Choosing Racks for Floor and Countertop Displays

Whether it’s a convenience store, bookstore, or gift shop, nearly every kind of retail store uses display racks to showcase its merchandise.

As you’re determining the kind of display racks that will work best for your store, keep three things in mind:

1. The merchandise you plan to display.
2. The amount of display space you have to work with.
3. What will be the most convenient for your customers.

1. Consider Your Merchandise

The first thing you should consider as you’re thinking about the kinds of racks to use for your floor and countertop displays is the merchandise you plan to display.

Some items, such as small bags of chips, peanuts, or trail mix, are designed with holes at the top the bags to hang from pegs.  Pegboard floor and countertop racks work well for these kinds of merchandise.

Other kinds of items, such as liters and cases of soda, are heavier and work best with traditional convenience store racks with sturdy shelves.

If you plan to display small items like wrapped candies, children’s toys like bouncy balls, or craft items like beads, containers of glitter, or spools of lace, display racks with buckets might work best. Like many display racks, bucket racks are available for both floor and countertop displays and designed to hold as few as four buckets or as many as thirty buckets.

2.  Consider Your Display Space

Considering your display space will help you determine whether you need to use fixed position or revolving displays, and whether those displays would work best on the floor or on your countertop.

No matter what kind of rack you want to use, chances are you can find it in a model that will work best with the space you have to work with. Most racks for displays are designed with two versions in mind: One that will work well for countertop displays and one that will work well for floor displays.

For example, you can find both fixed position bucket racks and bucket racks that rotate. The same is true for traditional convenience store racks, wire display racks,  and pegboard racks.

3.  Consider Your Customers’ Convenience

In the end, no matter how attractive your display is and no matter how well it works with the flow and space of your store, if it’s inconvenient for customers, it’s a failure.

Follow these tips to make sure you showcase your items in a way that’s as convenient for customers as possible:

• If you’re using fixed position racks, make sure the side that doesn’t hold any merchandise is facing away from the customers. For countertop racks, this means the empty side should face your side of the counter. For floor racks, this means situating the empty side against or close to a wall or another stationary display.
• If you’re using rotating racks, make sure the racks are situated far enough away from other displays that customers can easily spin the racks without the merchandise getting caught on other items.
• Regardless of what kind of rack you use, make sure it’s never situated in a place that blocks a customer’s path.