Here are some of the stranger products that have been requested that aren’t till roll paper, merchandise bags and promotional signage!
- Hair Extensions
- Bird seed
- Leather shoehorns
- Hexagon shaped glass bowl
- Trophy
- Sunscreen
- Beach towels
- Children’s windmills
- USB-stick shaped like a shoe
- Industrial trolleys
Alice van der Westen, Worldpack’s Business Development Manager says: “Sometimes, we get asked for the most bizarre product that at first look bears no resemblance to what that retailer or brand is known for. But once you start thinking out of the box and focus on consumer benefits and what the retailer wants to demonstrate, often the items start to make a little more sense.
“For instance, the request for bird seed was from a manufacturer of vacuum cleaners. Once we realised that the seed was probably to demonstrate how well its products picked up a lot of mess, you can see the thinking behind the product choice.”
Tell a story with your merchandise
Using products to set a scene in store is all part of storytelling to help consumers feel the products in action and can help make omnichannel more powerful.
Some retailers will have worked on an online marketing or ad campaign and want to show a link to that campaign in-store to emphasise the messaging. For example, if the focus and messaging of a summer campaign online is around ‘sunning it on the beach’, Worldpack will get the request for summer beach products for the window and in store displays to continue the story with the visual merchandising.
Studies by researchers Dr. L.D. Rosenblum, Dr. Harold Stolovitch and Dr Erica Keeps have shown that much of the information that human beings process come through the sense of sight (83%) against 11% for hearing, followed by 3.5% for smell, 1.5% for touch and 1% for taste. Retail displays and visual merchandising are, and will always be, essential in gaining attention and conversions in bricks-and-mortar retail.
People are visual in nature, a fact that is particularly important when you are running a physical store. In a report published by The Deloitte Neuroscience Institute, customer pain points that were identified in physical stores included price communications, shop branding and anchoring and product displays. The report highlights that by using neuroscientific insights to optimise both shop design and price communication, overall customer satisfaction can be increased.
Alice adds, “If you can create an immersive retail display that makes a lasting impression by creating a particular environment or setting, you are on to a winner. Sometimes, it only takes a good use of colour and a few clever props to help push the consumer to think in an aspirational way and to move them from browser to shopper.
“No matter how bizarre those props might be, Worldpack is here as your sourcing partner all the way. And as future shopping experiences get more immersive and require products which will target all of a consumer’s senses including smell and touch, we are looking forward to see how these lists could change!”
Impossible requests? Challenge us.
For now, get creative and think about what you need in store and let us know. Because of our international, assured and accredited supplier network and the scale of purchasing we have, Worldpack can source responsibly and leverage its spend to the competitive advantage of its customers.
It doesn’t matter how unusual it seems – we love a challenge. It is part of our Service with Guts DNA. Let us know what you need for displays, and if you can't find the product you need on our website, get in contact by email at online@worldpack.eu or ring us on +31(0) 88 494 20 80.
