Setting up jewelry displays of complementary merchandise is most often approached using the same category of product. However, there is value in also employing an approach to visual merchandising called the related item approach.  Displaying more items in a collection or line of jewelry set opposite to one another in complementary displays can increase cross over sales.  What items might be displayed in sets of groups of related items?

The word merchandising refers to the process of increasing the market share of products through display, stocking and sales promotion techniques. Effective retail jewelry merchandising requires the ability to produce something new through imaginative skills including finding new solutions to problems, new visual display methods and new artistic approaches to objects and forms. Jewelry retailers look to merchandisers for an abundance of richness in ideas and originality of thinking. Creative merchandisers think up and design new inventions, help shoppers see jewelry in new ways, and finding new solutions to problems.

Too often unsellable merchandise is grouped in non-complementary displays. Without affection I refer to some of these display cases full of unsellable merchandise as a dog pound. A compounded grouping of unsellable merchandise that fails to appeal to many shoppers is much more expensive than many managers are willing at acknowledge. The lack of cohesiveness in shape, color, materials, design and style can leave shoppers bewildered, unimpressed and unengaged.  Shoppers let jewelers know this because they very quickly move away from these displays. Displays that fail to engage, excite and impress shoppers are very costly to jewelers because these displays do not deliver a positive shopping experience and that too often equates to missed sales.

Presenting jewelry with similar attributes based on color, shape, style, design and materials adds to the cohesiveness that many shoppers need to feel comfortable exploring jewelry displays. There is an engagement with the merchandise that shoppers must experience with displayed jewelry. Presenting related items is just one more approach that may help merchandisers engage more jewelry shoppers.

JCK