Make it POP: 10 Best Practices for Point of Purchase Displays

A great instore point of purchase (POP) display stops traffic and moves merchandise. You need graphics and messaging that will hook shoppers at first sight, communicate the products’ value and compel them to buy. In today’s digital world, it’s crucial that your instore display captures your audience’s attention and promotes interaction with your brand in a tactile way. Here are 10 best practices to help create prominent POP displays and eye-catching environments.

1. Use the space to your advantage. Work with the dimensions you have, paying attention to logo and messaging proportions as well as readability from different distances.
2. Design to fit the products. Product placement can’t be an afterthought, it should be the cornerstone of your POP display design. Remember to make products easy to reach and highly visible.
3. Keep it simple. Short, catchy headlines work best to grab shoppers’ attention.
4. Think like your audience. Create a persona or short biography of your customer to help you understand what influences consumer decisions.
5. Align with your brand. Messaging and graphics should reinforce your brand identity and build on your other marketing materials. A set of merchandising guidelines can reinforce consistency and increase brand recognition.
6. Draw the eye. Think bold, contrasting colors and inviting graphics. Unusual shapes, aisle interrupters and add-on elements can be shoe-stopping as well.
7. See the shopper’s discovery as a story. What will they see at 10 feet, five feet or when they are standing right in front of your product display? Designing for all three of these distances will help stop, draw in and engage your audience.
8. Enlist the help of QR codes. These can be a great way to ignite interaction with your retail store display, deliver product information and gain metrics on the shopper’s experience.
9. Consider interactive elements for larger POP displays. Find out if you can demo your product within the display, give free samples or spark engagement with an experience the shopper can only enjoy instore.
10. Bring in the season. Many in-store displays are seasonal and creating an experience around the holidays or back-to-school can be a great way to communicate the timeliness of your product and how it fits into a consumer’s everyday life.

Bonus tip: Trial your POP display first. In many instances, it’s possible to run an instore test of your display to gain valuable insights before rolling out to multiple locations. Ready to make your product displays pop? Learn how our point of purchase display services can make your products stand out. Visit our POP page to see our process or learn more about our 3D design capabilities. Have a question? We’d love to hear from you, please reach out to us at info@mvpdesign.com.