What is a Visual Merchandiser?
To put it simply, Visual Merchandisers design and create consumer environments and visually enhance retail spaces for the purpose of increasing sales. Visual Merchandising is an art which is used for commercial purposes. At Red Jelly, we are trained, experienced and all about helping your retail business achieve visual excellence.
Visual merchandisers are professionals who are experts in the process of creating and staging displays in retail stores, conventions, fashion shows and other public events. Along with physical locations, the visual merchandiser of today is often called in to envision and implement online displays for retailers and others who wish to sell some type of merchandise. One time-honored type of visual merchandiser is the window dresser. Since the inception of the department store during the 19th century, creative people with a flair for visual display would be called upon to create displays including merchandise offered in the store. Often, the window display would be a means of advertising seasonal items as well as goods that were of long term interest to consumers. Today, smaller retail chains sometimes retain the services of a visual merchandiser who develop a concept for a window display that can be easily set in place in all the front windows of stores associated with the chain. The reta
By: Mari Davis Photos below: Store window in Dallas Photo by Tom Massey DALLAS, Mar 2, 1999/ FW/ — The term Visual Merchandiser did not become popular until 1970. From the late 1800s up to the 1920s, visual merchandisers were called window trimmers. During that time, window trimmers are almost always male and their job was to decorate store windows to show off the merchandise. By the late 1920s, the window trimmers were called display men, as a counterpart to the suave term ad men for the advertising industry. The term being gender specific was not an accident. Although women could already vote that time, the 1920s up to the 1930s still follow and believe the post-Victorian association of men with production and women with consumption. The term Visual Merchandiser was coined during the 1940s, but it did not come into general usage until the 1970s. During that 30 year period, the industry was still male dominated. Women were discouraged from entering the profession because of: • the p
