How to Create Irresistible Displays That Drive Sales Michelle Sherrier

Catherine Erdly: [00:00:00] How you display your products in a physical space can have a profound impact on how customers purchase them and even how much money they spend. It’s an absolutely fascinating topic, which is relevant for you if you have a bricks and mortar store, or if you go to any physical events at any time. If you’re ever at any point putting your product in front of your customer in a physical space, whether that’s a popup or a show or whatever else it might be.

Either way, you won’t want to miss today’s episode. I’m joined by Michelle Sherrier. She is a visual merchandising expert. She transforms independent retailers and wholesale showrooms all across the us and she’s here to share her insights and her surprising tips that she learned from many decades in big retailers and small retailers making irresistible displays that customers just can’t stop buying.

Welcome to the Resilient Retail Game Plan, a podcast for anyone wanting [00:01:00] to start, grow or scale a profitable creative product business with me, Catherine Erdly. The Resilient Retail Game Plan is a podcast dedicated to one thing, breaking down the concepts and tools that I’ve gathered from 20 years in the retail industry and showing you how you can use them in your business.

This is the real nuts and bolts of running a successful product business, broken down in an easy, accessible way. This is not a podcast about learning how to make your business look good. It’s the tools and techniques that will make you and your business feel good. Confidently plan, launch, and manage your products, and feel in control of your sales numbers and cash flow to help you build a resilient retail business.

Michelle, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. I’d love to kick us off by you introducing yourself and telling us what you do.

Michelle Sherrier: Good morning and thank you for having [00:02:00] me. My name is Michelle Scherrier and I have a business called MC Design Collaboration that I do design and merchandising for retailers as well as wholesale showrooms. And I’m also the host of the Retail Whore Podcast.

Catherine Erdly: Thank you so much for joining. And whereabouts are you based?

Michelle Sherrier: I am now in Oregon, in a little city called Medford, which I was born and raised in south Bay and Manhattan Beach, California. And we decided we want something slower and boy, I couldn’t be any more slower than I ever thought, but it’s what I needed. 

 You know, it’s very rural. There’s farms around and being a beach girl, I’m not used to this. And it’s so lovely. Like right now where it’s just started snowing.

Catherine Erdly: Wow.

Michelle Sherrier: I know it’s a lot for me.

What visual merchandising involves

Catherine Erdly: So everyone, well, majority of people listen to the podcast are based in the UK. So that sounds pretty, it sounds pretty dreamy. So can you share a little bit about, let’s start with a definition: visual merchandising. What does it mean to you and why are you so passionate about it?

Michelle Sherrier: You [00:03:00] know, it’s funny. I have been a retail since I was 14 and I started at the Wet seal, which was a brand that you could, I guess, compare it to like, H&M or one of the less expensive brands. It was juniors. It was inexpensive, but I fell in love with fashion then. And I started, they used to work on big slat walls and I would change the merchandise. It’s like, you know, with those long hooks.

Catherine Erdly: Yeah. 

Michelle Sherrier: And that’s where I really I fell in love with it. And as I went along, I continued with retail. And by the time I got to Anthropologie, that’s where it really kind of clicked was the sight, sound, and scent of walking into a store. The storytelling aspect. The creating cross merchandising moments where you’re telling a story, but it’s also creating out on sales.

Like all of it kind of came together at that point. And I love it cause it’s just, I don’t know. There’s something about it that it’s like a puzzle to me. So I absolutely love it.

Catherine Erdly: Yeah, [00:04:00] yeah. I think it’s such a key part of retail. And I absolutely I’ve always loved working with the visual merchandising teams when I’ve worked in big retailers and I just think that you guys work real magic. And it’s one of those things that sometimes I think if people haven’t seen the transformation with true visual merchandising, they almost can’t imagine the big impact that it has, but it has such a huge impact.

So I wanted to ask you is, maybe this is slightly UK specific. But you know, one of the biggest challenges in the UK is space. US stores, I believe I read a stat that like the average US store is probably 10 times the size of a UK store. So we’ve got a lot of small footprints. Although maybe people listening who maybe do pop ups or even events where they don’t have a huge space to play with.

Tips to create a strong presence in a small retail space

Catherine Erdly: So, what are your top tips for making a big impact in a small space?

