An alternative view

To contrast what I have found in my research whilst working at a smaller, independent boutique, I wanted to find out how visual merchandising was used within bigger stores. Therefore I interviewed one of my friends / peers who has recently done her placement at Tommy Hilfiger in the visual merchandising department. 

How important do you feel visual merchandising is within a bigger brand?

when interviewing a vm from chanel she said vm was the biggest and most important department within the company however this differs to most companies, vm is usually not considered very highly people just think its window dressing however it drives sales and ensures sales are coming in due to floor positioning, store layout and product displays

Do you think that the way the shop has been designed /  set out attracts more customers and therefore sales?

yes, the layout of the store is important as tables/fixtures will be put in certain places to make the customer walk around the store in a certain way. also whilst on my placement i found out the product statements sold best, and hanging product sold better than folded product. The most season appropriate and best selling collection will be put in prime selling location

Where are the ideas for VM in bigger stores drawn from?

all vm ideas for Tommy Hilfiger in Europe comes from the head office in Amsterdam where a book of guidelines will be made, containing mannequin looks, window display designs and wall fixture layouts. this will then be sent to all stores for the vm's to follow strictly, so it means there is not much creativity and freedom

Would you say they were concept based?

they ideas are all based around the collection which usually follow a story, so this season there was a surf prep summer collection, so the window display had surf boards, and a vw beetle covered in shells, then the store display had surf boards for shelves and shack backdrop. so yes they are all based around concepts

How often is the VM set up changed in store?

set up instore is changed when the new collections come in, it is also refreshed and moved around when sales may be down so collection not doing so well need to be moved and re merchandised. mannequins are changed every 2/3 weeks. ad windows only change when there is a big promotional offer, or seasonal

How many people are involved with the visual merchandising within a bigger brand?

within the UK head office, there is a vm manager, 5 vm coordinators which look after different areas of the country, e.g north, midlands, south and stand alone stores. and there are 2 instore vm's who work in the 2 flagship stores and they both have an assistant vm helping them