We refer to it as situational design. That is, a great retail POP design is highly dependent not only on the objectives of the brand but also on the retail environment in which the eyeglass frame display stand will live. The sunglass/eyewear category is large, highly competitive, and unsuspectingly complex. Its complexity derives from the fact that eyewear is both a functional and a fashion item as well as a destination and an impulse item. Moreover, eyewear is a classic example of a product whose perceived value is often dictated by the quality of the eyewear frame display and the way it is merchandised. All of these factors contribute to the challenges inherent in designing a retail eyewear display capable of building a brand while maximizing sell-through within a particular retail environment. Let’s look at some examples.
Wal-Mart Sport Tower. Our first example is a multi-branded sport tower we designed for a national Wal-Mart rollout. Featuring well-known brands such as Nike, Columbia, and Hurley, we designed this durable, mobile eyeglass frame display stand for placement in high-traffic Wal-Mart Vision Centers. This spinning eyewear frame display includes a combination of metal and wood construction with clear injection-molded nose pieces, locking casters, full-length mirrors on 4 sides, locking base storage, and interchangeable magnetic graphics.
Big 5 Sporting Goods Sunglass Floor Display. We designed this 120-count, 2-sided, spinning sunglass display for a chain-wide Big 5 Sporting Goods roll-out. We also created a smaller version that held 72 sunglasses. This display features MDF and metal construction. It includes locking casters, a base pull-out drawer, wire sunglass holders, side mirrors, and interchangeable curved PVC header graphics.
Caddis Eyewear Fixture Family. Since eyewear comes in so many different shapes, sizes, and colors, it may make sense to develop a family of POP displays that can be used to create merchandising variety. Unlike the world of mass retailing, this approach is more commonly used by boutiques that are dedicated to selling eyewear and eyewear accessories. We designed the family of fixtures shown below to merchandise Caddis’ line of “eye appliances.” Many of the counter and floor units shown below share a common set of design features: sheet metal construction with acrylic accents, floating adjustable shelves, branded bases, mirrors, lifestyle graphics, and a multi-layered header with aluminum stand-offs and screen-printed logos on the clear acrylic outer layers. These fixtures were designed to complement more traditional vertically stacked eyewear frame displays and eyewear trays.
Oakley and Gatorz Stocking Display Cases. Stocking display cases are ubiquitous in the eyewear industry. There are pros and cons to creating a merchandising strategy based on using eyeglass frame display stands. The pros are reduced theft and increase perceived value (i.e., if the glasses were cheap, they would not be worth locking up). The cons are that store personnel are generally required to unlock the case and assist in the sale which, depending on availability of store associates, might lead to lost sales. It also makes them impractical for mass retailers. In addition, stocking display cases tend to be more expensive than other merchandising alternatives.
Stocking display cases can be well branded but more traditional like the Gatorz case we fabricated, or they can be more creative and eye-catching like the Oakley case we designed below.
Glorifier Cases. Glorifier cases are designed to securely showcase one or just a few pieces of eyewear, but they are generally not designed to be opened, so shoppers usually can’t interact with the eyewear product. They are effective in creating perceived product value in the same way an encased rare artifact creates value and intrigue for a museum patron. Below are two examples of glorifier cases we created below for Dragon Eyewear and Vima’s tactical sport training glasses. Vima’s glorifier case includes an embedded digital media player in the header. Glorifier cases are best suited for specialty retailers.
Big 5 Locking Floor Merchandiser. An alternative to display cases are more traditional floor merchandisers with locking mechanisms. While they serve the purpose of securing the glasses and reducing theft, they share many of the same pros and cons found with display cases. Below is one we created for Big 5 Sporting Goods.
Creative/Thematic Eyewear Displays. Eyewear displays don’t have to be boring. Consider the 9Five floor merchandiser we designed to appeal to a younger target customer demographic, a group notorious for its obsession with gaming. The display includes an LED-lit back panel and branded header, a locking case, gaming buttons, coins slots, and a real joystick. We developed the companion counter display also shown below.
Eyewear Counter Display Variations. Eyewear frame displays vary widely based on the objectives of the brand and the requirements and space availability of the retailer. Let’s look at several examples.
We designed two different types of counter displays for Cocoons Eyewear, the first of which is fairly common with the glasses displayed traditionally, explanatory graphics, and a small brochure holder. The second Cocoons display is constructed with laser-cut PVC. It includes a header that accommodates an interchangeable graphic and an etched logo. It packs in an incredibly flat box for shipping.
We also designed the 3-sided spinning Bookmates reader display for packaged hanging readers. There is nothing fancy here, but it is well branded and highly shoppable with the readers merchandised according to magnification levels.
Our eyewear display post would not be complete without providing an example of kids sunglass displays so we’ve included two that we designed for Roshambo Eyewear. The first is a spinning acrylic counter display that incorporates pushers for boxed glasses as well as an acrylic side bin, mirrors, and generous lifestyle and brand-building graphics. The second is a countertop wood merchandiser for boxed glasses. Designed to stand on a countertop or be easily transported, this display has graphics on the inside lid and in each compartment.
The last counter display example we’ll share is traditional with respect to its design, but we constructed this eyeglass frame display stand for Eyebobs with eco-friendly bamboo.
Podium Merchandisers, Power Wings, and Vertical Merchandisers. We’ll wrap today’s blog with 3 final examples. The first is a floor podium merchandiser we designed for the McGee Group. This 4-sided spinning display utilizes a branded podium base to raise up the presentation of the sunglasses.
We designed the narrow power wing shown below to merchandise 18 pairs of shooting glasses. Its small footprint, bright colors, clear product labeling, and narrow profile make it well suited for a wide range of specialty retail environments.
And finally, the Old Navy wood floor merchandiser we made below features a relatively uncommon merchandising approach whereby the sunglasses hang on wires so that they are displayed vertically. The white center panel makes the glasses pop, and the side mirrors and header help to complete the eyeglass frame display.
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.