Display moves

By Kristen Hampshire

Responding to the international Yale community, Pebbles Toys & Gifts’ Store Manager Lauren Coleman built a Language & Learning section combining bilingual games, wooden language blocks and vocabulary bingo. An assortment of plush food characters and tactile elements add whimsy. “We’re still a toy store,” she notes. “Educational toys need to look fun.”

Coleman offers her top three merchandising pointers.

#1Present by adjacency. Group science with books and building toys, or language games with plush and puzzles. “The same customer” should find something in every direction.

#2Build urgency. Limited quantities and curated selections signal that finds are special, not mass-market. Coleman leaves out a couple of each item, no more, for space and sales purposes.

#3Relocate vs. mark down. If something stalls, give it a new home within a different theme or customer zone. Coleman says, “Don’t give up on something if you believe in it. If it inspired something in you, build it out within a display before you give up on the product.”