How Poor Visual Merchandising is Costing You: 3 Reasons Customers Walk Away from Your Store
Visual merchandising, space planning, and product placement are key components of retail success.
However, according to a recent study by One Door and GlobalData, 73.4% of consumers are not completely satisfied with how products are displayed in stores.
That consumer dissatisfaction cost US retailers a staggering $125 billion in sales over the past 12 months due to poor visual merchandising.
These shocking statistics highlight the importance of effective visual merchandising practices for driving sales and retaining customer loyalty.
Top Reasons for Store Abandonment: Poor Visual Merchandising
Across all store types (luxury, mid-market, discount, and needs-based), nearly 50% of shoppers have abandoned a store in the last year due to poor merchandising standards.
But what defines “poor merchandising” in the eyes of the everyday consumer?
Hard-to-find products
The greatest cause of frustration among consumers is difficulty locating products when they’re shopping in stores.
Almost 15% of shoppers said that difficulty finding products was the single greatest pain point from a merchandising perspective.
The likelihood that a customer will purchase an item severely decreases if they have to spend time and effort locating it within the store. (It’s even less likely if the item is locked up in a display case.)
This is especially relevant to mid-market stores where families, a harried customer group, are most likely to leave if products are not immediately accessible.
This is because customers value efficiency, convenience, and ease of shopping — all foundational elements of proper merchandising.
Hard-to-find products stoke customer frustration and generate a negative association with the shopping experience in that store.
To generate repeat business and improve sales, it’s best to stick to the No. 1 visual merchandising rule: Make products easy to find.
(This can easily be done with digital planograms, such as this one.)
Making products easy to find satisfies two types of consumers:
- Informed consumers looking for a specific item, as the efficiency saves them time and creates a convenient shopping experience
- Impulse purchasers are more able to easily find products they like while shopping for what they came for
Poor display practices
Poor display practices account for a combined 44.2% of all merchandising issues.
These poor visual merchandising practices include:
- Messy displays
- Cluttered displays
- Disorganized displays
- Boring displays
While each of these factors individually scored lower than hard-to-find products, shoppers pay close attention to product displays for a variety of reasons:
- Customers prioritize product visibility. This goes hand-in-hand with easy-to-find products. When a product is on an organized shelf or end cap, a customer is more likely to purchase it because it’s readily available.
- Customers often associate cleanliness and organization with quality. Customers often associate how an item is displayed with the quality of that item. If an item is in an uncluttered display, one that’s coordinated by brand or type of product, the customer will likely assume that the product is as good as its presentation. (This is especially true for luxury stores where the merchandising standards are highest.)
- Customers rely on clear displays to find deals and discounts. Bargain hunters and research shoppers – those who will search around for the best price before buying – are particularly sensitive to messy, cluttered, and disorganized displays. They often feel that the store is hiding the best deal, which makes them wary of purchasing.
Space planning and visual merchandising best practices for displays involve showcasing products, for both organizational and aesthetic purposes. This leads to a more efficient and premium shopping experience for the customer.
Damaged and worn-out fixtures
Like poor displays, damaged and worn-out fixtures often raise questions about the quality of products in the store, as well as the brand itself.
For many customers, broken hardware, dimmed or buzzing lighting and other deteriorating fixtures cheapen the brand and its products. Some customers even view these run-down accessories as a safety concern.
Investing in higher quality hardware and routine maintenance may bring down long-term upkeep costs and help drive sales by contributing to an overall more positive shopping experience.
The Cost of Poor Merchandising: The $125 Billion Challenge
These organizational and visual deficiencies are responsible for both:
- Direct retail losses, like abandoned purchases and smaller cart sizes
- Indirect losses, like less time spent in stores and fewer repeat visits
People continue to shop in stores for the convenience and leisurely experience of brick-and-mortar, and with the ever-present competition of e-commerce, it’s more important than ever for retailers to get their visual merchandising right.
To gain insight into how imperative proper merchandising is, download GlobalData and One Door’s latest report, The Cost of Poor Merchandising, in January 2025.