Every now and again, you enter a store and for some reason just don’t feel comfortable. Suffice to say, those involved in the retail business wouldn’t ever like to think that this is the case with their own stores, though experience tells us it sometimes is.

Even if you can’t quite put your finger on what the problem is, the store just somehow doesn’t seem to come together as a cohesive consumer experience of any real joy. Even if they have the kinds of products you are looking for and decent prices, chances are you won’t return.

While there are many reasons people could be deserting your store in worrying numbers, there’s every chance it could come down to your approach to merchandising. There are certain mistakes retailers make on a relatively frequent basis when it comes to merchandising, which really can dilute and harm the overall impact of the store in general.

So in order to help ensure such mistakes are avoided, here’s a quick rundown of just a few examples:

1 – Unpleasant Lighting

First of all, one of the quickest and most effective ways of transforming an otherwise fantastic store into an almost unbearable shopping experience is to bathe it in weird or generally unpleasant lighting. There are certain instances where light with a very slight orange, blue or pink tinge might work well. In others, your customers simply will not be able to bear the thought of hanging around for more than a few minutes. Keep lighting as simple and natural as possible.

2 – Overuse of Colour

Colour can be an extremely powerful tool when it comes to visual merchandising – just as long as it is used strategically. If your store uses mostly neutral tones with the odd pop of colour to highlight specific areas, the effect can be both attractive and powerful. By contrast, if your entire store is bathed in nothing but overly bright, brash and loud colours, it tends to be overwhelming and makes it difficult for customers to know where to look.

3 – Setting Up Displays While Open

The whole point of attractive and impressive window displays and promotional displays is that customers are supposed to lay eyes on them and be both impressed and surprised. Out of nowhere, they are presented with a glorious marketing push that influences their decisions. As such, the overall impact of any such displays can be diluted significantly if they are slowly but surely set up during opening hours. When customers see displays that are 25% built, 50% built, 75% built and then finally 100% complete, the final result isn’t nearly as impressive.

4 – Stagnant Displays

The same also goes for displays that are left in place for too long. Regardless of how fantastic a product is or how impressive your approach to visual merchandising, it will only ever have a very limited shelf life. The longer you leave your displays in place without any significant changes, the lower their respective impact.

5 – Forgetting the Exterior

Last but not least, it’s a good idea to remember that while it’s all well and good to focus on internal visual merchandising, you still have to actually get your customers into the store in the first place. First impressions begin long before any given person even sets foot inside the door, which is why equal focus and priority must be given to the exterior of your store. You could have quite fantastic visual merchandising strategies going on inside – it really doesn’t make any difference if you aren’t pulling them in to begin with.