14 weeklypress.com • ucreview.com • December 5 • 2012


Enterprise Center holds Visual Merchandis- ing Workshop


By Nathaniel Lee UC Review Correspondent


H


ow does the way your business look affect the buying


behavior of potential con- sumers? That was one of the things discussed during the visual merchandising workshop held at the En- terprise Center located 4500 Market Street on November 29th. During the workshop, attendants had an opportu- nity to hear from successful business owners and edu- cators on how such things as window decorations, cleanliness and lighting can either attract or repel po- tential customers and gave them basic principles to ap- ply themselves.


“What we try to do this event is to give small busi- nesses a fresh look at their stores and to maximize their displays, both in their windows and in their stores so that they will profit dur- ing the holiday season,” said Anne Cecil, director of Design and Merchandising progam at Drexel University. Cecil described her role as speaker for the forum as providing the attendants of the event with an overview of how consumers shop. “Everybody needs to re-


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Iola Harper, Alicia Burbage, Anne Cecil. Photo: Nathaniel Lee


member that their store fa- çade and their store window is the first contact they have with the customer,” said Cecil. For this reason, the way a store appears on the outside could either invite or discourage customers. Cecil said that she thinks


about visual merchandis- ing in the same way that she thinks of visitors at her home. “So I need to make sure that the front of my house is clean, in shape and welcom- ing. On top of that, business- es have to find a way to dif- ferentiate themselves from all of the other businesses out there and position them-


Penn Students for Liberty continued from page 6


“reads our work, considers our ideas and agrees with some.” Slayback said in reference to its published work such as “After the Welfare State,” a collection of essays published by the SFL and the Atlas Network, which takes a critical look on the welfare state. The PFL, like the larger SFL, doesn’t necessarily encourage Communists to partici- pate, Slayback explained in reference to the fact that one of its members is a Democratic Socialist. As for connecting to the larger SFL network, members of the PFL attend various events and conferences. In fact, the 2012 Philadelphia Regional Conference was hosed at Penn on November 10th. Different factions of the liberty move- ment were covered through a variety of speakers at the movement. Greg Lukianoff led a discussion in “Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of the American Debate.” Ed Hudgins led a conversation in “Fighting free- dom against Re-Elected Obama.” James Stacey Taylor dis- cussed “Freedom for Scottish Perverts.” Taylor, Slayback explained believes the “the only time to restrict freedom is to prevent harm to another person.” Of course Taylor’s theory, Slayback admitted with a grin, “raises a lot of questions about what is harmful.” This, Slayback continued, causes those within the liberty network to debate the concept of harm. “Is it physical vio- lence? Is it violence to the environment? Or does it apply to the economy?” Undoubtedly, it’s a debate that will foster intellectual


growth for its members. For more information on Stu- dents For Liberty: http://studentsforliberty.org.


selves within the customers mind,” said Cecil. This is where visual merchandising can help. “You can show the product that you have to offer, your aesthetic and who you are as a retailer, all using the win- dow as the communication tool,” said Cecil.


Cecil says that all busi- ness owners should look at the front of their stores with fresh eyes and they need to do so every day since, she says, the front of the busi- ness is the face of the business. “What you present on the outside of your business will be what they expect on the inside,” said Cecil. For this reason, keeping your front clean is crucial to attracting customers to your business. Cecil says that on main


streets and business cor- ridors, window displays should be done in such a way as to consider pedes- trians, drivers and those on public transportation and therefore she suggests having the top, middle and bottom of store windows utilized strategically. However, she warns against cluttering up a win- dow display in such a ways that potential customers cannot focus on anything in particular. “A dirty window will turn a customer off so it’s critical that you keep your window clean; a window that you can’t see inside will turn a customer off because they like to have a peek inside the store,” said Cecil when asked what things would typically repel customers. During her presentation at the forum, Cecil explained how lighting, arrangement


of merchandize and space inside the store, especially in the isles where shoppers hunt for products, all play a role in the shopping experience and either enhance or takes away from the shoppers experience leaving it more likely that they will either buy or leave empty handed. Karolyn Chamberlin,


director of the Enterprise Centers’ Retail Resource Network said that visual merchandising was very important to retailers. “The forum will give busi- ness owners an opportunity to learn about how they can increase sales and attract new customers, said Chambers. Not only can the way a busi- ness appears on the outside attract customers, but the way a store is organized on the inside can have an af- fect on purchasing decisions made by customers once inside the store. “Visual mer- chandising is really important to retail business owners. It is a big part of their marketing because they have a presence on a commercial corridor or commercial district, to be able to attract customers just from your store window and once they are in your store, you have the opportunity to make sales and that’s a great increase depending on what techniques you use.” “Even the store layout or


where merchandise is placed in the store, can make a dif- ference in how much each customer will buy and in at- tracting new customers to the store,” said Chamberlin. Other speakers at the event


were Alicia Burbage, owner of IsShoes shoe store and Iola Harper, president of IgC Con- sulting.


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