Michelle Sherrier: Big or small, a gain, it gets back to storytelling. So whether you’re storytelling on a opening table. In Anthropologie, that was always considered the opening statement, it was what [00:05:00] sets the feeling of the whatever season. And walking in and that front table, that could be the only thing you visually merchandise if you need to.

You know, whether it’s by plants and what you put on it, telling stories. I’m big on putting a mannequin on a table. So like I just did a story for someone. If you’re thinking about like a spring story and what does spring mean? So floral dresses, if you have tabletop items that have florals or butterflies. And then if you sell pots, mix in some pots, fresh flowers. Fresh and faux flowers are incredible, but fresh is always to me the Anthropologie way.

But. I’ve had stores that they sell florals and they’re incredible florals. So we’ll build those in. And then a floral candle, build that in. And that to me is what sets the pace. And then if you only have bookcases, you can continue that on by building a candle and that goes back to colors that are working in the wall.

I mean, [00:06:00] that’s if you have capri blue there, I think you do. Anthropologie has taken capri blue and they do all these different colors for them. A lot of it’s the same scent. So they’ll build that scent in by color. And and it’s, again continues to kind of tell a story and it’s not just rails of clothing.

Catherine Erdly: Right, so keep it focused is what you’re saying. If you don’t have much space. 

Michelle Sherrier: Keep it focused. And I always, again, like storytelling. So if you’re storytelling at just one table and that’s the whole merchandising. Because a lot of people don’t have big, massive Anthropologie size stores. And if you are lucky enough to have a window that has a platform that you can build a story, I would say start it there and then continue it on to your opening statement.

And then if you can, the rest of the store. But if not, your front tables in your window are the two most important places.

Creative high-impact visual merchandising on a budget

Catherine Erdly: Right, that’s great advice. Thank you for that. So not everybody, and I’m sure a lot of the people you work with don’t necessarily have budget for big, elaborate displays. So what are some [00:07:00] affordable techniques for having high impact visual merchandising that even somebody with a small budget could work with?

Michelle Sherrier: I mean, honestly the biggest lesson that we learned in Anthropologie is dumpster diving. And here in America trash days happen on certain days. And a lot of the merchandisers, even people with antique stores will go down alleys the day of trash day or the night before.

And at Anthro, we would find amazing things like a chest of drawers. And all you have to do is give it a paint and change the knobs and you have a brand new display. Or broken frames. Or frames that don’t have glass anymore, bottles. There’s so much that people see as Trash that somebody else’s treasure.

And if you have a little bit of imagination on how you can kind of tweak it to make it your own or make it look new, whether it be wallpaper or paint, it’s incredible what you can do. And the other thing is, I always say is that, going to stores that you normally wouldn’t to look for displays. Like hardware [00:08:00] stores are one of my favorites.

Catherine Erdly: Mm hmm. 

Michelle Sherrier: A roll of AstroTurf here is like $35. I don’t know what it is there, but. There’s a showroom that I work for that’s very well known. That we will take basic tables and if you want to give it a fresh look, whether it’s a beautiful table or just an inexpensive table, you have is getting a piece of AstroTurf and covering it. And then pulling it under and making sure you staple it underneath. 

But that little piece of AstroTurf screams spring and summer. And there’s so much you could do it. Here, pickleball’s kind of taken off. So I did a lot of tabletops covered in astroturf or for pickleball to kind of give it that green and give it that feeling.

Catherine Erdly: Yeah. So that’s fascinating. So at Anthropologie, they were happy for you to go dumpster dive. Wow.

Michelle Sherrier: Even though it’s a big brand, you still had budgets and you still had to stay within your budget. But yet the expectation was so big. I mean, the [00:09:00] expectation of your windows and your merchandising and displaying concepts is so big and it’s oftentimes your budget can’t came nowhere near it.

So you really have to become very creative. And one of the displays I remember it was with big twigs and or and tree limbs. And at the beach, we didn’t have that. So we had to go drive some random place and try and find these limbs. And I just remember pulling these limbs into my car and we’re driving down the street. We’re so happy. And all sudden I’m like what is itching me and the whole thing was filled with ants. Now my whole car was full of ants.

But, you know, again, like free. It’s like tree limbs, and Anthro does it a lot, a tree limb hanging from your window, totally free, and then whatever you decide to do hanging down from it. Whether it’s butterflies or snowflakes. There’s a lot of things you can do with basically nothing.

