A merchandise shop is more than just a way to sell stuff.

A successful retail merch shop should capture the experience a retailer has crafted for their customers and extend it into the world outside. It should inspire those same customers to become influencers, reliving the experience they had and promoting it for others to see for themselves.

Sounds amazing, right? But you might be wondering how exactly that works. SanMar’s Retail Merchandising Guide offers some helpful tips and suggestions that should set you and your customers on the right path.

The guide addresses four different retail experiences, and includes display ideas and apparel suggestions for each.

• For the Fitness market, we’ve recreated a studio experience that enables customers to get healthy in a welcome, peaceful environment. Inspirational words on the wall and a clean, consistent color palette lead naturally to the goods available. Everything from the New Era^® Perforated Performance Cap to the Sport-Tek^® Ladies PosiCharge^® Competetitor^TM Racerback Tank to the OGIO^® Catalyst Duffel bag contributes to the goal of getting fit.
• The Hospitality market invites feelings of comfort, warmth and familiarity. What better expresses all of these than a pub-themed market, complete with aged barrels and a wooden bar table for display? Apparel pieces like the Carhartt^® Duck Vest and the Port Authority^® Ladies Plaid Flannel Tunic enhance the feeling of sitting down in a place where everybody knows your name.
• The Tourism market invites customers on an adventure they’ll never forget, with space to explore or relax on a whim. Beach balls and bright colors and even a miniature boat set the tone of the display, which features pieces like the Port & Company^® Tie Dye Tee, the Nike Dri-FIT Waves Jacquard Polo, and the Port Authority^® Cotton Canvas Boat Tote.
• Finally, the Company Employee Store creates a space that inspires employees to take pride in where they work. Pieces like the District^® Very Important Tee^®, the OGIO^® Tread Polo and the New Era^® Legacy Rucksack are the building blocks to the beginning of a great employee story.

In each of these markets, unique display ideas come together with enticing combinations of promotional apparel and hard goods to tell a story, and to inspire customers to join in the telling of it – to add to it and to share it with others.

A retail merchandise shop is much more than just a way to sell stuff. Done well, it can be a creative way to take part in the time-honored tradition of shared storytelling, with the story of an experience spreading from one to many, and bringing those who hear it back to experience it for themselves.

Download the SanMar Retail Merchandising Guide today, and get inspired to help your customers share their stories.

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