More Jewelry Display Ideas

It can be a challenge to constantly come up with new jewelry display ideas. But there’s no need to keep buying new displays or constructing them yourself in what little free time you have; just purchase some classic quality displays and jazz them up.

Take the miniature body form, for example. This form is firm foam covered with jersey material, perfect for pinning on broaches, draping on necklaces or bracelets or for displaying earrings by inserting the posts into the foam. I decided to display more jewelry by tying a filmy black scarf around the form’s waist, pinning a pretty broach on the knot and then hanging earrings on the scarf. Notice how the jewelry pops against the fabric, including the bracelets displayed on the scarf overflow. The jewelry body form is available in black, as well.

Combine the scarf-draped body form with some elegant black velvet jewelry displays and you’ve got an attractive and eye-catching set up. I really like black velvet displays. Whether the jewelry is silver, gold, bronze, gemstone or multicolored beads, the jewelry really stands out and looks so pretty. The only thing that may not stand out on the black velvet displays is onyx and jet jewelry but that’s okay, because black jewelry looks great on the white body form and the rosewood displays.

Notice how nicely the black necklace and earrings look on the white faux leather and rosewood displays in the autumn themed arrangement. The warm-toned, glossy rosewood displays are elegant and sophisticated, great for showcasing any type of jewelry and wonderful for use in any seasonal display. Seasonal displays are simple; just incorporate some small items that reflect the current season. You needn’t spend a ton of money, either; you can go to a dollar store to pick up leaves, as shown, or flowers for spring displays and sparkly ornaments for the winter holidays. Colored glass stones would look nice scattered throughout a grouping of displays placed on a mirror and you can even put them in the unused jewelry compartments to create more visual interest. Use a colored tablecloth to set the tone and see where your imagination leads you.

Specialty Store Services Back at the H.H. Backer Pet Industry Christmas Trade Show

Specialty Store Services is pleased to be returning to the 45th Annual H.H. Backer Pet Industry Christmas Trade Show and Educational Conference, October 14-16, 2011, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont. Knowledgeable Account Managers will be at booth 4638 to provide information regarding Specialty Store Services’ numerous retail store fixtures, displays and retail supplies as well as warehouse support and logistical solutions.

“Specialty Store Services has been providing store fixtures on a corporate level for nearly 25 years” states Quico Ayala, Account Manager for Specialty Store Services. “The Backer Pet Industry Christmas Trade Show provides our company the perfect opportunity to establish and expand relationships with both single store and multi-store business owners. Our service, flexibility, and attention to detail are what separate us from our competition. Come see us at booth number 4638.”

Specialty Store Services will be one of the 700+ pet supply manufacturers and distributors displaying their wares at the Show this year. Be sure to visit booth 4638 in between the grooming demonstrations and the free education sessions regarding operations, marketing and animal care.

About Specialty Store Services
Specialty Store Services, a second-generation family owned business, offers everything necessary to operate a thriving retail store, from logistical solutions and retail supplies to custom and stock fixtures. Over the last 25 years this service-driven company has cultivated relationships with global partners while developing the expertise and knowledge required to provide competitive prices, outstanding customer service and quality products.

Retail Window Display Ideas

While cruising the web I came across some fun ideas for retail window displays using items that are relatively easy to get hold of. Window displays do not need to be expensive in order to be effective; sometimes you just need to think outside the box.

Tasty Display. When I saw this pretty window I thought “Why just display cupcakes on that cupcake display?” Yes, it is certainly appropriate for baked goods but how about using the tiered plate display (which many people have hiding in their own kitchen cabinets) to showcase small items such as pet treats, fashion accessories, makeup, wallets, baby shoes and other small items? And I love the huge martini glass. The big marshmallows are cute filler but I was thinking it would be interesting to hang large, dangly earrings, necklaces or bracelets off the side and fluff solid colored contrasting tissue paper in the glass to offset the jewelry. I think that little martini glasses used in table top displays in this manner would be adorable, as well; just substitute stones or crinkle shredded paper instead of tissue paper.

