How Do I Create Window Displays That Stop People?

Most window displays fail before the first item is placed, because nobody decided where the shopper's eye would land. The window becomes a bunch of stuff, and a bunch of stuff stops nobody.

Here's how to create a great front window.

Find your focal point

Put one person inside the window and have another walk down the street the way your shoppers actually approach. The outside person calls out where their eye naturally hits the glass, and the inside person marks the spot. If your traffic arrives by car, run the same test with somebody pulling into a parking spot. That mark is your focal point. Build the entire display at that level, a little below and a little above, and you're constructing the window around where people already look instead of hoping they'll hunt for your best merchandise.

That's the anatomy. For the window display you built that isn't moving the merchandise: add movement or light. A model train running through it. Lights where there were none. Anything that gets a jaded shopper, to pause and reconsider something they've walked past twice.

Displays that move merchandise require another level of engagement, and motion and light are the cheapest engagement you can buy.

The payoff compounds: making an item look new sells it without a markdown. A spotlight costs you nothing off the margin. A sale sign costs you 20 points. Try the light first.

Your window is the one ad every passerby sees for free. Mark the focal point before you build, add motion when it goes stale, and the glass starts earning its rent.