One Door Visual Merchandising Blog

The dog ate my planogram: why old school merchandising doesn’t work for specialty goods
July 07, 2021
When it comes to specialty goods, whether it’s pet supplies, baby products, sporting goods, housewares or beyond, understanding your customers is critical. They’re looking to you for products that fulfill specialized needs that reflect their passions …

Why well-executed merchandising is priceless for luxury brands
May 18, 2021
Imagine this: A consumer sees a high-end designer leather bag on the arm of her favorite Instagram celebrity and falls in love. She does some online research, then heads to the brand’s retail location, looking forward to a premium shopping experience. But when she gets there, the store feels cluttered and she wonders for …

Why its time to retire the paper planogram
April 27, 2021
Planograms have been the standard approach to planning merchandising for decades. But as more and more retailers are discovering, planograms just aren’t up to the realities of merchandising today: more frequent store resets and promotions, store teams stretched thin, and HQ investments in big data tools to drive…

With cloud and mobile, retailers can finally see what’s happening on every shelf
January 05, 2021
If you want to understand just how outdated many of today’s merchandising execution tools and processes are, consider this: the planogram was invented by Kmart in 1970 and remains the industry standard for communicating product plans to stores.Now consider how much merchandising has changed in the last 50…

Putting the “visual” back in visual merchandising – VI: curation and the bridge between digital and brick-and-mortar
November 3, 2020
For Part VI of our discussion, “Putting the ‘Visual’ Back in Visual Merchandising,” we continue chatting with Michael Abata. Michael is a thought leader and cultural and consumer futurist…

Putting the “visual” back in visual merchandising – V: a consumer futurist’s take on virtual reality and the speed of change in retail today
October 15 2020
In our press release last week announcing our relationship with Movista we talked about a “single pane of glass” for store teams. Here’s a little more about what we mean.Today, roughly…

Merchandising Strategies for the New Normal
October 14, 2020
The following is a recap of the One Door’s on-demand webinar: Merchandising Strategies for the “New Normal” available here.
This has been one of the most disruptive years for retail in living memory. COVID-19 has fundamentally changed consumer behaviors and has forced retailers to respond rapidly to today’s market while adapting new merchandising…

4 Ways COVID-19 will change grocery merchandising
September 11, 2020
Grocers have adapted with lightning speed to the new challenges of the pandemic. Supply chain upheaval, new fulfillment models, social distancing requirements and compliance issues are just a few of the obstacles that have emerged since March. Out of the public eye, visual merchandising and space planning processes were significantly…

Putting the “Visual” Back in Visual Merchandising – IV: taking Walgreens into the future with technology
June 24, 2020
For Part IV of our discussion, “Putting the ‘Visual’ Back in Visual Merchandising,” we are chatting with Tracy Allen. Tracy is the Sr. Director of Space Management for Walgreens…

Putting the “Visual” Back in Visual Merchandising – III: applying tech solutions to specialty retails
April 29, 2020
For Part III of our discussion, “Putting the ‘Visual’ Back in Visual Merchandising,” we are chatting with Anthony Perrotta. Anthony has worked with specialty brands, including J. Jill and Alex & Ani and is currently with…

7 Things to consider when it’s time to reopen stores
April 07, 2020
How do retailers bring their stores back online after being closed for weeks or months? How does HQ bring their field teams up to speed quickly with the latest promotions, floorsets and marketing campaigns? Most importantly, how does HQ ensure that store teams feel supported, safe and cared for? Working across different types of retail…

Putting the “visual” back in visual merchandising – II: the power of visual merchandising
March 31, 2020
For Part II of our discussion, “Putting the ‘Visual’ Back in Visual Merchandising” we are chatting with Kristin Lauer. Kristin is a seasoned expert in visual merchandising with over 25 years of experience. She began her career at Filene’s, Bloomingdale’s and Barneys – where she worked under design icon Simon Doonan – and later opened her own studio, Blue Potato …

Putting the “Visual” Back in Visual Merchandising
March 12, 2020
After participating in One Door’s Big Ideas Session at NRF this past January, I walked off stage thinking about all of the technology (heat maps, display engagement stats, traffic counters etc.) that retailers are using to plan in-store merchandising, but I recognized a gap in the process. Retailers aren’t using technology to help today’s retail associates execute planograms….

