Looking for ideas to spice up your mannequins this holiday season? Good for you! Many retail stores simply put a Santa hat on their mannequin and say they’re done. Preparing your displays for the holidays should be a fun and creatively satisfying experience. Your efforts are most beneficial if you actually create scenes that evoke holiday feelings of wanting to give into your customers.
Here are some ideas that you can use in your retail storefronts. Use them as a guide or just for inspiration when designing your storefront.
Many parents will buy clothes for their children during the Christmas season. Parents will want to see their children in a certain light. If you create a display that makes children look precious, cuddly, excited or happy this holiday season, it will surely touch the hearts of parents.
Use child mannequins to create Christmas morning scenes. Lighting is important here because harsh lighting and fluorescent lights can detract from the feeling you’re trying to communicate. You can even make your window display box dimly lit with lamps, electric candles, or Christmas lights. This is the time of year when you can really increase your sales, so go all out on your screens. You can build a ladder that goes down with the children looking through the bars. They might see Santa playing with the puppy he’s dropping off for them. Another idea is to communicate a child’s excitement when he opens a gift. Or, you can show a child sleeping peacefully by the fire.
Here are some ideas for older children. Teenagers are really like young adults and often buy each other gifts. So you don’t really have to target parents to have an effective teen showcase, but you do want to keep parents in mind. Teenagers love accessories, so use lots of your accessories like bags, hats, and jewelry when setting up your mannequins.
An idea involving teenagers might be something like a female mannequin opening her locker to discover a small wrapped gift from a secret admirer. You may have a group of male mannequins hanging around, seemingly disinterested, but one guy is secretly eyeing her. You can also set up a “best friends” scene. You can use a dress mannequin or two to show two friends giggling and whispering. Behind them, you can place a shy-looking female mannequin and a male mannequin passing her a gift.
Whenever an idea occurs to you, ask yourself if it communicates a feeling on purpose. Is this a sentiment that your target audience is looking to find when they shop at your store? If so, your mannequins can make a world of difference to your sales this holiday season.