Catherine Erdly: Wow, yeah. That’s like, I was not expecting you to say dumpster diving. Did you ever find I’d love to know if anyone ever walked past ’em was [00:10:00] like, “Wait a second. is that my chest of drawers?

Michelle Sherrier: No. But you know, I think some of the windows that we rolled out later when they started looking at everyday items as display. But I still remember, and you’d have to literally stand there and stare to try and figure out what it was. 

They did a huge window and they made giant. They were like igloos made out of straws. Thousands of plastic straws. And they, I don’t know how they connect them all because the way merchandising, the way the Anthropologie structure is the merchandiser is responsible for the overall visual. And the merchandising of all the product, display coordinators do all those amazing, incredible displays that take so much time and say, take so much patient, which most of us merchandisers don’t have.

Yeah.

Catherine Erdly: So they somehow created igloo out of plastic straws.

Michelle Sherrier: It was incredible. And really, and if you start thinking about some of the Anthropologie’s displays, a lot of them are [00:11:00] everyday found items that they’ve created into these big oversized displays.

Merchandising by category vs. lifestyle merchandising

Catherine Erdly: So we’re playing with the scale. Mm hmm. Yeah, so let’s talk a little bit about merchandising by category versus what you term lifestyle merchandising. So how do you kind of, what would you describe as lifestyle merchandising? How would you describe the difference between the two?

Michelle Sherrier: Department merchandising is where you have: this is my candle section and it’s every candle you sell. This is my personal care section and it’s every lifestyle, you are building other items in there as components that will create out on sale. So candle walls and cutting rows of candles with candlesticks. Or candle plates. Or matches. Or anything that you would use.

With your candles, candle snuffers, the wick clippers. You know, and a lot of the departmental merchandising works very well, especially with personal care and whatnot. And it’s those are the departments that we [00:12:00] don’t move around a lot. Because then it becomes an Easter egg hunt for the customers who are like, okay, your personal care was there last week.

Where is it now? Where? As when you’re doing what I call concepts, where the whole thing reads as like that spring display. That will move and that will change and that will morph into the next and those are again lifestyle. So you’re still cross merchandising. When I think about merchandising, one, we’re coming up with a display and it’s like, who lives here?

What does she wear? What would she cook with? What candle would she smell? What would be she using? Like whatever it is. So Mother’s Day, it’s a lot of like, what is she wearing? What is she listening to? 

Because it’s sight, sound, and scent. So you always think about, what are you looking at? What is the music that you’re hearing or the sound? Whether it’s like water or music?

And then what is the scent? And the scent always goes back. Because olfactory is so important. That kind of brings memories. And we did it a [00:13:00] concept called it was a kitchen, and I think it was patisserie.

And it was all these cake plates, and that’s when the latte bowls started coming out, and all these beautiful, like tea time items. And we made big faux cakes. But the candle at that time, was a candle by Illume. And I think you guys know Illume. But Illume did a fragrance that was I think called birthday cake. 

it was this yummy, warm vanilla scent. So when you walked in this patisserie, not only are you looking at all the items of faux cakes and cake plates. Then you have this smell of this vanilla frosting warm baked. I t created a whole lifestyle moment.

Right, right. Nothing felt jarring, nothing. It all worked in harmony. 

I’m sure you’ve walking into stores where there’s not a lifestyle element. There’s not a storytelling element. I always call it a garage sale. It’s like, what is all this stuff? And nothing has anything to do with each other. And it all is kind [00:14:00] of thrown on a tabletop. It’s all one level, very garage sale.

And buyers at retail, as well as your customers. We’re all visual. And like your whole, like telling these storytelling moments, is what is going to be bringing people in. Especially if it’s at the front is your opening statement. Your customer’s walking by, look in the window. “Oh, what is that?”

That’s you pulling them into the story.

Catherine Erdly: So I guess a big piece of it is all about like that curiosity, right? People are like, “Ooh, what’s that big faux cake doing?”

Michelle Sherrier: Absolutely. And then the smell. Yeah, we had a lot of people sticking fingers into faux cakes.

