You’ve decided that you want to invest in a custom cardboard display for your brick-and-mortar sales strategy. So, now what? It can be daunting to begin a custom design process, with virtually endless possibilities at your fingertips and no experience to help rein in your ideas.
Luckily, thorough preparation before creating your display can help you make the most of your experience. By having the answers to these four questions when you start designing your corrugated cardboard display stands, you can ensure that the process is fast, efficient, and cost-effective, resulting in a high-quality final product that will secure a significant return on investment.
How soon you need your corrugated cardboard display stands will dictate what design possibilities are available to you. As such, you should have a clear deadline in mind before you begin designing.
If you have a quick turnaround, you may be limited to a stock display with modifications versus a fully custom piece. However, if you plan well in advance, you can choose from custom dimensions and styles with few, if any, limitations on what’s possible.
Knowing the dimensions and weight of your products is essential, as these factors dictate the structural design process. Which display stand type you can use and to what extent you can customize it is dependent on the products it’s going to hold.
For example, if you’re interested in a shelf display, the designer will need to know your product dimensions so they can design the shelves to have the appropriate width and depth to accommodate the products. They’ll also need to calculate how much vertical space to allow between shelves. Of course, your custom POP display will need to be able to bear the weight of the product load safely, so knowing the total product weight is also crucial during the design process.
Before you start dreaming up your custom POP display, it’s important to know what you can realistically afford. You should have a clear idea of what your budget is as well as what you can expect to pay for a custom display.
To approximate the price, do initial research online and compare quotes from several cardboard display manufacturers. Most reputable manufacturers will be happy to give you a free, no-obligation quote. You should also inquire about any minimum order quantities they may have.
Knowing your budget will also help you during the design process, as tweaks to the design can be made along the way to help the project meet your pricing requirements. Although you may have grand dreams of ordering 1,000 5-foot-tall, full-color displays, you may find that 200 custom countertop POP displays with bold graphics do the job just as well — and within your budget. After all, you have to make the investment in your display worthwhile, so don’t invest more than you expect to make from sales.
Of course, an essential factor to have in mind before designing your custom POP display is the design itself. While you don’t have to have an exact pixel-for-pixel vision, you should have an idea of the overall vibe or aesthetic you’re hoping to achieve.
What lifestyle are you trying to convey, and what imagery conveys that? What are your brand colors? Do you want to incorporate any interactive elements into the display? Having images to show your design team that can serve as a reference point is extremely helpful.
If you’re ready to get started building your custom corrugated display, check out Build A Box’s online design tool, where you can quickly and easily make your cardboard display vision a reality. You can also give us a call at (888) 406-1610 or fill out our online contact form to speak with one of our design experts and receive personalized assistance. We’re always happy to answer any of your questions and provide a free quote. No minimum order quantity is required!
In our last blog post we emphasized the importance of carefully preparing and planning prior to starting a point-of-purchase display project. We stressed the importance of knowing the answers to a set of 20 basic questions to ensure an efficient design process and a successful outcome. In Part I of this 4-part series we looked at the first 5 questions. Now let’s focus on the next 5 questions:
The number of product facings you desire is a critical design element in creating a display that effectively merchandises your product. It’s important to get this right so consumers are clear about your various product offerings. The number of product facings is usually dependent on the number of product SKUs you wish to have on the display. This is typically driven by the number of flavors, colors, or sizes.
The number of product facings is a big factor in determining the width and height of your display. It is also important to think about the location of the product facings. Generally, it is best to put your best selling or highest margin SKUs higher on the display and closer to eye level, while your slowing moving SKUs can be placed toward the bottom or in harder-to-access locations.
Many of our customers start the design process without really knowing if they are looking for a 1-side, 2-sided, 3-sided, or 4-sided display. The number of sides is a really important variable to nail down early in the design process. The number of sides is typically dependent on the location of the display in the store and the amount of product/number of product facings on the display.
