The market is always in flux, and choosing between a custom retail display and a stock retail display can be a make or break proposition. Before you choose which type to buy for your campaign, you need to consider your entire plan.
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Lead times are getting increasingly shorter for brands, which is why so many are opting for a stock display that can get them to retail sooner - but what they aren’t considering is what a custom display gives them.
A competitive edge is exactly what every brand needs. The ability to better target their customers, and the chance to use high-speed digital printing gives brands so much more control.
So before you make your next purchase, here are 10 things to consider before buying a stock retail display.
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Table Of Contents
First, take into account your product type. Some products can do perfectly fine with a stock display, but if you have a unique option to display packaging and the ability to put your product out on display - you need a custom option.
Efficiently stacking your products allows for the maximum product to be on display, and allow retail stores to restock fewer times in a day.
Make sure you know your dimensions and are making the right choice for a display.
Next you want to figure out exactly how much product you can put on display. Some stock options will only allow for an option that gives you 25% less products than you want, do the math and figure out how much down time the display will have.
The display needs to hold a certain amount of product to make the economics of your supply chain make sense, otherwise there’s no point.
One of the biggest considerations is the load capacity of the display. How much can it hold of your product, let alone efficiently hold. Lightweight items may not have an issue, but electronics could.
Related: The Complete Guid To Retail POP Displays
Every retailer has a standard sales number per-square-foot of the display. That makes it an easy calculation for you to run the numbers of how much you need to sell. Plus you need to make sure your display is compliant.
A smaller footprint will increase your chances of getting a retail store placement, but it will also mean less products on display. So do your research and see which options fit your category, and what option is the best to stand out.
With a custom display and the right manufacturer, you’ll be automatically approved for your choice retailer or club store, and have a unique footprint.
This is the biggest issue with a stock display. While there are options to do slight alterations for a more custom look, the problem you’ll have is your display won’t attract customers.
Sure it will be a functional display, but how can you attract new customers to your brand if you take a plain approach like this?
Custom graphics aren’t enough. If you want to make an impact on your business, you need to come up with a product presentation plan that is tied directly into your marketing campaign.
Related: How To Use Color Theory With POP Displays
Next, think about your favorite brands. What displays do they use to enhance their branding? How can you take that same approach to your display? If you're planning on a holiday display, plan wisely.
Using a custom retail display allows you to completely control your brand and messaging to your customers in ways a configurable stock display doesn’t. From shape to product presentation and messaging.
Making your display be a part of your product experience, you can attract even more customers to engage with your products. Try adding Digital Printing for even more customization.
Related: 5 Marketing Tips For Retail POP Displays
Next, think about the entire supply chain and shipping costs of your display plan. This is one of the most important steps to understand which display type is right for you.
Sometimes your display shipping cost can be as much as a third of your entire display budget, but that might be exactly what you need. There are three main options for shipping displays.
First is KDF, or Knocked-Down-Flat. This is the cheapest option to ship your display. Your display is designed, printed, and shipped unassembled.
This means that you need to design a display that is simple enough to assemble for retailers or a 3rd Party Vendor. That also means you will need to print and deliver instructions.
Next is shipping an assembled display. You may choose to ship this due to the complicated display structure, or due to weight. This increases costs as you need to maximize freight capacity to cut down on costs.
Finally, this is an option we have a lot of experience with. We offer full turnkey operations with a Co-Packing division. This allows us to manufacture and assemble displays, pack it with products, seal the displays with a wrap, and then ship them nationwide.
The economics are very different between these three delivery options.
Contact us to discuss your requirements of Custom Gift Manufacturer. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.
Though it is more expensive to ship retail displays that are pre-assembled, it can also cut costs in other areas and allow you to make more money when there is no assembly needed at retail stores.
If you choose to ship a retail display KDF then you will need to accomplish two more things. First, instructions that are easy to follow will need to be created and sent printed or digitally. Second, you will need to create a budget and timeframe to account for the time.
If a display assembly exceeds 15 to 20 minutes, then you may want to find a different display type. The reason is that will be either costing you money, or causing friction with the retailer.
The worst thing that can happen is a poorly or damaged display is at retail not attracting customers.
Next think about the durability of your display - or how long do you need it to last? The longer a display needs to last, the more you need to invest in your display.
If your products sell through in 5 weeks, then you could create a display that only needs to last that long before being disposed of. While a stock display will have general designs that can last long enough, plenty of them can look shopworn and attractive within 2 weeks.
