewis added a 3D virtual tour on its online shop’s landing page. This virtual tour allows shoppers to control, navigate, and have a look at the products displayed in John Lewis’ physical store. Each product available for sale is also interactive, with clickable buttons that display product information.

Quick Tip: Feature an interactive display on your landing page. While there are many tech options available for one’s online store, most of these are included on the product page, where it’s more useful. For Christmas displays to be effective, however, they need to be immediately visible. Consider featuring one product on your landing page so that your potential customers can have a quick demo of the user experience they can expect from your online store.

This coffee shop’s website makes use of a landing page. The scene is a Christmas-themed video background displaying promotions for the holiday season. It also uses sticky headers and a CTA that links to its online store.

Quick Tip: Think of landing pages as your storefront window. Whatever visitors see on your landing page will set the mood and help them decide whether to stay or move to a different website. So, make sure that your images are crisp and that your CTAs are descriptive, clear, and cohesive with the rest of the message on your page.

There are businesses like Coca-Cola that don’t require too much fanfare on its website to announce the holidays. For instance, displaying the iconic Coca-Cola truck is enough to tell visitors that the brand has started its holiday campaign and to expect surprises moving forward.

For a successful holiday season, selling on social media is a must. In fact, 70% of Instagram users use the platform to research their next purchase. Business owners should, therefore, ramp up their Christmas displays on social media to attract more customers.

This Instagram account used a countdown sticker as a Christmas display. For business accounts that do social selling on Instagram, this feature can also function as a means to announce a sale. Backgrounds can be used to feature your products that go on sale.

During the holiday season, Starbucks’ Facebook page curates Christmas-themed posts, updates the cover page, adds small “Christmas details” on the profile photo, and organizes the displayed thumbnail photos. This ensures a consistent overall look of its Facebook page for page visitors.

According to eMarketer, mobile ecommerce sales for 2021 hit nearly $360 billion in the US. Sellers in marketplaces like Amazon should, therefore, make the most out of the app’s Christmas display features to maximize revenue share for the holidays. Here are some helpful tools to help you get started.

Quick Tip:Hire a freelance designer, or purchase premade popup apps from developers that support popular marketplaces such as Shopify and Amazon—like SMSBump.

For Shopify users, you can spruce up your store for the holidays with some quick holiday effects from Shopify’s app store. This includes thematic header/footer imagery, animated elements, cursor icons, and your own images.

Make your space shareable and “Instagram-worthy” with a holiday-themed photo booth or backdrop. This not only gives shoppers something fun and different to do while in store, but it also gives them a reason to share your brand. Word-of-mouth marketing can be a powerful tool! Consider providing holiday-themed props and include your branded hashtag.

Macy’s is known for its extravagant flower displays for the holidays. You’ll find amazing flower creations in windows, in stores, and in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. You don’t need to build a whole float to jump on this Christmas display idea—you can use small touches throughout.

Quick Tip:Use fake flowers if you want the display to last throughout the season. Wilting flowers won’t hold up, and live flowers require more maintenance like watering and other upkeep. You and your team have enough on your plate during the busy holiday season—you don’t need to add watering plants to your to-do list.

The Shops at Crystals in Las Vegas built a Christmas tree illuminated with Swarovski crystals and LED lights, garnering attention from shoppers and press alike. It also gives people a reason to visit in person.

You can install a holiday tree for gift-giving in your store and encourage shoppers to get in on the action. Offer gifts for children and people in your community who are in need, and invite your customers to contribute gifts. You can wrap the presents in branded paper and put them under the tree for an on-brand and community-driven holiday display that gets everyone involved.

Holiday shoppers are seeking the perfect gift, but they’re also budget-conscious. Price is a top consideration for 92% of consumers during the holidays. Because it’s a season of spending, consumers are extra mindful of how much things cost—in fact, nearly three-quarters of shoppers are more aware of spending in 2022 than they were last year.

As such, nearly half (45%) of shoppers get an early start for the holidays in search of deals and discounts. You can use your displays to highlight these limited-time holiday specials and sales to appeal to these shoppers.

Music evokes emotions and can impact our behavior—and that includes shopping behaviors when you hear music in a store. And though you won’t be tapping into the psychology of sales through holiday music, it can lure foot traffic into your shop and even encourage folks to linger longer as they enjoy getting in the holiday spirit. In fact, most people actually enjoy hearing music in stores.

Quick Tip: Consider putting a speaker at or just outside your storefront. This way, the loud music can pique the curiosity of passersby while simply being background noise for your in-store shoppers. You certainly don’t want to distract from the shopping experience altogether.

The 2022 Christmas holiday season is around the corner, and shoppers are getting ready to cross items off their Christmas list. So whatever the size of your store, brick-and-mortar or online, just starting or well-established, try out some of our Christmas display ideas to welcome customers with a great big holiday cheer!

Visual merchandising is presenting, arranging, and displaying products in a way that makes them grab the shopper"s eye and encourages them to pick up, try on, and ultimately buy the merchandise.

When looking to learn how to merchandise your store display to draw your shopper"s interest and sell more merchandise it is important to think about what story you want to present.

That"s the important part many articles about how to merchandise your store leave out. It isn"t enough to create a "pretty display" - it has to convert lookers to buyers or it is a waste of time.

And don"t think just dragging out a bunch of sale racks onto the curb or piling your leftovers no one wanted in the first place into the front of your store will draw people in either.

Don’t choose to highlight products the customer already needs; those are what they are coming in for. A customer responds to product displays of items they want.

Your visual merchandising strategy should include making displays according to product use – an assortment of items related to brewing and drinking tea, for example. Or display by colors – the strongest col