We all love a good story, don’t we?

Hearing a funny one can brighten our spirits, while listening to a tale of heroism bolsters our strength.

Have you ever considered that the way you present your business, your products, your services, is YOUR story to tell? That the way you present your products can speak volumes to your customers AT FIRST GLANCE?

It’s true.

You can begin to ‘Tell Your Story’ from the moment that potential customers first view your business.

My goal as a retail consultant has been to help every business discover what their unique story IS, and then relay it to customers in an effective and original way. Over 35 years, I’ve been able to assist thousands of retailers achieve success in the way they present their businesses and products. I’ve done this through the displays and stores I have designed for them, the articles I have written for magazines, blogs and websites, and by presenting seminars at national gift shows. Those retailers have run the gamut from corporate wineries and independent home décor boutiques to artisans and antique dealers who sell at shows and in malls and galleries.

The same basic guidelines work for all of them, because the Story is all in the ‘Telling’… each business uses elements that help them stand out from the competition. (Much like the way a good story or joke is told with voice inflection, pauses, facial expressions, and a good summary or punch line!)

One of those elements is how you display your goods.

Visual merchandising/display is the process of thoughtfully presenting your products. Whether you do that in an online venue like eBay or Etsy or your own web store, in a retail store of your own, in a rented space within an antique mall or cooperative, or as a vendor at shows, it is important to maximize this part of your business in a busy and often overwhelmingly ‘similar’ marketplace. At shows and malls, your ‘competition’ is literally inches away from you…. making your booth and your products stand out from the crowd is paramount to getting noticed! You certainly don’t want to look just like the guy next door. (Do you?)

Increasing your ‘visual impact’ – which is the way that your customers SEE your business and products – starts helping you to sell without speaking a word. It’s the equivalent to the great opening line of a story or joke, and catches people’s attention: A customer coming down the aisle at a show sees a fabulous color, or item, or setting in the booth in front of them, and they are intrigued to come closer and discover more.

As the customer comes closer, a bit more detail in the displays is revealed, drawing them INTO your booth to investigate further. The customer is now in proximity to you, the salesperson – or, in the case of mall space, to your signage and price tags. Either one serves the purpose of providing information and detail about the products…telling more of the story.

The customer is now actively participating in the selling process by looking closely, touching, perhaps picking up (trying ON, maybe?) your products. Here is where you give them the full story: You inform and entertain by offering more information on the items, sharing alternative uses and added value, why this is an opportunity not to be missed.

You make the visual impact so strong, so intriguing to them, that they cannot resist the pull to take a part of it home with them. Even if they purchase only a small something, they can own a bit of the magic that you have created and introduced them to. With them, they take your information so that they can be sure to visit you again and repeat the experience. This is how you use the story you tell to sell products – but also to create an experience, build a brand and develop a fan base.

As a part of my seminar ‘Tell Your Own Story’, I offer an outline of the basics in displaying products and designing retail space. In 2009, I created a new version specifically for antique dealers. It contains dozens of basic and advanced tips on maximizing your visual impact, and will help you plan and develop the Story that you will tell through your booth’s appearance. I’d love to share it with you, to assist you in discovering and telling YOUR story!

You can access the document here (http://decodivadebi.blogspot.com/2009/10/creating-successful-displays-resource.html) and also find it on the sidebar links on my Retail Design Website (http://www.DebiWardKennedy.com ). Please feel free to use it to develop your own visual plan, and share the link to it as you wish. The material contained within that document is my original work, and is not to be used in any book, article, blog post, class, seminar, or other method of sharing with others for profit or press. Contact me via email for permissions at debi.wardkennedy@gmail.com

My website ALSO features six videos about retail display & merchandising – I produced the series in 2008 for the Gift & Home Channel, and filmed at The Farm Chicks Antique Show in Spokane, Washington. You’ll find a plethora of inspiring ideas, tips, and examples of successful booth design and display in those videos.

My Retail Design Blog, accessible from my website, offers resources on every aspect of display and retail visual merchandising – literally hundreds of links, articles, tips, photos, books, videos, and more.

While I am providing those resources online, with a limited availability of private consulting and speaking/writing engagements, I am focused on utilizing my experience and abilities in our own Vintage Industry business: Retreat http://www.RetreatStyle.com . I invite you to come and introduce yourselves if you are at a show that we are selling at! Our 2011 schedule is on our website.

Content of attachment and this post is original content property of Debi Ward Kennedy Copyright 2008, 2010. www.DebiWardKennedy.com | debi.wardkennedy@gmail.com

Photo from Sarah's House, a TV show on HGTV.

Does it sound odd to talk about trends and vintiques in the same breath?

After all, we sell old stuff, not trendy stuff!

It may surprise new sellers when they learn that popular items that sell well in antique mall booths go through cycles.

