Know Your Setting
If you’re a parent and a merchandiser, you may understand how hard it is to satisfy both of these roles at times. This is the fight between what is practical (and safe) in a domestic setting vs. how you would love to stage something for the sake of presentation. Keep in mind: in a store, the visuals should tie into boosting sales. In a domestic setting, since this does not apply, it’s more about romancing the setting for your own visual pleasure.
The struggle between domestic practicality and the yearning for visual perfection became evident during the attempt to display children’s books in the new nursery: as a first-time mom and merchandiser, it took many attempts. This is because at first, the books were organized by age group. Stuffed toys were placed in between groupings to break up the look, but overall it still looked very messy and disorganized, ruining the serenity of the rest of the room. So, the next attempt was reorganizing completely based on their overall appearance, regardless of the age group. Ultimately, the books ended up mostly by age group anyways, since the similarity in their spines was based on age group (e.g. the thicker, puffier spines were typically for a smaller baby.) Therefore, within these age groups, the books were placed by colour story. This then turned into an eyesore in terms of varying heights. After a few attempts, the most successful outcome involved grouping by: age group > book height > colours. Without a doubt, there were a few books that disrupted the rest of the set-up no matter what. Some of these were simply hidden in toy storage elsewhere, and some were placed horizontally as a base for some of the decor. The decor (mostly stuffed animals) still greatly helped break up the groupings in between different heights, and were also grouped by colour. Additionally, the most visually pleasing books were turned to face forward where there were gaps needed, and to break up the look of the spines.
If you’re wondering how long this “final” set-up lasted, the answer is: not long at all. Once the baby started crawling and reaching for the bookshelf, the books within reach kept continuously - and dangerously - getting pulled off of the shelves. This meant consolidating these books to the upper levels, and using the bottom two shelves for storage baskets and an abundance of stuffed toys. (In order of colour gradient, of course!) It does not look as pleasing, but safety wins.
Displaying books on bookshelves would obviously have a very different strategy in a bookstore, where books need to be merchandised how they would most easily be shopped: category> alphabetical order. Certain areas, such as tables, may have a curated grouping per theme, and some of the most eye-catching books would be turned facing forward as a visual pull. Depending on the type of book store, there might be some display vignettes throughout, coordinating items to book themes. Why was this so much readily known right away? Because our experience as merchandisers far exceeds our experience as parents.
Does it sound like this whole bookcase project was extremely overthought? Absolutely - welcome to the life of a merchandiser. Happy Back to School everyone! Good luck preparing, and hopefully not overthinking.