How to Apply Visual Marketing in Retail

Are you utilizing visual marketing enough in your retail store?

Retail stores, no matter their niche, can rely on good visual marketing to grow their businesses. Visual marketing is diverse and powerful and can give retail stores the boost that they need. This includes brand awareness, exposure, customer loyalty, sales, and more. So, what is visual marketing? How can it be applied in the retail landscape?

Visual marketing, simply put, is the practice of using visual content (images, videos, infographics, and other visual media) to communicate a message, promote a product, enhance brand awareness, or encourage direct action from the audience. The goal is to engage and attract customers by creating compelling and memorable visual experiences that resonate with the target audience.

According to studies, over 56% of marketers use visuals in their published work. Around 84% of all marketing communications in 2020 included visual content. These are just a few examples of how visuals can impact marketing, and, therefore, businesses.

Key aspects of visual marketing include:

• Brand Consistency: Using consistent visual elements (like colors, fonts, logos) to reinforce brand identity.
• Storytelling: Conveying stories or messages through visual content to connect with the audience emotionally.
• Engagement: Creating visuals that encourage audience action or interaction, such as through social media shares, likes, comments, as well as in-store purchases, sign-ups, and more.
• Content Variety: Utilizing different types of visual content, like videos, graphics, and photos, to appeal to various audience segments.
• Optimization: Ensuring visuals are optimized for different platforms (e.g., social media, websites, print, in-store) to reach the audience effectively.

Visual marketing is a powerful tool, and businesses need to explore its various forms to unlock the potential it can bring.

Visual marketing in retail involves using visual elements to attract, engage, and influence customers with their purchases, events, and more. This includes images, videos, product displays, store layout, branding materials, and even online marketing content. The goal is to create a visually appealing shopping experience that drives consumer behavior, enhances brand recognition, and ultimately boosts sales.

Visual marketing in retail also contributes to the overall visual merchandising of the store, which ultimately adds value to the retail experience. Retailers need to make sure they are using the right kind of visual marketing components to grow their business.

Take a look at some of the key components or forms of visual marketing in retail:

1. Store Design and Layout: The arrangement of products, lighting, colors, and overall store layout are carefully designed to create a pleasant and inviting atmosphere that encourages customers to explore and make purchases.
2. Product Displays: These are eye-catching displays, such as window displays or end caps, highlighting specific products or promotions. These are strategically placed to attract attention and encourage impulse buying.
3. Signage and Graphics: Clear and attractive signage throughout the entire store helps guide customers through the establishment, communicates sales or promotions, and reinforces brand identity. Graphics can also be used to create thematic displays that resonate with the brand's message.
4. Digital Visuals: In the digital realm, retailers use high-quality images, videos, and infographics on websites, social media, and digital ads. They use this to showcase products, tell stories, and engage with customers.
5. Visual Merchandising: This involves the art of presenting products in a way that makes them appealing to the consumer, through color coordination, grouping similar products, using props or mannequins, and more.
6. Interactive Displays: Touchscreens, electronic shelf labels, virtual try-ons, or augmented reality experiences allow customers to interact with products in innovative ways, enhancing the shopping experience and helping in the decision-making process.

Visual marketing is highly effective in the retail industry. This is because visual marketing directly influences consumer perception, decision-making, general visual merchandising, and even brand loyalty.

Here’s how visual marketing impacts retailers:

