It’s the season of falling leaves and pumpkin spice! Whether you sell clothes, decor, candy, or anything in between, it’s always a good idea to get into the seasonal spirit to help your customers feel inspired to shop. If your store is due for a little makeover in preparation for your fall merchandise, we’ve got you covered. At Candy Club, we love fall! That’s why we’ve put together our favorite fall tips for creative retail display ideas.
Five Fall Tips for Increasing Sales at Your Store
1. Break out the fall colors.
We’ll start with an obvious but important tip. Part of the magic of fall is the changing of the leaves to warm reds, oranges, yellows and browns. Decorating your store in these colors lets your customers enjoy a taste of the famous fall foliage while they’re doing their shopping!
There are lots of creative ways to use fall colors in your retail store, such as:
- Store packaging, such as shopping bags
- Store signage, especially chalkboard signs or messages painted on windows
- Pens offered to customers to sign receipts
- Eating utensils and napkins if your store sells food or drinks
- Product displays: use products, mannequins, tables and/or table cloths that are yellow, orange, red, and brown
Get inspired by the colors of fall and let your creativity do the rest!
2. Use fall-inspired materials.
Another way to take advantage of the magic of fall in your retail displays is to incorporate materials inspired by the fall season. When people think of fall, most people think of yellow and orange leaves, hay and wheat, pumpkins, and other items that conjure images of harvest and bounty. Incorporate these elements in your product displays and general decor.
Here are a couple of ideas for how to do that:
- Hanging leaves: Some retailers get creative with plants by hanging strands of leaves in fall colors in their stores. This is a great wall decoration that can dress up the space behind your checkout counter, near dressing rooms, or any other bare wall space. It gives your store a touch of artistic decor that will excite shoppers’ senses.
- Functional fall “furniture”: Swap out display tables for fall items like hay bales, wooden apple crates, or cider barrels, then display products on and around them.
3. Take advantage of fall holidays.
With Halloween and Thanksgiving on the horizon, it’s a great time to incorporate holiday themes into your store decor and retail displays. Plan ahead and make sure to set up your holiday decor in the weeks before the holiday arrives. The ways you incorporate Halloween and Thanksgiving themes will depend somewhat on the type of retail store you own. Browse some options below!
- Candy, candy, candy: Your shoppers are preparing for Halloween, and they’ll definitely be in need of candy! Use creative retail display ideas to set up your candy in a prominent and convenient place so shoppers can’t miss it, such as near the registers.
- Costumes: Even if you don’t operate a clothing store, you can still make use of mannequins and clothing to get your shoppers excited about Halloween. Dress mannequins in Halloween costumes, or even just hang masks or hats on the walls.
- Spooky decorations: Everybody loves Halloween decorations! Break out the cobwebs, skeletons, jack-o-lanterns, and more.
4. Engage the senses.
Engaging shoppers’ senses is a retail best practice all year round. But fall brings unique opportunities to inspire shoppers with cozy fall themes! Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Use fall fragrances around your store, like pumpkin spice, cinnamon, apple, and more. Shoppers will feel like they’ve walked into the home of a loved one where a sweet treat is being baked for a cozy afternoon.
- Light displays with warm yellow and orange shades, or for Halloween candy, even purple and green. This will stimulate shoppers’ aesthetic sensibilities while drawing their attention to your products.
- Create art pieces out of your merchandise. Instead of simply setting products on a table, treat your store like a gallery or museum and build creative retail displays. Examples include a fall picnic spread displayed on a hay bale, or a model front porch adorned with a Halloween wreath, a spooky skeleton, and a bowl of candy set up on a small table.
5. Group complimentary items according to fall activities.
Anticipating your shoppers’ needs in the way that you organize your creative retail displays is a great way to increase sales. Think of the types of activities your shoppers are most likely to be engaged in during the fall season, then organize your store displays around those activities.
You can use this same logic in your cross-merchandising displays. This strategy allows you to group complimentary items together, which benefits customers by allowing them to buy products of different categories all in one place and benefits the store by increasing sales.
For example, let’s say a shopper is planning a dinner party. Normally they would expect wine and cheese to be in different sections of the store. However, since these two items are often consumed together, the shopper would probably be happy to find a display of on-sale wines right next to the cheese counter.
Here are a few fall activities your shoppers may be preparing for and the products you can group together to help them prepare:
- Dinner parties and holiday parties: Turkey carvers, glassware, charger plates, decanters, serving dishes, wine bottle openers, party games
- Trick-or-treating: Candy, candy bowls, canvas bags, costume jewelry, door wreaths
- Pumpkin carving: Arts and craft supplies, kitchen knives, candles, grill lighters or fireplace matches. Don’t forget to add a jack-o-lantern to your display!
- Baking: Pie tins, pie crust ingredients, oven mitts, measuring cups, whisks and other baking supplies; fall cookbooks or magazines
- Hiking and camping: Fanny packs, backpacks, water bottles, thermoses, picnic blankets, trail guides and travel books, packs of cards
- Tailgate parties: Drink koozies, grill lighters, charcoal or other grill supplies, coolers, collapsible chairs, compostable plates and utensils, beanies
- Movie nights: Popcorn bowls, candy and snacks, soda, blankets, fall- and Halloween-themed mugs, PJs and onesies
We hope these creative retail display ideas for fall have you feeling inspired for the coziest season of the year. And if your candy selection could use a boost, we’ve got you covered there too! Check out our fall wholesale candies and learn about becoming a Candy Club partner today.
