How To Attract Customers With 5 Creative Retail Window Display Ideas

Jan 31, 2024 • 5 min read

Is your store a foot traffic magnet, or do people tend to walk right on past? With people glued to mobile devices, how can you get them to look up and notice your store? Better, how can you entice them to come in?

Your retail store's windows offer the perfect way to simultaneously stop scrollers in their tracks and convey your brand to the world 24/7.

Yet most stores set it and forget it with the same tired displays, leading to countless missed opportunities to showcase your products, deals, and brand. Your windows can be billboards with the right retail displays. But if you’re struggling with ideas, we’ve got your back!

In this article, we’ll spotlight five window display ideas to help refresh your storefront and drive customers into your store. Let’s dive in.

Retail Window Display Ideas: Look Your Best

Today’s retail consumers have various ways to shop in your store. From e-commerce to social media to brick and mortar, they have more options than ever. But one of the more cost-effective yet impactful marketing tactics for retail stores is an engaging window display.

The best window displays draw your ideal customers in and entice them to spend in your store. Eye-catching window displays provide various benefits:

24/7 exposure: Windows work all day, every day, to promote your business to passersby.
Cost-effective: Well-designed displays that stop people in their tracks cost little more beyond some creativity.
Brand building: Displays help showcase your unique store’s brand and personality.
High visibility: Street-facing windows with eye-catching displays and good lighting are seen by more potential customers.
Promotions: Windows are an excellent place to highlight sales, new arrivals, special offers, and more.

Keep in mind: mediocre, dull displays mean missed opportunities. You’re leaving money on the table with lackluster windows.

Design Principles for an Appealing Window Display

What goes into designing an attractive retail window display? To go from basic to irresistible, consider the following:

Lighting: Do you feel more relaxed with low lighting? Does being in a room with bright white lights remind you of a hospital? Lighting affects our moods, and display lighting is no different. Proper overall and accent lighting spotlights products and triggers shopping moods.
Color: Bold, contrasting shades that align with your brand can grab attention. And much like lighting, warm colors are inviting.
Visual balance: When your display is off-balance, it might look disorganized or like you didn’t put a lot of thought into it. When you arrange items symmetrically, your display will feel harmonious.
Branding: Consumers like cohesive branding. Colors and signage that reinforce your brand will create feelings of familiarity.
Themes: Displays with creative concepts look well-thought-out and polished. Best of all, you can switch themes throughout the year to draw customers in.

Well-designed window displays are appealing and inviting. To expand on these principles, let's get into some retail window display ideas that will stop potential customers in their tracks!

Idea #1: Showcase Your Best Products

If you have products you know are in demand and will fly off the shelves, showcase them! You can display top-selling products, hot new arrivals, and other items customers can’t wait to get their hands on. For an apparel store, you might feature your new line. For electronic stores, the latest must-have gadgets.

Your most popular items should get a place front and center in your display window. Remember, you can use accent lighting to spotlight these products, and capture shopper attention, triggering a desire to come inside for a closer look.

You can use your point of sale (POS) system to help decide which products to showcase. Using sales reports and other inventory insights, find out what your best-selling items are and replace displays featuring slower products. You can look at historical data to see which products are seasonally hot. Use analytics to keep your window displays fresh.

Idea #2: Embrace the Seasons

Speaking of seasons, the start of a new season is often an excellent time to rotate your displays! You can fully embrace the seasonal experience and draw attention to deals, discounts, and new lines.

For winter, you could turn your display into a cozy Christmas village with soft lights, frosted pinecones, and holiday decor. Or, for summer, create a ‘beach’ with bright colors and ocean sounds. And it’s not just the four seasons you can celebrate. Think fall harvest, Halloween, back-to-school, and spring harvest… the possibilities are endless!

You can also help celebrate local cultural events and create time-relevant displays to draw in your community. This could help bring new demographics and customers to your store.

Your POS system provides a wealth of transactional insights. You can look at historical data to see which products are seasonally hot and which items sold well in previous years. You could even run a survey and see how your customers react to seasonal displays.

Idea #3: Get Interactive To Capture Attention

Static window displays might work if they’re in large windows, but to capture the attention of passersby glued to their phones, you might need to think outside the box.

Spinning displays, buttons to push, little windows to open, and products people can pick up and play with make window displays fun and engaging.

Playful elements surprise and delight people. No longer are they passive passersby; they’re now actively engaged. It can create a memorable experience and might entice people to come into your store and see what else they can interact with!

This idea takes a little more work, and during peak times, you might need extra staff to maintain, reset, and refresh any interactive components. Use your POS system to schedule adequate staffing and keep your windows vibrant! You could also capture feedback through surveys on which types of interactive elements attract the most interest.

Idea #4: Highlight Deals and Promotions

Running a flash sale? Got an exciting bundle or offer to promote? Your display windows offer the perfect spot to showcase these offers.

You can spotlight sales with bold graphics calling out discounts. Or offer sneak peeks at upcoming loyalty perks and special events. When shoppers see the great things happening in your store, they’re more likely to come inside and explore. Promotional displays attract bargain hunters and show off your store’s spirit.

Tying displays to your loyalty program is a great way to highlight discounts and entice shoppers to sign up. You could offer bonus points to new members or spotlight member-only deals. Your POS system can help you track program metrics and design exclusive member window promotions. Tip: The best POS systems have loyalty programs built in.

Idea #5: Partner With Local Creatives and Businesses

To take your window displays to the next level and highlight other local businesses, why not suggest a collaboration? For example, you could partner with a florist to create a Spring-themed display, or a neighborhood artist to create an exhibit.

Rotating in different local businesses and partners gives each display an artisan touch you might struggle to replicate alone. Plus, you support other local businesses and attract customers who like to shop local. You could also create a buzz and showcase your collaborations on social media.

Your POS system facilitates local partnerships by:

Maintaining records of items sourced from local partners for proper tracking.
Monitoring stock levels of specialty promotional items, so you can give local partners a chance to make more before they run out!
Producing and tracking unique promotional codes.
Comparing sales and traffic during weeks with local partner displays versus regular weeks without.

Use data to get valuable insights into whether community-driven displays are effective.

Retail Window Display Ideas: Don’t Delay

Today's competitive retail landscape demands eye-catching, creative window displays to drive foot traffic and sales. Successful retailers use their storefronts as 24/7 digital billboards, and you can, too.

Truly great displays capture attention, spark emotion, and humanize your brand. And as you’ve seen, a robust POS system can help manage your displays, inform your decisions, and track their success.

Comcash provides a POS system with comprehensive inventory management software, a built-in customer loyalty program, and all the custom reports you need to manage your displays, and your store. Want to see how? Schedule a demo with our retail experts today!

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