1. Enhanced consumer engagement - Visual content attracts consumers' attention more effectively than text alone. Studies show that web content with visuals is viewed 94% more than text-only content. Meanwhile, HubSpot reported that social media content with images produces 650% higher engagement than text-only posts on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
2. Improved product understanding - It’s known among industries that over 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual. This means consumers can more quickly and easily understand a product’s features and benefits through images and videos. Videos, both online and in-store, can also help improve conversion rates. Videos on landing pages can increase conversions, and product videos can increase the likelihood of a purchase.
3. Influence on purchase decisions - High-quality visuals, especially user-generated content like photos and reviews, can increase customer trust. According to HubSpot, 67% of consumers agreed that the quality of a product image is "very important" in selecting and purchasing a product. Meanwhile, visual merchandising in physical stores, such as attractive displays and effective use of color, can boost sales.
4. Brand recognition and recall - People remember 80% of what they see, compared to just 20% of what they read and 10% of what they hear. Fortunately, consistent use of visuals helps reinforce brand identity and increases brand recall. Visual aesthetics alone can impact the opinion of the audience regarding a brand, allowing retailers to pose themselves as high end, casual, friendly, or more. This emphasizes the importance of well-designed marketing materials.
5. E-commerce benefits - For online retailers, visual content is critical, as 93% of consumers consider visual appearance as a key factor in a purchase decision. Retailers using augmented reality or AR for virtual try-ons and high-quality images for product previews can convert audiences better.

There are modern and effective visual marketing strategies that retailers can leverage. From various retail technologies, creative processes, and consumer psychology, these can create engaging and memorable shopping experiences and win customers. Here are some key strategies that retailers can use to apply and enhance visual marketing:

Interactive Digital Displays and Electronic Shelf Labels

Interactive displays allow customers to explore product details, watch videos, and even make purchases directly from the display. This enhances engagement and provides a richer shopping experience.

Meanwhile, electronic shelf labels (ESL) like the Newton Color are a great way for retailers to improve traditional labels and implement visual marketing. This electronic shelf label solution SOLUM ESL’s 4-color variant. With red, yellow, black, and white colors, retailers can create and display vibrant and highly engaging content. Using color in marketing can affect customer behavior for the better, and help retailers elicit the best emotions and actions from consumers. With various sizes and other features, retailers can use these electronic shelf labels to display accurate prices, product information, QR codes, vibrant visuals, infographics, and other relevant data.

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)

Retailers can use AR in their stores or online to allow customers to virtually try on clothes, accessories, or makeup. For example, beauty brands offer AR apps where customers can see how different shades of makeup look on their faces before purchasing.

VR can also be used to create immersive virtual store experiences where customers can browse products as if they were in a physical store.

Personalized Visuals

Using customer data, retailers can create personalized visual content, such as targeted email campaigns with products the customer is likely to be interested in, or dynamic website banners that change based on the visitor’s behavior. Specific videos that highlight the audience’s pain points, struggles, or concerns can also be effective.

AI algorithms can generate personalized product recommendations as well. These are based on the customer’s browsing history and preferences, making them visually appealing and engaging.

Creative Window Displays

Retailers can create thematic window displays that tell a story or align with seasonal themes, holidays, or current events. These displays capture attention and draw foot traffic into the store.

Incorporating elements that customers can interact with, like touchscreens or motion sensors, can make window displays more engaging as well.

360-Degree Product Photography

Providing 360-degree views of products online allows customers to examine items in detail. This can help reduce uncertainty and boost the confidence of viewers when making a purchase inside the store or online.

Pop-Up Stores and Experiential Marketing

Creating pop-up stores with visually captivating environments, where customers can experience the brand in a unique and memorable way. These temporary installations often use innovative design and technology to create a buzz.

And of course, hosting events that include live demonstrations, photo booths, or interactive installations can also create opportunities for customers to engage with the brand in various ways.

Mobile-First Visual Marketing

Since many consumers shop on their phones, ensuring that all visual content in digital spaces (from ads to website images) is optimized for mobile viewing is crucial. This includes fast-loading images, responsive design, and easy-to-navigate layouts.

Visual marketing shouldn’t be ignored. For retailers, visual marketing strategies like these can create a more engaging and personalized shopping experience that meets the expectations of today’s consumers, both online and in physical stores.

Contact our experts now at SOLUM to learn more about improving your visual marketing.

References

• https://99firms.com/blog/visual-content-marketing-statistics/#gref 
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2022/12/07/visual-marketing-the-power-of-images--videos-for-promoting-your-brand/ 
• https://www.solumesl.com/en/solution/newtoncolor

Image by Lifestylememory on Freepik