5 questions to ask to create a striking window display

In today&#;s digital age, attracting customers to step through your doors is harder than ever. Year-over-year foot traffic to brick-and-mortar stores has declined 48 straight months, according to data analytics firm RetailNext.

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All signs point towards eCommerce sales remaining strong, so it&#;s important to put even more effort in drawing shoppers inside your storefront. What better way to do that than to create an eye-catching window display?

Here are five questions to ask in order to make your behind-the-glass presentation pop.

1. What story do you want to tell?

Many retailers decorate their windows to correspond directly to the season or a holiday. In other words, they&#;ll only feature red clothing for Valentine&#;s Day and put up a lit evergreen for Christmas. But smart business owners avoid a simplistic design like this.

To stand out from your retail neighbors, choose a theme. Think: &#;The dog days of summer,&#; &#;A Hawaiian Luau,&#; or &#;Beat the heat&#; during summer months. During autumn and winter, consider &#;Falling for you,&#; &#;Inside the snow globe,&#; or &#;Auld Lang Syne.&#; Combine products from your store with inexpensive objects you might have lying around to create an engaging visual scene.

2. On what level should items be placed?

There are adult shoppers and kid shoppers, tall ones and short ones. Ideally, your windows will have something for everyone, so decorate from floor to ceiling. Create a focal point by placing the majority of items at eye level of the average adult. (Keep in mind that eye level when someone is standing outside might not be the same as eye level inside; some windows are raised.) If you sell children&#;s items, place them near ground level. If you don&#;t, decorate with items that kids will find intriguing. Finally, don&#;t forget to hang something from the top of your window display.

3. How long will the display remain up?

Creating a window scene is a lot of work, but customers do not want to see the same decorations over and over and over again. Switching things up keeps your storefront exciting, especially for repeat clients. If you own a business that customers frequent often, like a café or coffee shop, make a small tweak to your visual display&#;add an item, take something away, move a product to a different spot in the tableau&#;every couple of days so it doesn&#;t get stale. For businesses that have a clientele that only visits every few weeks, be sure to freshen your windows on a similar schedule.

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4. Will the window look good if photographed for social media?

You want your window display to be ready for its Snapchat or Instagram close-up. After all, social media is free advertising when people post photos of your scene on their feed. Experts suggest installing lighting that matches the rest of your business&#;using similar color lighting connects the display and the interior to create a cohesive look. (Lighting that contrasts will be jarring and will induce a feeling of disconnectedness.) The use of tabletop lamps and Christmas lights can help create a cozy feeling as well.

5. How much product is too much?

You want your window to look polished, not haphazard or cluttered. Stores shouldn&#;t feature their entire inventory in a display. Customers won&#;t know what to focus on if there&#;s too many items crammed into the small space. Instead, showcase just a few items at eye level, along with some smart signage&#;giving shoppers just enough of a glimpse that they want to walk through the door.

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[image: WindowDresser34.HM.Downtown.WDC.15April by Elvert Barnes on flickr]

New-to-brand and existing traditional metrics give you additional information into shoppers&#; awareness and engagement, as well as whether customers are purchasing your products after clicking your ad. After launching your Sponsored Display campaign, let it run until you have sufficient traffic and sales insights to help you optimize the campaign.

We usually recommend waiting at least 2 weeks before taking a look at those insights, but, when determining how long to let your campaign run before assessing its performance keep the typical selling cycle for your products in mind.

Once you have sufficient campaign metrics, review them in the campaign manager every 48 hours to learn how your campaign performs over time and to make informed decisions on improving results. Make sure you&#;re benchmarking your Sponsored Display performance against the goal you established during campaign creation.

For example, if you&#;re using Sponsored Display to help drive incremental sales, you can measure how many ad clicks convert into orders, as well as your ROAS, which is the return on your advertising spend. While useful, ROAS should be viewed in context, with a holistic approach. So if you&#;re using Sponsored Display to promote a new product with limited awareness, it may take additional budget to drive sales, resulting in a lower ROAS. If creating additional product awareness is your priority, you can monitor impressions, or the number of times your ad is shown. Setting strong bids can help you win more auctions and get more impressions. If you also have Sponsored Products or Sponsored Brands campaigns, keep in mind that your Sponsored Display campaign may perform differently since some ads run off of Amazon, rather than in placements across Amazon.

After making adjustments, let your new bids run for a few days to see if your campaign starts generating clicks and sales within your target ROAS range. Remember that depending on the product and its typical selling cycle, customers may not complete their purchase immediately. If some of your products are still not performing at optimal levels, you can consider pausing these individual products and focusing on your top-performing products instead.

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