Space planning and visual merchandising – how AI, cloud, and mobile are changing the game
March 09, 2020
When we talk to retailers around the world, one thing is clear: everybody thinks they’re behind when it comes to planogram automation and merchandising execution. At NRF 2020, we set out to discover how space planning and merchandising are evolving with new….

Turn your retail store associates Into merchandising rockstars
February 21, 2020
In a perfect world, every shelf in your store would be merchandised flawlessly and your team of sales associates would spend their workday interacting with customers and selling products. But in today’s fast-paced retail climate, chances are that your team is losing several hours a day on unnecessary tasks like fixing mistakes on resets….

Simplify visual merchandising for better in-store execution and compliance
January 18, 2020
When store teams lack clear, interactive, step-by-step instructions on how to set fixtures and displays, compliance suffers. And when compliance suffers, sales are lost, and labor hours are wasted. In fact, retailers report an average of 40+ hours per week of lost time spent merchandising that could be better invested in serving customers….

Gartner’s 3 critical ways space planning software must change
December 11, 2019
When research firm Gartner published its market guide on space planning this year, it made one thing clear: retailers who put off digital transformation of their space planning processes risk losing sales. After all, stores face increasingly tough competition from online shopping which offers unlimited options, personalized customer journeys, and represented more than half of all retail growth in 2018. “Left unchecked…

Space management automation to the rescue
December 09, 2019
As a space planner, your goal is to get the right product in the right store at the right time. Maximizing every square foot of retail space with localized assortments is your mantra. Finding that perfect formula for how space is allocated – from category management to shelf space efficiency – is your jam. Today’s advanced data aggregation tools and space analytics are helping you understand your customers’ shopping…

Create killer retail promotions with our platform
October 30, 2019
Today’s consumers expect retailers to keep up with their constantly changing interests. As a visual merchandiser this means you’re faced with the big challenge of better understanding your customers, and then quickly creating highly targeted promotions that speak directly to them.One Door’s Our platform platform is the end-to-end visual merchandising software solution that helps…

4 user experience superpowers that are transforming visual merchandising software
August 09, 2019
As a consumer, when I ask for “seafood restaurants near me,” there are four key capabilities that make the response so useful, and I call these “User Experience Superpowers.” These applications know me and the context of my situation (where I am, etc.). They consolidate and organize…

The farmer’s dog
June 09, 2019
Whether you’re a dog person or not, you can’t help but be enthralled by the story of The Farmer’s Dog. In the midst of direct-to-consumer food brands having an early-onset existential crisis, this brand has outperformed expectations every step of the way. The idea is a simple one, but I’ll let them describe it in their own words…

Mother dirt
June 09, 2019
Like the adage goes, if you can make it in New York you can make it anywhere, and so too is that true in retail. Its breadth of personalities and customer types across its many neighborhoods make it the ultimate playground for trying new things in retail. It has, therefore, become the home of digitally native brands entering the physical space for the first time…

City row
June 09, 2019
City Row is a craftily designed rowing machine that is even suitable for tight spaces like New York City apartments. Although they have already created a strong brand and a good following, they wanted to look to physical retail to expand their customer base. They ran towards the challenge that a lot of digitally native brands face, which is how to enter physical retail in their own unique way…

Ready for a digital merchandising transformation?
May 16, 2019
You made it through the holiday, you reported Q1 results, and now it’s time to turn your attention to how you are going to keep transforming your business in 2019. If you need to get more out of your stores this year, one area you are probably evaluating is your merchandising technology stack. You need to become more agile…

How should visual merchandisers measure success?
May 15, 2019
Sales don’t just happen by accident. They are orchestrated in the myriad details that define a customer’s experience, from window displays to promotional signage to localized product assortments. So, how do you know if you’ve done it right…