Opinion: Unattractive windows turn shoppers into passers-by

Why do you walk into a store? The answer must be because you have made a choice about what you see, and this may have been a contributory factor in the demise of BHS, among others.

It is probably the case that at any given time there will always be marginally more shops to meet a need than there are shoppers, and what gives one the edge over others has to be the windows.

At this point you’d be quite within your rights to have a vision of an elderly matriarch doing something with eggs. But how come so many shops seem to overlook this most basic of retail basics?

Window test

Here’s an experiment you might care to try out in your own time. Take a walk down almost any high street and look at each and every window that belongs to a retailer with more than, say, 20 stores.

“Looking at the windows of major stores may not be the most failsafe method of working out who the weaker players on the high street are, but it is odd how frequently there is a relationship between lacklustre windows and poor performance”

John Ryan

Now group them into good, indifferent and poor, according to your taste. This may be pretty subjective stuff, but it’s always surprising how many people find themselves in agreement on what a bad window looks like, irrespective of their calling.

Take a look at the resulting list and try to correlate the stores in each of the three groupings against what you know of their performance.

Looking at the windows of major stores may not be the most failsafe method of working out who the weaker players on the high street are, but it is odd how frequently there is a relationship between lacklustre windows and poor performance. Cheap does not have to mean tacky and flashy does not actually mean good – what matters is a good idea: one that will attract admiring glances.

Look inside

And if all of this sounds a mite insubstantial, why not add an additional element to this piece of empirical research. Having determined which stores (in your opinion) do not meet muster as far as their windows are concerned, venture in and consider the in-store ambiance. The chances are pretty good that the interiors will look rubbish as well.

“In a world where many of the same or similar products are available across multiple retailers, it pays to be different and windows and visual merchandising make a difference”

John Ryan

Job done. You’ve identified a struggling retailer without recourse to that glossy piece of PR sometimes referred to as an annual report.

In a world where many of the same or similar products are available across multiple retailers, it pays to be different and windows and visual merchandising make a difference.

If you feel the need, you might wish to write below which retailers struggle and whether their windows are poor. A hypothesis is always better when backed by real-world evidence…and there is plenty of it.