By Eric Fairbanks
The window display is often your best chance to make a good first impression. The window display gives walk-by traffic a chance to see what you sell and how you sell it. It is often your first chance to brand—to create emotional association with your retail store in the mind of your potential customer.

A good window display intrigues, seduces, entertains, and invites. It’s most important to maximize the opportunities in your window displays. Install large display windows. Back them with walls so people focus on what’s in the window and not what’s behind it. Your display windows can do more to attract new customers than any single design element you can place inside the store so “don’t scrimp and always be consistent.” Consider your window display your “silent salesman.”

Don’t be afraid to take risks with your window display. A creative window display will differentiate your retail store from the competition. If you can entertain with your window display, people will start talking about your retail store, and that’s invaluable advertising. There are a lot of ways you can design a great window display, but you’ll want to build it around a product or theme. A random collection of unrelated product confuses the customer and your brand. If you are featuring fall clothing, don’t put the bikinis in with the sweaters; which leads us to another point: Keep it simple. Don’t try to do too much or sell too many different products. That’s not to say you can’t cross merchandise, which is a good idea, but, again, keep your window display uncluttered. If possible, carry the theme or look of your window display into the interior store displays.

A creative window display will differentiate your retail store from the competition.

You’ll want to change your window display regularly. Keep it new. It depends on the foot traffic, but once a month is a good rule of thumb. Lighting is also key. Track lighting gives you the flexibility needed to illuminate the ever-changing environment. Use the lighting to create a mood and spotlight individual product. Keep your window display clean—dust regularly.

The simple rules of product display apply within the window. Stack or pyramid product. Use a low table if necessary. Vary heights and the depth at which product is placed. Keep everything stacked neatly.

If your retail store is in a strip mall or your main drive-by traffic is that literally—motorists—you need to go big with a graphic display in your window. A large poster-size or bigger image will draw attention and attract customers from far away. You can’t get subtle in this type of window display—say it loud and say it proud. Bold lighted signs, such as neon signs, are a good idea.

On the absolute other end of the spectrum, is a very new trend toward “windowless” storefronts. Instead of window displays, the storefront is covered with panels that hide the store’s interior and entice the walk-by traffic by creating an air of mystery. The jury is still out on how effective this approach is, but apparently Apple and Abercrombie & Fitch believe in it. Given the right market, location, and brand, this might be a productive way to go for your storefront.

Remember to walk outside the store and look at your display often as you are installing it. Look at it with your customer’s eyes, see what they see. Also, don’t forget to take into account the architecture or setting of your window. Say you sell dinnerware and you want to display a table setting on a table, make sure that the window isn’t too high to put a table in and display the china on it. If the window is raised and you put a table in there and then set china on it, it won’t do you any good if all they can see in the display window is the table legs and profile of the dishes! In that case, get creative, use pedestals of a proper height, or spread a table cloth directly on the floor and do your place settings flat on the floor, with dramatic lighting, or mount the tablecloth on a back wall and set the “table” on the wall!

Consider hiring a professional window dresser to make your storefront the best on the block. Professional window dressers earn a good living, and for great reason, so don’t be too surprised at the initial quote.

The bottom line: Every effort you put toward improving your window display will be paid back ten fold.