Lifestyle vs. Commodity Visual Merchandising

In Visual Merchandising, there are two types of presentation styles that speak to the wants and needs of customers: Lifestyle and Commodity-Driven Merchandising.

One style is all about styling the product to sell as a product and communicate a clear theme, while the other is about relying on the customer to use their imagination to understand coordinating accessories.

In this blog post, we’ll dive into details about the benefits of each presentation style so you can understand why they matter in your annual sales and marketing plan, and how they can improve your customers’ overall shopping experience.

What is Lifestyle merchandising?

Lifestyle merchandising is all about communicating a clear theme and selling everything as a package. This means each product displayed can be paired with another one to encourage the buyer to get the complete look.

For example, while we were working with Wrendale (as part of the Portmeirion Group), we displayed each product to show it would be wiser for the customer to purchase them as a package deal, rather than separately. If the customer is interested in a unique and stylish dish bowl, why not pair it up with the matching dinner plates, drinking glasses and utensils that surround it?

now, What is commodity merchandising?

Commodity Visual Merchandising works by merchandising each product type, allowing customers to use their imagination when it comes to pairing that item with accessories. Commodity-style merchandising also works well for essential and staple items, since they don't need any further education about the context of these products.

While VM ID set up showroom sections at a Toronto Market Week wholesaler, the areas which contained essential or staple items were merchandised by product type. In this instance, we learned that baby bibs are a staple item that customers were searching for. By merchandising in commodity, we are making the search simple for customers by showing them all of the colour options in one place, rather than having the customer hunt through various styled packages. 

Why Both Presentation Styles Are Important For Visual Merchandising?

Understanding visual merchandising techniques is essential for having a successful store. Not only in terms of money and numbers but also as a reliable and go-to place for buyers. 

Both lifestyle and commodity visual merchandising styles are important, but they need to be applied with a perfect balance to ensure the desired results are achieved.

Stores are not like they used to be years back. Nowadays, buyers expect a whole experience when they walk-in, browse and shop for a product. Having an effective visual merchandising strategy might sound hard, but there are resources to give you a helping hand.

How We Utilize Both Styles

A fully-curated shopping space using Lifestyle Merchandising can be beautiful, yet potentially unapproachable. However, a Commodity-Heavy store can be quite uninspiring for some customers who want businesses to (shop for them).

So, why don’t we combine the benefits of both?

The VM ID way is to create a combination of the two styles. This practice helps us to identify the most appropriate locations for each type of presentation while catering to the product's needs. This teaches the customers to understand the products better as well, putting them in the right context within these merchandising styles. 

Planning the layout of your retail space heavily depends on being able to recognize the products that require lifestyle merchandising vs commodity. That’s why it’s always best to reach out to the VM experts first. 

Are you looking for guidance on how to stylize your retail store or exhibitor booth? Book a Discovery Call with VM ID!