Posted in Retail Trends
It struck us that backpacks are getting smaller and more attractive. OK, you got us, it’s been a little while since we were in school. We schlepped thick, heavy books in 5 feet of snow, uphill both ways… not like the kids these days with their lightweight iPads, but we digress. PS – Get off our lawn 🙂
The best news about new, attractive backpacks is that you don’t have to be embarrassed to merchandise them. Dare we say it, they are attractive accessories that should be shown! So we wanted to share some ideas for merchandising backpacks like the accessory that they are.
Idea #1 – Use a Form or Mannequin
If you were in theater, you might have heard that you are never supposed to turn your back to the stage. Well, forget that. We want you to turn you form or mannequin around to the ‘wrong’ side to show off your backpack.
If using a hanging form – pop the collar. First of all, it’s cool. Secondly, it hides the screws in the back. Then, add something fun to your backpack. We liked these sunglasses with a slight color pop on the edges to coordinate. We used a matte black costumer, hanging bust form, matte black poster holder, and our Back to School poster to finish the job. It would be fun to do an entire window this way with costumers at different heights to show off all of your cool backpacks.
Mannequins are a favorite of ours for a lot of reasons, but mainly because they are your silent salesperson. Have you ever noticed that whatever is displayed on a mannequin sells out? There’s a reason for that! Make sure you mannequin is all decked out – from head to toe. Leave no accessory behind! We also merchandised the mannequin with the backpack full of fun back to school stuff. Total cost? $1.50, but getting back to school into people’s minds is worth much more, about $600 – $700 per K-12 student this year. Here’s some stats!
Idea #2: Use Your Hangrail!
You can also merchandise a backpack inline with coordinating merchandise. Here, we’ve used 1 S hook to save space. You can also use two S hooks to create a feature backpack that faces out for more attention!
We hope that you will proudly show off your backpacks this season. We’d love to hear about your merchandising tips and tricks for book bags, even if they aren’t really for books anymore!