How visual merchandising affects the way your customers shop

Catherine Erdly: 

So am I right in thinking that most of the time when you work with people, then if they don’t have that lifestyle element already, that you maybe you come in and you say, right, I’m going to put that in. Because we want this focal point, we want this thing that’s going to draw people in.

Michelle Sherrier: How do you see it affect the way, or how do your clients tell you that it affects [00:15:00] the way that people actually shop then? 

You know, I still remember during the pandemic. This store asked me, “are you taking on new clients?” And I’m like, sitting in my like, “Uhh, sure. There’s no one working, but yeah.” So she’s like, okay, we started talking and she has this lovely store up in Northern California.

Michelle Sherrier: And soon as it opened up for us to travel again, I went up and she had a lovely store that had all the things, like flowers and plates, but none of it was together. And so we I was looking at like for her one tabletop that I still love. And it’s funny because I just came across this picture was she had a tomato sauce called TRUFF. 

That’s really big here that and TRUFF had like three different flavors at that time and she had some pasta and she had red geraniums. So I kind of started building this tabletop and I’m all about architecture. So whatever piece you put up on a table to create more real estate. So you don’t have that garage sale [00:16:00] one level. Was like this old trolley. So we put that up on the table and then have these baskets and I filled those with these red geraniums and then the TRUFF sauce with the pop of red was right focal at the top. 

And that’s where I start or what are the pieces of the elements that are going to create that pop moment and what colors are going to tell that story that are going to kind of feed through the merchandising.

So that’s where we started. And then you start adding in what cookbooks go back to this tomato pasta story. What other colors of red can we pull in? So we pulled in some hot sauce. Didn’t have anything to do pasta, but it had a red pop to it.

Catherine Erdly: Uh huh.

Michelle Sherrier: What cookbooks, what tabletop items? And then you kind of start building on it.

But I always say like, there’s a max that you can keep adding to it. Because you know if you concept like it’s all about pickles this or pickleball. It’s like all sudden everyone starts adding everything in the store that has to do a pickleball. Now it’s like back to the garage sale thing. So I try and limit like 10 to 12 [00:17:00] SKUs so keeps it clean.

It keeps it cohesive. It’s you know, it’s easy to look at and shop I know what I’m looking at but really it starts with a couple things and a lot of time, it’s color.

Catherine Erdly: I see. And then that presumably changed things cause it pulled the customers to that focal point. And then maybe they were cross purchasing.

Michelle Sherrier: Yes. 

Catherine Erdly: Yeah. 

Michelle Sherrier: That’s what I left off. I apologize. I go off and it’s like, come back.

Catherine Erdly: No, I loved it. It was great. And it was so super useful to hear how you built the concept. Cause I think it’s great to. 

Michelle Sherrier: Cause I’ll always check back with people. It’s like, okay how was sell through on this? Because my job is not only to make it look good, it has to sell. And bottom line is if it doesn’t sell, it doesn’t matter how good it looks, honestly. And so I will always touch back. Like how did it do, you know?

And her first trip, she said, people could not believe one. It was the same store that it looked completely different to items that we’ve had for a long time. That [00:18:00] had gone overlooked have sold out and three, it’s people are buying things in pairs, tomato sauce and pasta together. Whether it’s a gift or they’re buying them for themselves. But I think the biggest component is it creates add on sales.

Tips for driving add-on purchases with your merchandising

Catherine Erdly: Yeah, and I loved that because when I was doing my research for our conversation, I heard you talk about this before, and I think it’s such an important point. I really want to pull it out because it’s one of the things that I talk a lot about driving your average order value. 

And just thinking about those add on purchases, but I think that it’s really good to just talk a little bit more about how does visual merchandising drive those add on purchases? And are some kind of top tips for driving up that basket size?

Michelle Sherrier: Well, it’s absolutely pairing things together that you’re actually going to use together. So when we’re building tabletops, it’s always cookbooks, dish towels, tabletop items. And there’s some food products in there. But anything again, like anything that you look at, if you’re looking at building a Mom’s [00:19:00] Day table and you start with personal care and soap dishes.

If you have little scrubbies and again, tabletop. I mean, tabletop is the easiest one to build because there’s so much that goes back to it. But you know, another trick is coloring out. Every store has a lot of random things that you didn’t sell and you still have enough of them that you have to have them on the floor unless you’re going to put them into sale.

