"INSTA" VISUAL MERCHANDISING

Much like the old proverb that eyes are the window to your soul, the window display of the store has always been ‘window’ to soul of the retailer. A store's identity is created through its display.

Visual merchandising is growing at a very fast pace and creating a pressure to be innovative and to get instant customer feedback. Social media has revolutionized the Retail fashion industry.

First and foremost, Instagram. With its curated, aesthetic snapshots, the platform launched in 2010 quickly changed how fashion is staged, consumed and marketed. The young customers who were barely connected with this industry are just one click away from it, because the response generated from just a single click is enormous. Instagram also offer an opportunity for interaction with people from real life.

Brooklyn studio Snarkitecture to create a pop-up store with cut-out garment silhouettes that consumers could stand in and snap a photo.

One thing that this platform demands is perfect staging as fashion is something one needs to

experience and by digital means one needs to make believe the correctness of the

content that is out for the world. As a result, Instagram has formulated an aesthetic claim

with its square picture format and its visual content dictate, which in the meantime has been

demanded as a common standard in reality. The customer is not only interested in the quality of the product, but also on the frequency of optical impressions.

In this manner the social media works quite similar to a window at a store where visual merchandising serves the expectations of the customers. Where it gets interesting for the social media is that, with every click customers can get a quick change and a new image, thus have a greater chance for fulfilling their need.

The Podolyan store in Kiev, which had an interior grid window featuring changing product, so that people walking past would stop and take a picture of it. This square-ready design aligns perfectly with Instagram’s format and acts as a visual prompt in-store and on the street, providing a shareable call-to-action for consumer.

Before the social media boom, the displays at stores for goods had the highest priority at any retail store. Today, on the other hand, its about designing the store as a stage for people. Thus, a digital store is more likely to display different kind of stages at the same time, catering to the needs of different customers as well as attracting new customers with the rapacity to grab new products available to them.

The social media thus calls for an intensive examination of the customer. However, first precept is that the design of a store reflects the brand in all its facets and perfectly sets the scene.

Designer Yusuke Seki who stacked thousands of plates, cups, saucers and bowls on top of one another to form an elevated display platform in Japanese ceramics store Maruhiro.

Visual merchandising is changing in this Instagram age, and to reflect this shift never has the shop window been more important. Instagram is the ultimate visual tool for brands, retailers and even new start up stores to get their brand message further, wider and more global, making their store a must-visit destination.

References 1. Retail Resource Blog. (2018). Is your store Instagram-ready? - Retail Resource Blog. [online] Available at: http://blog.retailresource.com/visual-merchandising/is-your-store-instagram-ready/342 [Accessed 1 May 2018].

2. https://www.wgsn.com/blogs. (2018). Visual merchandising in a digital era: Why Instagram-friendly store window displays matter. [online] Available at: https://www.wgsn.com/blogs/visual-merchandising-in-a-digital-era-why-instagram-friendly-store-window-displays-matter/ [Accessed 2 May 2018].

3. Worldfinance.com. (2018). The Instagram effect: how social media is fashioning modern retail. [online] Available at: https://www.worldfinance.com/markets/the-instagram-effect-how-social-media-is-fashioning-modern-retail [Accessed 4 May 2018].