Think back to your last mediocre shopping experience.
Whether you got lost wandering the aisles or were confused by the store’s layout, you were probably left feeling baffled, frustrated, or simply uninspired.
So, what was missing from your shopping experience? The answer is visual merchandising — and it’s just as important for smoke shops as it is for any other retail business.
In this blog, we’ll cover why smoke shop visual merchandising matters and explore our top six tips for successful smoke shop visual merchandising.
What Is Smoke Shop Visual Merchandising?
Visual merchandising is how you design an effective store layout and displays to highlight your smoke shop’s selection, and it’s one of the most important ingredients for retail success.
A successful visual merchandising approach should guide your customer through their shopping journey, helping them find exactly what they’re looking for, encouraging them to try new products, and enticing them to explore your full selection.
Why Is Smoke Shop Visual Merchandising Important?
Visual merchandising is about more than aesthetics; it has a major influence on your customers’ shopping experience and how much they spend during each visit to your smoke shop.
Your store’s layout and displays should act as a silent salesperson, assisting shoppers as they navigate your store, explore your offerings, and hunt down their go-to products.
Without successful smoke shop visual merchandising, your customers might feel lost in your store and struggle to find what they’re looking for — which can put a dent in your profits and drive shoppers to your competitors.
Our Top Smoke Shop Visual Merchandising Tips
Now that we’ve covered why smoke shop visual merchandising should be a priority, let’s dive into the details. Here are our six best visual merchandising ideas, plus our advice for executing them like a pro.
1. Leverage Lighting
Switching up your smoke shop’s lighting is a small change that can make a big impact, setting the mood for your shoppers and highlighting your product selection.
If it’s too dim in your store, customers won’t feel welcome, and they might struggle to read product descriptions and labels. Lighting that’s too bright can make shoppers equally uncomfortable, rushing their visit.
In short, your overhead lighting should be just right, encouraging shoppers to stay awhile and leisurely explore your aisles.
Your shelf lighting should be slightly brighter to make your products shine — literally. Bright or colorful lights can draw customers’ eyes to your bestselling or newest products, intriguing them and potentially leading to a purchase.
2. Keep Your Customers' Taste in Mind
While there are some universal best practices to follow when it comes to visual merchandising, it’s also important to tailor your strategies to your shoppers’ unique preferences.
For example, if your customer base overwhelmingly prefers traditional products like cigars and cigarettes, your displays should spotlight these products, making it easy for your regulars to find their favorites.
Another approach is to highlight your underselling products to give them more visibility and boost their sales. If you notice that vape liquid sales are lagging behind, you can create a new display near the front of your store to show off these items and encourage customers to try something new.
To discover which products to highlight in your smoke shop visual merchandising strategy, leverage your point of sale (POS) system’s sales reports. These reports give you insight into which products are flying off your shelves and which are staying put — and how you can switch up your sales trends with your displays.
3. Group Products Strategically
Above all, your smoke shop’s layout should make sense to your customers.
If a cigar enthusiast stops by your business, they expect your cigars and cigar-smoking accessories to be in one convenient spot rather than scattered across your store. Similarly, a vape aficionado will expect e-cigarettes and e-liquids to be near each other to make stocking up easy.
To prevent frustration, make sure your smoke shop visual merchandising strategy accounts for these expectations and prioritizes convenience for your shoppers.
Pro Tip: To boost your sales and make shopping even easier, use your smoke shop POS system to create promotional bundles of related items. For example, you can create vape starter packs with your most popular e-cigarettes and a selection of e-liquids, or cigar gift sets with a selection of cigars and essential accessories. Your smoke shop’s POS should make creating these bundles a breeze.
4. Spruce Up Your Storefront
In the world of smoke shops, a visually appealing storefront is a must-have. Before a customer sets foot inside, they should understand exactly what your shop is all about from your signage and window displays.
Whether you specialize in fine tobacco, a wide variety of vape products, or hot new items like CBD and delta-8, make sure your storefront design tells customers what you stock and what they can expect when they shop with you.
5. Keep Displays Fresh
Crafting a smoke shop visual merchandising plan isn’t a one-and-done kind of task. Instead, you should be constantly rotating products on display and adjusting your layout to match your customers’ shopping habits.
Here are a few key reasons to consider updating your displays:
- New arrivals: Place your shop’s newest arrivals in your higher-traffic areas to boost their visibility and intrigue your customers.
- Promotions: Running a special promotion on a certain product? Use placing and signage to spotlight the product and encourage shoppers to take advantage of the deal.
- Seasons: Seasonal and holiday decor and signage are a great way to engage your customers and make your smoke shop stand out.
Regularly switching up your smoke shop visual merchandising approach will give your customers something to look forward to every time they visit your business.
6. Provide Top-Notch Customer Service
While this isn’t a smoke shop visual merchandising idea, it’s still an important reminder. Even if you have the best selection of products housed in the most engaging displays, you still need to provide your customers with an excellent shopping experience.
We have two main tips to help you accomplish this goal. First, we recommend training your team. Your employees should know everything about your offerings and be able to guide customers to the right products, making sales-boosting recommendations.
Second, we recommend investing in a powerful POS system. The right smoke shop POS system can make a world of difference for your customers by ensuring your shelves are perfectly stocked, facilitating a smooth checkout process, and letting them earn points and perks through a built-in loyalty program.
Leveraging these tips and crafting stand-out visual merchandising displays will win over customers, give you an edge against the competition, and give your sales a major lift.
Crush Your Smoke Shop Sales Goals
We hope this blog has inspired you to spruce up your smoke shop visual merchandising strategy!
If you’re looking for more ways to take your small business to the next level, our top tip is to invest in a powerful POS system designed for the smoke shop industry.
Cigars POS is an all-in-one POS solution tailored to the needs of smoke shop owners like you. Our software includes industry-specific features like carton-pack inventory management, built-in age verification, a customizable loyalty program, and advanced reporting and analytics.
See Cigars POS in action by scheduling a personalized demo with one of our smoke shop experts today.
