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Trying to come up with new retail window display ideas? Wondering why your existing retail window display fixtures may not be converting? It could be that you are making one of any number of common blunders. Below I will go over some of the most common retail display window mistakes. Check out Part 1 for even more!

• Not defining a key product or highlight in your display. In Part 1 of this series, I talked about avoiding clutter in your displays. But it is not enough to simply avoid clutter; you also need to bring order to the products you do choose to display in your windows. That means choosing an artful, coherent arrangement with one or a few key highlights. The other items should complement the key items in a logical way.

• Not making sure the window itself is clean. Nothing is more pointless than crafting a beautiful window display behind an ugly window. Before you start putting up a new window display, check how the window itself looks from inside and outside. If it is dirty or scuffed up, get it clean first! Only after it is pristine should you start building your display. A dirty window just gives a terrible impression.

• Ignoring lighting. You could set up a wonderful product display in your window and have it go utterly unnoticed if you are not lighting it properly. This is a really pervasive mistake. You cannot count on the lighting from the street or your store to highlight your window display. You need to install lights in the window itself to illuminate the entire display. You should also consider spot lighting which will highlight key products and features in the display. It isn’t just about creating visibility; the right lighting can lend a sense of order and atmosphere. Lighting alone can make or break a display!

• Not having a schedule. As I mentioned in Part 1 of this series, you cannot just “set and forget” with a retail display window. You have to be willing to change up the display on an ongoing basis. But saying that is one thing; committing to it is much harder. For many store owners, the key to committing to changing up retail window design ideas is to choose some kind of schedule for rotation. Decide you are going to switch up the display once a month or once a season. Whatever schedule you come up with, stick to it religiously unless a particular window is performing really strongly and it makes sense to leave it up longer.

Having read both parts of my series on retail window display mistakes, you now know a number of design pitfalls to avoid. Artistic and effective window displays are challenging to create, which is why it is a full-time job for some merchandisers. Whether you hire someone to take care of your displays full-time or you hand the duty over to other members of your sales and merchandising teams, avoiding these mistakes is the first step to creating beautiful displays that draw in pedestrian traffic!