Visual Merchandising Elements: Drivers of Retail Strategies?

Abstract

Visual merchandising has increasingly become important in retailing especially with more and more customers opting to go online. This study focused on the consumer in order to obtain a better understanding of the visual merchandising elements that impact on visual merchandising in the South African apparel retail industry. The primary research objective was to identify visual merchandising elements from a retailers and consumers perspective in order to drive more focused retail strategies in store design and planning in the apparel market. This research study followed a mixed-methods approach. The value of the research study lies in its contribution to the development of strategic visual merchandising elements that can be used in the retail strategies of apparel retailers. Incorporating visual merchandising elements can improve visual merchandising proficiency and thus have greater impact on store design and layout, as well as when designing and planning new stores.