According to the American Heritage Dictionary, merchandising is the promotion of merchandise sales, as by coordinating production and marketing and developing advertising, display, and sales strategies: basically everything we do to sell a product to the consumer.

What we generally think of as merchandising is the way we present merchandise to attract the attention of consumers and sell the products. To be effective, merchandising needs to be closely connected and consistent with all other parts of the sales process.

When I address merchandising with a client, we look at the overall store image and atmosphere, as well as arrangement of merchandise and displays. Whether you are in a small store or a large one, and regardless of the type of product you sell, the basic concepts in merchandising are the same.

I was told once by a small business consultant that she considered merchandising and display to be frivolous extra expenses for the small business owner who is just starting up. Her assumption was that merchandising is just about making things "look nice."

On the contrary, merchandising has a crucial role to play in the selling process. The role of merchandising begins before your customer even walks in the door.

Your merchandising will determine how consumers perceive your store. You need to think carefully about the first impression that you want customers to have.

Shoppers will form an idea or expectation about your store from what they see outside. When a shopper first sees your store, a part of their brain called the adaptive unconscious is at work.

Your brain makes an evaluation of your store in only 2-3 seconds. In that length of time, your storefront, displays and signage, as well as the individual's personal associations and preconceptions are all evaluated and judged.

Your storefront has a huge job to do in those couple of seconds!

It has to communicate the essence of what your store is all about. From that first impression, shoppers will make a judgment about whether your store meets their needs or not. The perception the customer has of your store may be entirely different than the image you are trying to project.

Think about your store.

* How have you seen the importance of effective merchandising demonstrated in your store?
* How do you want customers to perceive your business?
* On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best), how well are you doing at quickly communicating your store image to shoppers?
* What do you need to improve to effectively communicate the image of your store from your storefront?

Overall, is your store merchandising working for you? If not, start looking at what you can do to improve it and attract more shoppers to your store.