By creating a custom display, you can choose the exact materials to give you the right display. Not only that, you can create multiple graphics and print new designs for a refreshed look at retail every time you replace them.
Related: Make Your Retail Display More Sustainable
Now you need to have a plant for retail display maintenance. How quickly does it look shopworn? How sturdy is it?
The goal of a display is to display your products in an attractive way and draw in customers, a poorly maintained display won’t do that.
Your retail display plan should take into account how often they need to be replaced. And you should consider having sales associates check the displays periodically to ensure everything is lasting as intended.
Will your stock display hold up? Or do you need a custom retail display for a sturdier design?
Finally, you need to consider the total cost of your display. When you take everything above into account and have a total retail program plan that calculates your return on investment. This final tally will help you determine if a stock display or a custom display is best for you.
Stock retail displays can be cost effective because there is no custom design time needed, so the display can skip a step - but a custom retail display can give you options that cut costs in other areas and attract more customers.
Sometimes the unit cost isn’t the best metric to decide your display option, but it can give you insight into an overall strategy.
If you’re still on the fence over which option is right for your campaign, it’s best to take a broader perspective, rather than choosing the cheapest option. When you do have a final budgetary plan together, you will be making a very informed decision.
Bennett is a premier packaging and retail displays manufacturing company striving to protect and promote our clients' products with customized corrugated solutions. When you work with us, you’re part of the family. We will partner with you every step of the way.
With our fully-integrated design-to-delivery process, we can be the single supplier source. We are an award-winning manufacturer of virtually anything corrugate. We offer everything from plain brown shipping boxes to sophisticated, high-graphic printed point-of-purchase displays, and everything in between.
Creating custom point-of-purchase displays (POP) can be a great move for your brand. There’s no better way to stand out than to create something unique, and it means you can perfectly fit your display to your product. However, designing something like this can feel like a challenge, but we are here to help. Here are five things you should ask yourself before you create your custom display:
There are three basic options when it comes to how long you want your custom point of purchase displays to last:
These are fairly self-explanatory, with permanent displays being made from hardy materials like glass and wood and expected to last you between one and three years, while temporary options are more likely to be constructed from cardboard and will be in-store for a few weeks at the most.
The longer you expect your display to last, the more it will cost. However, you could easily make a good return on investment, depending on the product and your target audience. In the right store, long-term custom point of purchase displays could be the best use of your money. Of course, you can always look at lowering your costs by looking at where in the world you have it manufactured. Just make sure you consider environmental impact along with ensuring your supply chain is ethical.
You need to think about who you’re trying to attract with custom point of purchase displays, as this will determine almost every facet of its design. For example, a POP fixture intended to sell to young, single millennials will look significantly different to one marketed to grandparents. You need to do some research into who the display will target.
One of the biggest factors will be the product itself, as you will be able to tell a lot about the audience from who is most likely to buy it. Also consider the makeup of your customer base. Think about everything from average income level to gender, age, interests; as much information as you can get.
POP displays can really be placed anywhere in a store, as they are designed to be used to convince customers to make a purchase. This means you need to consider their location as part of their design. For example, will you be putting your new custom point of purchase displays by the tills? If so, it needs to be extra attention-grabbing to spur on impulse buys.
On the other hand, if it will be placed somewhere different – such as in the aisle of a supermarket – you need to think about how it will interact with the other products and displays. Do you want it to be the main focus, or to blend in with its surroundings?
The main goal of the vast majority of custom point of purchase displays is to sell a product, but you can get more detailed than that; and you should. After all, there’s a big difference between trying to sell as much of a discounted item as possible and attempting to get people to try something new that’s just entered the market.
Then there are secondary goals. For example, is it important that people really enjoy the product and become long-term customers? Or would it be better if they spread awareness of it and told as many people as possible? Always have primary and secondary goal in mind for your POP displays, this not only makes them more effective but also extends their usage. Your POP displays can help achieve these with a bit of clever design.
Finally, you need to make sure your display fits in with the store. Is it a supermarket, a high-end boutique or a small corner shop? Each of these will likely have a different style. If you don’t match your POP display to your brand, it will look out of place and potentially make people less likely to buy what it is selling.
Of course, the counter to this is that an unusual display is more eye-catching and could end up being a benefit. This is a more difficult path to walk, but if you can make your display stand out without making it seem too out of place, it could end up being a good business decision.