Visual merchandising is an essential component to retail sales. If you work in the beauty industry, whether you own a cosmetics brand or work in retail, understanding how to visually present your merchandise can positively impact and grow your sales, especially if you want to promote a recently-launched product. When it comes to presenting your merchandise, use your retail real estate wisely to increase revenue and promote your skin products effectively.

Retail Shelf Space and Product Placement

Retail shelf space is valuable real estate. When brands purchase shelf space, they pay for location. The higher the product sits on the shelf, the more expensive the shelving space costs. Bring your most valuable products to the highest point available on the shelf and/or to eye level. Place your newest or most expensive skin products in the best possible area of your designated space to increase sales for that SKU. By putting your most valuable products in the most prime location, you can manipulate SKUs to rank higher or lower in your inventory sales analysis.

Visually Merchandising Your Testers

Most stores will allow brands to tester products for customer use or sampling. To make the most of your display, make sure the tester is visually marked with a tester sticker. Place the tester in front of live product, or if the gondola or retail shelving has a designated tester area, use it to display the tester appropriately. Because testers can get messy quickly, make sure to check on your display at least once a day if possible to clean up any spills or goop.

Change Displays Frequently

To understand your inventory strengths and weaknesses, change your display frequently, but not so much that you are unable to understand performance of the SKUs displayed. Changing displays at least once a quarter or seasonally is a good start for most skin product brands. Always highlight your newest product in any display change. Make sure your display has proper lighting, and ask store operations to fix any broken pieces or light bulb outages as soon as possible.

Group Complementing Products Together

To increase the chance of an add-on sale, visually merchandise your products in a complementary fashion. Example: If your newest product is an anti-aging facial cream, merchandise an evening serum and an exfoliating facial scrub alongside it. By grouping complementary products, you can increase the likelihood of selling more products in one sale.

Leverage Relationships for End Cap Space

End cap space is one of the most valuable areas of retail real estate. That’s because end caps showcase the displayed products, resulting in increased sales for the given SKU. While most stores have floor plans that designate how end cap space should be used, there are instances when some end caps are left at the store’s discretion. If you have a good relationship with the store, consider asking the manager to feature your newest skin care product on an available end cap space.