Dive Brief:

• Target’s shift to department store-like merchandise displays is already paying off, the retailer says.

• Mannequins, home displays, and big, graphics-laden signage are allowing customers to better imagine how apparel and home goods will look and feel. Sales of garments featured on mannequins installed at most of Target’s 1,800 stores have increased 30%. 

• CEO Brian Cornell says that home goods displayed in “vignettes” like set tables or room arrangements sell three to four times better than those on shelves.

Dive Insight:

When studies show that the customer experience is integral to shopping in stores, simply creating displays that allow shoppers to see how things look appears to be going far for Target. Taking a page from higher-end department stores, the retailer is no longer leaving things to the imagination, instead bringing displays and, at beauty counters, even consultants that work with customers, who are more likely to consider a purchase if they can see how things look.

It’s a natural advantage for brick-and-mortar stores — but only if that advantage is, well, taken advantage of.

It’s related to “touch and feel,” but also has to do with actual emotional reactions humans have in a physical environment, psychologist Liraz Margalit, PhD, of digital “customer experience” solutions startup Clicktale told Retail Dive earlier this year.

Retailers attempting to create that emotional synergy have a much tougher time, though they can do it with the right web design and analytics. But stores can more easily connect with customers thanks to their physical, three-dimensional spaces.

“It’s not explicit marketing, but an opportunity to connect with our emotional, sensual selves,” Margalit says.