And a lot of the times those random items, when they’re all put together, if it’s one color work really well. And there’s a store in New York, Philadelphia called Occassion that I interviewed. And she, during COVID, everything was colored out. Like she would go to the shows and be buying purposely. Like, “I’m only looking for purple,” and it was all purple personal care.

And then she had other items, but those items may not go together. It’s that candy store effect and something in abundance where it’s like, “Oh my God, I love all this. I don’t know why.” And it’s not. And that becomes more of those impulse buys versus when [00:20:00] you’re building tabletops and you’re creating out on sales. It’s really based on what you’re going to use together.

Catherine Erdly: Right. Well I guess probably most people could say what they think people are going to use together and pull them together and try it. But I suppose it’s trial, a little bit trial and error. Do you find that you go back to clients and you say, okay, well that didn’t work so well together we’ll try these things together. Or like you do encourage them to experiment with that? 

Michelle Sherrier: Yeah, they’ll switch out things. Or if something’s sold out, they’ll switch out, you know, like if it’s a nutmeg grinder, they’ll switch out their pasta tools that they have. And they’ll switch something else out. And if something doesn’t sell it it just means let’s switch out for something else.

Cause you will see quickly what does sell. But also, it’s another way of kind of getting products that maybe have not sold well, built into a wall situation or something. Pulling them out sometimes brings them to light and it’s like, oh my gosh, look, it’s all sudden selling.

Catherine Erdly: Yeah, like that rearranging and also I think that can help as well if you’ve maybe not had new [00:21:00] deliveries.

Michelle Sherrier: I have a rule with most of my clients that I will say, “Do not order things in January. I know you want to. I know you’re low on inventory. I know you’re chomping at the bit, but right now everyone’s getting their credit card bills. Like people are buying sale, like hold tight and let’s reinvent what you own.”

And that’s when it’s like, that’s kind of fun to me is like, “Okay, what do we have left?” And at that point, I have been off most people’s stores for a couple months. So I am now all of a sudden, like I can see it with different eyes. And it’s like, “All right let’s rework this.” And it’s always incredibly crazy to see how much of that stuff sells. And it does help your bottom line and it does hold off on buying stuff, start bringing stuff in for February for Valentine’s Day

I’m always like, you don’t need to bring overt Valentine’s stuff or overt Christmas stuff. And like throw a bow on it, like Jellycat with a red bow on it is so sweet [00:22:00] for Valentine’s. doesn’t have to be a heart, but I think it helps just kind of look at things from a different lens.

How to find that spark of inspiration for a display

Catherine Erdly: Mmm. I’m curious. I think it’s great advice, I completely agree. You want to definitely get the most out of the stock that’s not selling. So let’s say you’re in there. You’re kind of like, okay, I’ve got some things. And maybe post Christmas, I’m running a bit low. I’ve got some things that haven’t been selling.

Would you start with color as the hook to pull things together? To go right. I’ve got all of these things that haven’t really sold, right. I’m gonna look for all the yellow things. Or would you say, okay, no. We’re gonna tell a story. What story do we wanna tell? A springtime story? Like how do you kind of get that spark of inspiration?

Michelle Sherrier: I will, as any good merchandiser should, is I’ll walk the floor literally from front to back. I’ll walk their back of house to see what else, if there’s extras. Because sometimes something didn’t sell and you got six in the floor and there’s still 12 in the back. You [00:23:00] know, that abundance creates impact.

So okay, so those didn’t sell. Let’s bring them all out. If it’s a vase, let’s put a few flowers in them. Let’s group them together. But that’s where I start is what do we have left? And what is there any kind of story that we can tell? And most of the time, you do have enough to create some kind of story.

You just like at that point you’re done with Christmas. You’re done with all the holidays. You kind of have to look at stuff through a different lens. And like, all right, what do we have florals? Is it a garden story? And it doesn’t have to be a story. It could just be like, it’s all about triangles. It’s just kind of like, what do you have an ample amount of that will cohesively live together on a table?

 But coloring out is usually the way to go in January, and that’s literally what I did at Missane. It was like, she had so many bits and odd pieces left, and it was everything from barware to, if I remember, pump soaps that were in amazing containers. That their label [00:24:00] was, I forget the name, I know you have it in the UK. but it’s all colored out.

