Gondola shelving can be found in nearly every retail store. Affordable and durable, the success of gondola shelving units lies in how easy they are to customise. But just because it’s not physically hard or time-consuming, it doesn’t mean that retail store owners know how to do it well. Are you maximising your gondola shelving and enjoying increased profits, space optimisation and storage efficiency?
If you have been looking online for some effective gondola shelf strategies and ideas, you have come to the right place. Here are our top six tips for maximising gondola shelves:
A neat and well-presented display has been proven to result in greater purchase likelihood. In the fight against messy and disorganised displays, shelf dividers are your best allies. Separating your wares and keeping them in line, shelf dividers make it easier to keep shelves well stocked and tidy. Shoppers are also less likely to interfere with the display and ruin its appearance. Gondola shelf dividers that simply clip into the holes on the shelves and stand vertically in place are the easiest to use and modify as the display changes.
Another way to keep your display neat and organised is to use metal or perspex grills. Place small products or items that don’t hold their shape well in the equally spaced holes of a grill to prevent your shelf display from getting messy and unsightly. Using grills increases shelf space and decreases the chances of customers accidentally knocking products off the shelf, which is both embarrassing for them and damaging to the items.
Regular retail shelves only offer a front-on point of view. That puts a lot of emphasis on a single side of the product. Instead, tilted shelves allow for a two-dimensional inspection of the items, both horizontally and vertically, for a much more complete view. A 2021 published case study reports a 15% increase in profits when integrating the latest retail practices with angled shelves, so you definitely want to give it a go. You can transform some of your retail shelving into tilted shelves and add front and side fences to keep the product from falling off.
Hooks for gondola units are often taken for granted when, instead, they hold great potential. From a single pegboard hook to display bulky items to a line of clip strings to cross-merchandise lightweight products, retail hooks can solve a variety of problems. Whether you use a pegboard gondola back, a slat wall kit or grid mesh panels, hooks will easily clip on and off and help you maximise space by hanging merchandise.
Hangsell displays work well for a variety of products — packeted items, jewellery, clothing accessories, tools, and so on — and offer many benefits. Cheap to buy, retail hooks create extra space that allows you to increase the number of products on display in a visually appealing way. They also help avoid cluttering the gondola shelves for an improved customer experience.
Depending on the products you want to display, normal gondola shelving might not serve you best. Lighter, softer items, such as balls, toys or towels, can be placed in hanging wire baskets for better results. Just make sure the items you want to put there don’t have small parts that can get caught in the wiring.
Retail wire baskets can replace half a shelf, the entire shelf or even take up the entire side of your gondola for an interesting visual break in an otherwise endless line of gondola shelving aisles. Their large capacity and stackable design also let you have more products out and available to your shoppers, which positively impact your average transaction value.
On top of regular shelves, tilted shelves, hooks and baskets, you have one more option to customise your gondola unit. If you want to display magazines, cards, manuals or other thin and flat products, then you need a brochure column. Having these products stacked flat on a shelf is a big no-no, especially when it’s so easy to adapt your gondola to hold them in an easy-to-access, eye-catching way.
Fitting your gondola unit with a magazine rack is also far less costly than buying a freestanding display or a wall-mounted fixture. Brochure holders can be integrated with regular shelves as a way to offer more information on the products displayed next to them, resulting in effortless customer education.
In retail, the one-size-fits-all approach really doesn’t work. Optimising your gondola unit with the right accessories for the products you want to merchandise lets you increase the displayed stock and improve its visual appeal. What’s more, visual display variety has been linked to increased sales. So think about alternating regular shelves with angled shelves, baskets, pegs, hooks and brochure holders to maximise your gondola shelving for great gains.
To enhance your retail shelving even further, consider incorporating LED shelf lighting for improved product visibility and gondola shelving signage for clear product information. Whether you’re setting up a pharmacy, a supermarket, or a convenience store, Mills Shelving has the perfect solution for your needs.
