A retailer’s imperative for in-queue merchandising is driven by many truths:
- Success is often made or lost in the checkout queue.
- When customers are waiting in line, occupied time feels shorter than unoccupied time.
- Checkout lines often fail to contribute to sales per square foot.
- Impulse sales account for nearly 65% of retail purchases.
Retailers have discovered that in-queue merchandising can generate higher profits and greater customer satisfaction by turning wasted space into a virtual profit center that facilitates impulse sales and occupies customers’ time in line. So the question for many retailers is not if to pursue in-queue merchandising; it’s how to plan and select the appropriate merchandising displays and solutions for their unique environment.
Considerations for Planning Your In-Line Merchandising Approach
Here are 6 key considerations for designing a queue with regards to merchandising displays:
1. Consider Your Space:
The amount of space allocated to a checkout line is very important for customer flow and comfort. You don’t want to crowd, and you don’t want the line to appear too long. Spacing becomes even more important when it comes to merchandising because there needs to be enough room for the displays and the flow of customers.
2. Determine Your Line Configuration:
One queue or multiple, straight or serpentine; how the line is configured is essential. A serpentine line holds more people in a smaller space, makes it appear shorter and faster, and has less impact on service in other areas. And while multiple lines offer more customer flexibility and deters balking, a single line configuration leading to multiple servers yields to the all-important feeling of fairness. The first-come, first serve ideal is maintained, eliminating worry, cutting, jockeying, and the “sweethearting” that can occur with favored cashiers. And despite the perception, a single line almost always moves faster than a multiple-line configuration. (View our infographic on single line queuing to learn more.)
3. Diagram the Queue:
It helps to take the time to design your line, making the most effective use of your space for the flow of customers, as well as ensuring proper placement of in-line merchandise. Shorter lines in slower times should also be accounted for in the design, with stanchions and retractable belts available to redirect traffic (with merchandise still present there too!). 
4. Select Your Product Mix:
Choose interesting, smaller, impulse items, as well as products that are not readily available in other parts of the store. Bright, attractive, useful, and interesting, well-chosen in-queue merchandise can help engage the customer during their time in line while effortlessly propelling sales. 
5. Select the Merchandising Fixtures:
Seamless if executed well, such fixtures as merchandising racks, impulse bowls, tables, and display panels, can all be integrated into the line itself. Attached to stanchions with retractable belts, bracketed to the wall, or dovetailed onto posts, they should be accessible but not crowded. Avoid overdoing it by pinching the customers with product on corners, piling it too high, or overtly filling the line lane.
6. Add Signage:
Even the standard “line starts here” sign helps to appease people and lessen line anxiety. Besides offering instructions, signage can easily be connected to products. Video signage is especially engaging and provocative. How-to videos, promotional blurbs, and straight-out entertainment all lessen the impact of a line and boost sales appreciably.
Implement!
You’re ready to get that line moving toward higher profits and greater satisfaction. Contact the experts at Lavi to request a customized in-queue merchandising consultation today. Our public guidance experts can help guide you through the best solutions available, with solutions and services all aimed at improving your checkout line as well as your bottom line. 
