Product Placement.
Product placement is a crucial display technique which all stores need to have nailed in order to
drive sales and attract customers to the most profitable products. Product placement quit simply
refers to where stores such as Tesco and Topshop place/display their products.
Tesco
Window product placement isn't very popular amongst supermarkets such as Tesco. Products which
can be seen through windows are mainly used amongst clothing retailers e.g. Topshop. However,
Tesco does display wallpapers around their store which have sentences written on them such as ‘join
our award winning network’. This display can be specifically seen at the big Hove Tescos.
Front/end aisles, also known as endcap aisles is a technique which can be seen used by Tesco. On
some products Tesco will display a big yellow sign at the top with products which are for
sale/extremely cheap e.g. £1 These products usually are snacks e.g. chocolate, and are very
affordable for all customers. As mentioned before, one way in which Tesco uses these techniques is
by using big yellow sale tags on certain products.This yellow signs provide many benefits, one of
them being that the sign is very easy for customers to see, and especially with the promotion of
cheap products, customers are more than likely to be influenced by them. This technique plays a
huge advantage in costs, a cardboard yellow sign won't cost Tesco much, and can also be very easy
to move around the store. However, I have seen these yellow boxes fall, as a result this technique
plays a hazard role, and it could potentially fall on a child's head and injure them.
,In some Tesco stores a near stair display can also be seen. Many Tesco stores have a second floor
which is mainly associated with clothing. Access to the second floor is usually taken via escalator and
Tesco will often display products on sale. In the image below Tesco use sweets in this instance and
display a yellow sale sign on the side of the box. Tesco will often display many products around the
escalator and make the most use of the space around them. However, a heavy display in this
instance would only be used if the escalators are broken down and it wont get in the way of
customers wanting to get upstairs. Moreover, customers who don't know that the escalator is
broken, will most likely go towards it if they are looking to get upstairs, and therefore will come
across these sweets which are on sale.
An entrance display is something that Tesco takes advantage of during the season. In many Tesco
stores you will see Tesco display flowers on seasons such as valentine day. This is a very smart
strategy since it's the first thing which the customers see, and especially during a season when
flowers are the most popular, it will incentivize them to purchase the flowers. Another reason why
Tesco displays flowers at the entrance is because they need fresh air, and if Tesco was to display
them in the store, the flowers would rote. Other than flowers, a daily product which Tesco displays
all the time at the entrance is daily magazines. However, this does not generate the company any
, money. The advantage of this display is psychological. Any product placed at the entrance-especially
if it's seasonal- will attract the customer's attention, leading to a more than definite buy.
Furthermore, using the entrance is an efficient way for Tesco to use its spare space, as opposed to if
they were to create room in the store which would result in having to take certain products away, or
make the store more compact, giving the customers less room. Although these advantages seem
really greate, the biggest con is that these products are an eye opener for thieves. Especially with the
fact that not all Tesco stores have security gyaring at the main entrance, it incentivises these
products to be stolen and ‘gotten’ away with.
As I mentioned before, similarly to near stair displays, Tesco dont use near escalators/lifts displays
since the majority of stores operate on one floor.
High traffic aisling is one of the very-if not the most important area which display techniques are
focused around. High traffic aisles is ‘heart of the store. It's where the most profitable and key
categorical products are placed, this is why these areas are called ‘high-traffic aisles’, as they attract
a large flow of customers. Tesco uses a large amount of display techniques in aisles which are heavily
packed with customers. One of the techniques they use is. Horizontal displays can be just as
effective. You often see customers leave their trolley at the start of the aisle, walk towards the end
and come back to their trolley with many new products. Horizontal displays force the customer to
move down the aisle since the items are placed in that ‘out of sight’ way. However the issue with
this is that it can cause customers barging into each other and not satisfy the customers experience
during shopping. Despite the potential disadvantage of customer barging into each other, it's safe to
say that the greatest advantage which the aisles hold is the constant flow which drives sales to go
up. Tesco can take advantage of this and place their most profitable products in these isles.