For many years, Caroline Veronee was a dedicated customer of Great Outdoor Provision Company in Charlotte, NC. A little over three years ago, she volunteered to wrap gifts at the store during the holiday season. Impressed with her work, her manager offered her a full-time job, and soon she discovered a talent for merchandising and a desire to master the craft. Fast-forward to today, and Veronee is now the store’s sportswear manager and lead merchandiser. After visiting Great Outdoor Provision, we asked Veronee to share a few tips for creating appealing and effective product displays. Here are five of her ideas:

1. Create Interest with Eye-Catching Styles and Colors

To create a visually compelling display, Veronee spotlights products with interesting patterns and textures. One of her favorite pieces is Katin’s Harold Stripe Jacket. “It’s not just your basic button-down,” says Veronee, noting it sports an attractive plaid exterior, snap closures, and a fleece lining. To highlight the shirt, Veronee placed a mannequin near the front of the store and outfitted it with the shirt layered over a gray Katin hoodie. The blend of colors, layers and textures creates a figure who looks “warm and cozy, cool and hip,” says Veronee.

She also creates displays featuring a variety of colors to catch the customer’s eye. Veronee primarily uses this technique for products available in a wide range of colors, such as Patagonia’s Women’s Long-Sleeved Capilene Cool Daily Shirt. She hangs a size run of each color on a dowel to create a bright curtain of color. “It’s an eye-catching display,” says Veronee, adding that this technique allows customers to easily and quickly browse the many color choices.

2. Place Products Strategically

“Location, location, location.” That phrase not only applies to real estate values but also to retail displays. The location of a display can determine its value and effectiveness. For example, Great Outdoor Provision set up a mannequin near the front of the store to sell scarves. Veronee placed a female mannequin near the register and outfitted it with black slacks, a sweater, and an Original Warm Flowers scarf. “We put a new scarf on her every day, and every day, that scarf would get sold,” says Veronee. “Let proximity be your friend and put a product where people are standing in line or about to check out. Make the product something easy for people to pick up at the last minute, like a scarf. It could be a gift, or it could be for themselves, and it’s not terribly expensive.”

3. Highlight Brands You Love

Is there a brand that does exceptionally well in your store? Or maybe there’s a company you’re rooting for, and you want to see it succeed. In either case, you can boost the brand by creating a small concept shop that includes only products from that company. “It shows the customer that you really believe in the brand,” says Veronee. When you walk into the Great Outdoor Provision store in Charlotte, you’ll see to the right a concept shop for Vuori, the store’s second most successful brand. The shop-within-a-shop includes brand signage and a variety of displays showcasing a wide range of Vuori apparel. While the Vuori concept shop has effectively boosted a favorite vendor, it also brought new energy to a corner of the store where traffic had waned. A concept shop could provide a spark if you have a dead spot in your store.

4. Tell a Story 

Visual storytelling is a powerful tool for retail merchandising.  Shoppers are more likely to connect with a product if they see how it fits into a bigger picture. That’s why Veronee likes to create themes with some of her displays. With winter approaching, she has placed a collection of products near the front of the store that convey a “coziness” theme. She outfitted a mannequin with a Vuori Highlands Sherpa Jacket, Panache Joelle Pom Hat, a Molly Bracken Long Fluffy Scarf, and furry Sorel Go Coffee Run Slippers. Surrounding the mannequin are cold-weather accessories like Marine Layer Corbet Blankets.

In the past, Veronee has also created a display with the theme “A Weekend in the Mountains.” On a table at the front of the store, she placed a camping stove, Yeti cooler, Gregory backpack, and other gear. Beside the table stood a mannequin outfitted with technical hiking clothes and trekking poles.

5. Create Dimension

A display won’t attract much attention if it has a uniform appearance and occupies one plane of space. “It’s important to create dimension,” says Veronee, explaining that you should use a variety of displays with varying heights and orientations to add visual interest. To display a Patagonia outfit, she began with a rack of Men’s Fjord Loft Shirts layered over T-shirts. To the left of the shirt rack, she placed three levels of shelves, which added horizontal elements to contrast the vertical line of the rack. On the shelves, she displayed more button-down shirts in additional colors and helped complete the outfit with a small run of Twill Traveler Chino Pants. She placed a belt and a Sorel Madison II Chukka Boot on a tall riser to add height to the display and complete the outfit.

The riser, shelves, and rack form a visual triangle, a design element Veronee uses for most product categories. Also known as the “principle of the pyramid,” the triangle catches the shopper’s eye and leads them to examine the three elements individually.

The triangle concept is just one of the design elements Veronee has studied and applied to her merchandising job. She constantly works to expand her knowledge, visiting other stores for inspiration and examining the performance of her displays, tracking which products are moving and which aren’t.

In a short time, she’s come a long way, especially considering her background. “I spent most of my working life in the investment world,” says Veronee, noting that she had no merchandising training before joining Great Outdoor Provision. But she did possess a flair for the job, and she brought to the table something even more important—a passion and desire to observe and learn.