So the bottles themselves go from like white to yellow to orange to red. So I started with those and that was enough where I’m like, “okay, here’s my color story.” So I’ll build those into the wall and then you start looking around. What else do we have? Okay, we have some bath stuff that I can add in and add it into each of those color sections.

And then I was out of stuff and then it was like, okay, barware. Like what? Okay, so we’ve got color barware. So the glassware went in there and oddly it turns out really well. I even had to go on social media saying this has nothing to do with anything, but when you stand back and you look at it together, it’s cohesive.

Catherine Erdly: Yeah, yeah. That’s so interesting because it’s amazing how enticing things are when they’re cohesive like that, right?

Michelle Sherrier: I don’t know if gift shows are the same format there as they are here. Like each it’s based on showrooms. There’s temporaries, which are basically in a [00:25:00] tent area or something. And they’re 10×10 and they don’t have as much personality. 

Some do, but as the showrooms that really there’s a brand here called Mud Pie and it’s very lifestyle tell like each section is different and each section feels like storytelling and

Catherine Erdly: Yeah.

Michelle Sherrier: Buyers, like that is when we do when I do gift show or when get wholesale gift showrooms. That is what I’m appealing to is that retailer walking by like, “Oh my God, I want to do this at my store.” And it’s the same applies for retailers. 

It’s like creating this yummy moment that people are going to go by your window or your front. Or even when they’re walking through the store, it’s like, “I want everything here. I don’t know why, but I want everything here.” yeah.

Catherine Erdly: I’d never really thought of it like that. But it’s in terms of, I think one of the things that all retailers, whether they’re brands or whether they’re retailers have to think about is that emotional reaction from the customer.

That I used to, I worked [00:26:00] in clothing and we had a brand director and a buying director and she said, “Oh, it has to have that like, reaction from the customer, like that emotion, like that intake of breath.”

And it was like slightly infuriating because you’re always like, could you be a little more specific? Cause we need to know like, which one of these we’re going with. And she would always like, that’s what she’d always come back to. It has to have that reaction.

Michelle Sherrier: I mean, when you think about apparel, it’s like that bag that goes, whether it’s the powder or the color that goes back to the rail of these yummy sweaters. And then the sweaters are cut with like, maybe like a leather skirt that’s buttery. 

And then you start building in other things. But when you stand back and look at it and it’s tight, meaning there’s not 8,000 SKUs in there.

And it’s just big, beautiful, cohesive, abundant statement. Oh my gosh, that is like yummy.

Catherine Erdly: Yeah, and I always think about that when you’re thinking about individual product choices, but you’re absolutely right. What really makes that feeling have come to life in a physical retail space is the way that they’re all put together, [00:27:00] right? Because there’s that power and impact in multiples.

Michelle Sherrier: Yes.

Catherine Erdly: That’s great. Well, thank you so much. I’ve really enjoyed our conversation and I think it’s really great tips. And I think you’ve shared a lot of great inspiration on how to take a fresh look at what you’ve got, and to really think about how to kind of pull it together and make those stories.

Do you want to just finish off by telling everyone where they can find out more about you and what you do?

Michelle Sherrier: Yes. On Instagram, it’s @mcdesigncollaboration. And I am on there a lot when I’m on job sites with stories. I’m trying to share everything that I’m doing. I’ll walk people through. So @mcdesigncollaboration on Instagram, The Retail Whore podcast is also on Instagram and YouTube. 

And we are talking to retailers all across the country, as well as vendors and makers and it’s real stories that they’re being honest about. Like we had somebody the other day that was so transparent about numbers. So it’s great for the retailers. And then I have a channel on YouTube, [00:28:00] MC Design Academy, where I’m actually walking people through displays.

Catherine Erdly: Oh, fantastic. Yes. Well, we’ll put all of those links in the show notes because I know that people are going to want to go check those out because you’ve shared some real tips, amazing tips. So thank you so much for joining us.

Michelle Sherrier: Thanks so much for having me.

Catherine Erdly: Thank you so much for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. Why not head over to Instagram at Resilient Retail Club and let me know what you thought? 

Of course, if you like, follow or subscribe, whichever, according to whichever platform that you listen to podcasts on. You’ll be the first to know about every new episode, which comes out each Thursday morning. See you next week.