If your display will be placed against a wall, then in most cases a 1-sided or 3-sided display makes the most sense. However, if you know that other displays will be placed to the immediate left and right of your display then it generally does not make sense to create a 3-sided display. If your freestanding display will be place in the middle of an open area, then you will need to decide if it is better going with a 2-sided or 4-sided display, although a 1-sided or 3-sided display could still work in some cases. If you expect to get a corner location, you might want to design something that fits that space.
Finally, if you are going to be placed against a wall or in a corner such as in a crowded convenience store, you might consider a 3-sided or 4-sided display that spins, which brings us to question #8.
Spinning displays are relatively popular because they can make almost any retail location work. Whether you are placed against a wall, in a corner, or in an open space, a spinning display can usually work. And, if you don’t know where you might be placed or want to maximize your chances of getting retail placement, you might consider a spinning display design.
Spinning displays may cost a little more due to the extra hardware, but the incremental investment might be worth it if it increases you retail placement opportunities. Because of their versatility and space efficiency, spinning displays tend to be popular in both small format and large format retail settings and across a wide range of retail verticals, including drug stores, grocery stores, convenience stores, mass market retailers, sporting good stores, jewelry stores, specialty stores, pet stores, and many others. Be sure to get a good bearing with your spinning display since it is a headache to try to replace a defective bearing on a spinning display once it is in the store.
It is important to think through whether or not you want castors on your display. A display with castors will cost you more than a display without castors, but the advantage of easily being able to move the display around for purposes such as cleaning is worth serious consideration. A mobile display can also help you capitalize on opportunities to sell your product in different departments within a store or take advantage of better seasonal or promotional locations or events. The downside, however, is that you might find your display moved from a prime end cap location to a dark corner at the back of the store.
If you do decide to go with castors, make sure your display supplier uses high quality castors that are rated to support the amount of weight on your display. If you choose to create a display without castors, we almost always recommend levelers since floors are not always level, and the adjustability offered by levelers can come in handy.
Be prepared to share your display branding requirements with your POP display design team. If it is important to have permanent branding on your display, such as silk screening your logo on sheet metal, be sure to communicate that to your design team. Permanent branding is often a good way to protect your investment and prevent your display from being high jacked and used for another product.
The most common place for branding is the display header, but side signs and flag signs are also good opportunities for branding. While not as popular, base graphics can also be effective along with shelf graphics. Most of the shelf graphics are interchangeable since they often relate to specific products, while header, side, and base graphics tend to be more oriented to the brand in most cases.
Once you have a general idea of where you want your graphics, you will want to make sure you have the right art work in the right format to share with your display design team. It is good to have the art work available early so it can be used in developing realistic concept renders.
Jim Hollen is the owner and President of RICH LTD. (www.richltd.com), a 35+ year-old California-based point-of-purchase display, retail store fixture, and merchandising solutions firm which has been named among the Top 50 U.S. POP display companies for 9 consecutive years. A former management consultant with McKinsey & Co. and graduate of Stanford Business School, Jim Hollen has served more than 3000 brands and retailers over more than 20 years and has authored nearly 500 blogs and e-Books on a wide range of topics related to POP displays, store fixtures, and retail merchandising.
Jim has been to China more than 50 times and has worked directly with more than 30 factories in Asia across a broad range of material categories, including metal, wood, acrylic, injection molded and vacuum formed plastic, corrugated, glass, LED lighting, digital media player, and more. Jim Hollen also oversees RICH LTD.’s domestic manufacturing operation and has experience manufacturing, sourcing, and importing from numerous Asian countries as well as Vietnam and Mexico.
His experience working with brands and retailers spans more than 25 industries such as food and beverage, apparel, consumer electronics, cosmetics/beauty, sporting goods, automotive, pet, gifts and souvenirs, toys, wine and spirits, home improvement, jewelry, eyewear, footwear, consumer products, mass market retail, specialty retail, convenience stores, and numerous other product/retailer categories.