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How to Mitigate Risk Among Retail Displays

Displays for retail stores offer companies many benefits, such as drawing attention to products, building brand awareness, educating consumers, increasing return on investment (ROI), and targeting impulse purchases.

Considering the fact that consumers spend an average of $3,768 every year on impulse purchases, retail displays are an essential investment.

Like any investment, there are inherent risks.

To maximize their investment, a brand’s leader must audit retail display risks and implement corresponding solutions. Mitigating risk increases the likelihood of a smooth launch.

Here are 8 retail display risks and how to mitigate them:

1. Design Risk

Design risk stems from investing too little or too much into a display’s design and manufacturing.

Underinvesting may result in structural instability that damages the product or tarnishes the display. Additionally, a display with an insufficient design budget may fail to stand out from others.

Overspending on the display limits ROI as well. The relationship between the display’s cost and the products’ value must be proportional.

Mitigation involves producing the optimal display for the product it holds. Your brand can mitigate design risk by partnering with an experienced manufacturer.

2. Deployment Risk

Deployment risk is the chance of a display hitting an obstacle that cancels its launch.

A shipping company may lose your display in transit, or your display could suffer damage during shipment. Deployment risk is also present at the retail store. A store manager may withhold your display from the sales floor due to a clean floor policy or a line-of-sight concern.

You can mitigate deployment risk by planning for loss, damage and unfavorable managerial rulings. Order multiple displays for each location, and offset their shipment. Backups will arrive to use in the event of a travel incident. Additionally, communicate with retailers to ensure your display launches.

3. Piracy Risk

A company may attempt to co-opt another’s effective display design for its own products.

To mitigate piracy risk, accent your displays with brand logos, imagery and slogans. Branding your display ensures customers see your company’s image, even if a competitor attempts to pirate the display.

Communicating with retailers can ensure they monitor and respond to piracy.

4. Performance Risk

Performance risk is the chance of a display’s product falling short of the retailer’s expectations. A dissatisfied retailer may pull your display early.

Ensure your displays produce the sales metrics retailers want to see by optimizing the design and the products it holds. Work with an experienced display manufacturer to nail the design and build. Then, create a concentrated list of your bestselling products. Conduct market research to determine which of your bestsellers resonates with local shoppers.

5. Maintenance Risk

Maintenance risk is the chance of your display or products suffering damage at the retail store. You can mitigate maintenance risk in your display’s design by partnering with a manufacturer who knows how to develop a display that is easy to clean and organize. Then, communicate all important maintenance and organization information to the retail manager.

6. Obsolescence Risk

Your business evolves over time. Some of your offerings remain consistent from year to year, but others may change by the quarter. As you adapt to the market, your retail displays become at risk of obsolescence. Obsolescence is when a display features out-of-date products.

You can mitigate obsolescence during the design phase by developing your display with versatility in mind. Design choices like modularity and configurability allow you to alter the display as you update the products it holds. Mitigating obsolescence will extend your display’s life span, enabling you to collect ROI from more sales.

7. Durability Risk

Your display will experience wear and tear in a busy retail environment. Supporting the weight of numerous products will challenge the display’s structural integrity, and so will the customers who interact with your display — whether intentionally or incidentally. Insufficient durability puts your ROI at risk.

Mitigate durability risk by manufacturing your display with sturdy, cost-effective materials. Leading manufacturers know to use materials like corrugated cardboard for displays. Corrugated cardboard offers numerous advantages in dry environments, including physical strength.

8. Out-of-Stock Risk

Your display can only produce an ROI when full of your bestselling products. Selling out is great for business as long as you can refill your supply quickly. However, you may find that products sell out before the retailer realizes. A delay between when the display runs empty and when the retailer orders new products will slow your ROI.

You can mitigate out-of-stock risk by optimizing your organizational processes. Add stock-keeping unit (SKU) labels to your display case so that vendors can digitally monitor sales. You can also add reorder reminder labels on the display as a fallback.

Maximize Your Return With Creative Displays Now

Choosing a custom display is an effective way to maximize your ROI. Creative Displays Now has provided customers with high-quality custom displays for almost 60 years. We leverage our experience to manufacture durable designs that simplify risk management for retail displays. Contact us to get an estimate or discuss your custom display ideas.

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