The cycles are a bit softer and gentler than those in mainstream, big box retail, but the cycles are there just the same.

What do People Want in Their Homes?

Decorating trends generally pull the hardest on those cycles. Is light colored natural oak in or do customers want deep, rich mahogany? Do shabby chic customers still want white painted furniture, or has gray taken over as top color palette? What’s hot in the kitchen? Jadeite? Pyrex? Both or neither?

Go get a cup of coffee, because you’ll want to browse this plethora of links.

1. Shelter magazines: The traditional magazines like Country Living, Martha Stewart Living, Country Home (yes, it’s still being published, but only quarterly), Romantic Homes, Romantic Country, Coastal Living, Victoria, Traditional Homes, Southern Living, etc. Go to your local magazine stand for many more print magazines. Choose those with covers that catch your eye, because they’re obviously in your niche (discussed in a previous post). Watch indie publishers like Porch, too, especially if they’re in your niche. Be sure to keep subscription and purchase receipts for write-off purposes.
2. Blogs and Websites: Online resources are plentiful. Pay attention to the biggies like DesignSponge and Apartment Therapy, but don’t discount niche blogs, too. Eddie Ross, a former Martha Stewart guru and Southern Hospitality are good examples of bloggers to follow. Surf HGTV.com and specifically pages like Rate My Space where everyday home owners upload photos of their homes and other everyday home owners comment on those photos
3. Digital Shelter Magazines: As traditional publishers go out of print, digital magazines are popping up online like Rue
4. 

   Photo from the collecting category on Paula Deen's website.

   TV Shows and Celebrities: Martha Stewart’s daily TV show and magazine still sway a big portion of Americans. Even shows that aren’t about decorating can create a demand for certain items. Take Paula Deen’s passion for collecting things like vintage pink Gooseberry Pyrex mixing bowls. Viewers see those and want to copy her. HGTV use to be decorating heaven for both customers and vintique dealers. Since the network move towards real estate, there are fewer actual design shows. Still, keep an eye on the channel for shows like Sarah’s House

5. Show Homes: Look for designer show homes and events like the Parade of Homes in Colorado Springs, especially if stories of those homes show up on TV or in magazines. 
6. Retailers: Check out retailers like Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn and Anthropologie. While retailers like these are sometimes behind the innovation curve, they can still create demand for certain looks. Their prices being on high side, budget savvy customers will look for similar items in our booths.

Keeping up on trends is worth the investment of time and money, and can prevent you from getting caught with a booth full of dying trends. On the other hand, don’t get carried away with design trend blips that are short lived. Look for those trends with staying power. When you see similar items, looks, designs and colors in more than one source, that’s a good indication that a trend has legs.

Want more tips like this? Consider buying our ebook Selling in an Antique Mall: A Beginner’s Guide.

As in every business on earth, trying to be all things to all people will only assure that you’re nothing to nobody.

Specializing in a specific business niche means that you’re an expert – or becoming an expert, in that specific niche. Selling retail merchandise is a huge business umbrella with many, many niches tucked underneath.

One of my all time favorite antique mall displays.

Vintiques are a Retail Niche

Vintiques are a more narrow niche within retail sales. The bulk of our merchandise is old and used with a certain history and patina. What a good majority of newbie dealers fail to realize is that inside that vintique retail niche are smaller, distinct niches like:

• mantiques (vintiques that appeal especially to men)
• shabby chic
• Victorian
• lodge
• cowboy/western
• rustic
• mid-century modern
• country
• old world

Some niches work well together

Cowboy and mantiques, for instance, could work together in one booth. So, too, could old world and shabby chic. Victorian with lodge, however, probably isn’t the best combination.

Some dealers will drill even deeper into their distinct niches. A mid-century modern dealer may only carry furniture and lamps while another will stock nothing but dishes and kitchenware.

Decide What You Want to Sell

Being certain of your particular vintique niche(s) and how specific you want to be within your chosen niche(s) are crucial to your success. It will help you narrow your buying. It will help you choose the right booth in the right mall. It will help you style your booth. Do it from the very beginning and you’ll build your brand and a following of loyal customers very quickly.

Who is Your Customer?

If your booth is inside a mega mall, you cannot possibly lure in every single customer that strolls by your booth. Don’t even try. Instead, your target should be all those customers who adore your specific vintique niche. Stock and style your booth to bring those people in and ignore everyone else. 

Boutique malls by their very nature are usually already very specific in style. For the best results in boutique malls, you and all the dealers in your mall should adhere to that style and broader vintique niche while stocking and styling for a more specific niche.

To recap, do not try to sell to every single consumer on the planet. Specialize, choose a vintique niche or two for your first booth to target your customers like a laser beam and watch sales soar!

Want more tips like this? Consider buying our ebook Selling in an Antique Mall: A Beginner’s Guide.