Crate Expectations. Wooden crates that you can find at any produce market lend a rugged look to this window display but the clean lines of the crates and fun colors of the clothing keep the display from looking dumpy. I think that these clean, light toned crates are like blue jeans; you can dress them up or down. Feel free to couple the crates with jewelry displays or small appliances or fancy shoes. Positioning the crates together on their sides and upright lends depth and dimension to the display. You can also cover the crates with a solid-colored expanse of fabric or cloth, smooth the cloth down to emphasize the varying heights, tuck the cloth under the crates and then place your merchandise on the covered crates. Voila! A subtle backdrop that also offers visual interest.

As always, keep your signage simple and legible and keep your color scheme down to a minimum of two or three colors so the display isn’t too busy. Remember, you have 3 seconds to grab attention but if the display doesn’t flow and allow the eye to travel easily, you will lose that attention just as quickly.

Specialty Store Services to Exhibit at NACS Show

Specialty Store Services is pleased to be exhibiting at the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) Expo October 2 – 4, 2011, at McCormick Place in Chicago. Knowledgeable Account Managers will be at booth #414 to provide information regarding Specialty Store Services’ numerous retail store fixtures, displays and retail supplies.

Quico Ayala, Account Manager for Specialty Store Services states, “Specialty Store Services has been providing store fixtures on a corporate level for over 20 years. The NACS Show provides our company the perfect platform to network and expand our relationships with both single store and multi-store business owners. Our service, flexibility, and attention to detail are what separate us from our competition. Come see us at booth number 414.”

This year’s show, which is the 50th anniversary of NACS’s first meeting, will include workshops, general sessions and feature Tom Brokaw as the Closing General Session Speaker in addition to hosting another expansive expo. We look forward to seeing you there!

3 Steps to a More Effective Retail Facebook Presence

Amidst the many clouds of uncertainty surrounding retail use of social media, a few key strategies are starting to emerge. Three recent studies, including a white paper written by yours truly, have examined customer interactions with retailers via social media. Encouragingly, all three studies (Emarketer recently summarized the findings from studies by Marketing Sherpa and Razorfish) have very similar findings regarding customer desires in their social media interactions with retailers.

While the percentages varied slightly, all three studies found customers who “friended” or followed retailers said they were interested primarily in learning about new products and new or exclusive promotions. How great is that? I have to admit I was a bit surprised to see these results because it seems like current conventional wisdom says to avoid being promotional on sites like

Facebook in deference to its more personal nature. In hindsight, that conventional wisdom seems a little questionable since it’s unlikely customers are going to interact with retailers like their friends. They know we’re about selling to them — we’re retailers!

More good news: It appears that the customers who follow retailers are really the best, most engaged and brand committed customers for those retailers. I suppose that’s not terribly surprising, but it’s certainly valuable information. Since our findings were part of a larger customer satisfaction study, we were also able to determine that site visitors who also interact with a company on a social media site are more satisfied, more committed to the brand, and more likely to make future purchases from that company than customers who don’t follow those retailers. Our study also found that 61% of people who follow retailers follow less than five retailers. That’s further indication that people are really focused on their absolute favorite retailers.

We also found that more than 80% of shoppers who use social media list Facebook as a site they use regularly, which makes it the overwhelming social media leader.

YouTube came in second place with only 31% of shoppers.

So, to summarize, our best and most engaged customers like to interact with us on Facebook (an incredibly viral platform) and want to hear about new products and promotions. This is a great foundation for a successful strategy!

Without further ado, here are three steps to a more effective retail Facebook presence:

1) Focus on best customers. Rather than trying to build our fan base to the highest possible numbers, let’s focus on getting as many of our highest value customers as fans on Facebook. They’re the most likely to become our Facebook fans anyway, but they’re also the most likely to recommend us to their friends. Facebook’s viral nature gives us the opportunity to put our Word of Mouth Marketing on steroids, and developing messages for our best customers gives us a clear focus. We should reach out directly to our best customers via targeted messaged and encourage them to join because we…

2) Give ‘em special promotions and news about products. These are our best customers. Let’s treat them well and make them feel special. Let’s give them exclusive offers and early notice on cool new products.

Victoria’s Secret does an excellent job here, and it shows. Of the Internet Retailer Top 40 retailers’ Facebook pages I looked at, Victoria’s Secret has by far the most fans at almost 2.7 million at the time of this writing. Clearly, they are delivering on customer expectations, and they’re being rewarded for it by attracting lots of really engaged customers.

My good friend Adam Cohen, partner and social media lead at Rosetta and blogger at a thousand cuts, (and my go-to guy on all things social media) correctly cautions against too many rich, exclusive promotions as they could be unsustainable as the fan base grows. This is particularly true if the offers start to attract deal seekers who are not our best customers. Good warning from Adam and in line with the excellent old adage “everything in moderation.”

3) Leverage Facebook viral features. We’re giving great, exclusive offers and product news to our best customers. Those best customers are the most likely to recommend us to their friends. Let’s encourage them to do so. It could be as simple as letting them know an exclusive offer can be shared with their friends by simply hitting the “share” link. There are lots of Facebook applications and other techniques that can be used, but I would personally just start simply and go from there.

Bonus tip: Make sure your page can be found in Facebook search. This isn’t really one of my key steps, but during my research I was surprised by how poor Facebook’s search is. For example, I searched for “LL Bean” and found nothing. Then I tried “L.L. Bean” and again got nothing. Their page is actually entitled “L.L.Bean” with no space between “L.” and “Bean.” Facebook’s search will only find it if you search for it exactly as it’s titled. So, my tip is think about how people might search for your brand and then name the page with the most common search term.
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Three separate studies have all found that customers who friend or follow retailers in social media are most interested in learning about promotions and new products. That’s some mighty strong corroboration, and it’s incredibly great news. Judging from the large percentage of retailers with little-to-no Facebook presence, I’m guessing many have been holding pat waiting for a clear direction on how to best leverage social media. While this information may not give the clearest direction for all social media channels, it certainly provides some clarity on today’s biggest channel, Facebook. Different social media channels require different strategies and tactics, and in the end it’s still important to learn more from our customers about their specific needs and desires and then work to satisfy them.

In the meantime, let’s build some really great Facebook pages for our best customers and give them some exclusive offers to enjoy. Please let me know when you’ve got your page running so I can become a fan!

What do you think? What have you learned about Facebook? What tips do you have?

Copyright 2010 www.retailshakennotstirred.com All rights reserved.

Secure Drop Box for Anonymous Suggestions

People feel comfortable working in an environment in which they can make suggestions or alert management to potential or existing problems without fear of repercussions. A wall mounted drop box is a great way to allow employees the opportunity to express concerns or suggestions, anonymous or not, while feeling secure that coworkers won’t have access to their notes.

This drop box is also great for use in anti-bullying programs at schools, childcare facilities or after school programs. Children need to let those in authority know if they are being bullied, threatened or frightened in some way or if they feel a friend or peer needs help. This drop box is a way for the children to make their concerns known without having to work up the courage it can take to approach an authority figure, which can be intimidating. This is also a good way for children to alert adults without having to visit the office and be fearful of their peers seeing them and finding out about it. The drop box is locked with a key so there is no fear that others will open the box to read the personal notes.

Simply mount the box in an easily accessible but relatively private area where a person can swoop in, drop in their note and be on their way. This drop box is a great investment that will be rewarded with peace of mind and happier workers or children.

In addition for use as a suggestion box, the drop box is also excellent for ballots, keys, mail, checks, deposit slips and anything that needs to be dropped off outside of business hours. The slot size is 9″W x 1/4″D so it will accommodate a wide variety of items. The built-in storage compartment at the top of the box is ideal for holding blank forms, note pads, envelopes and ballots.