Clinton Cards had built up a large stock of wire display stands, both in shops and storerooms. These stands were often used for short periods, and Clinton Cards had to buy complete ranges of merchandise, despite some items being very slow sellers. The stands made stores look messy, caused health-and-safety problems, and were expensive to dispose of once the company had finished selling the relevant ranges.

Brief

Clinton Cards asked us to design a freestanding display unit that:

• Could be merchandised with a wide range of different products, including greeting cards, DVDs, CDs, plush toys, mugs, key-rings, balloons and character merchandise;
• Would be very flexible;
• Would be easy to shop;
• Would be able to stand up to a lot of hard wear-and-tear in-store.

Our solution: benefits

• Enables Clinton Cards to have a uniform look across stores;
• Makes it easier for product buyers to plan ranges;
• Enables Clinton Cards to buy in best-sellers, instead of being ‘forced’ to take on complete ranges;
• Saves money, because the supplier needn’t fund the cost of another wire spinner, and Clinton Cards stores don’t have to find ways of discarding unwanted fixtures;

Programme

• 5,000 stands plus merchandising equipment ordered;
• Stands rolled out to 700 stores, nationwide, over five weeks (an average of 28 stores per day);
• Over 10,000 wire stands collected and scrapped.

Two years later

• The stands are still being widely used;
• New merchandising equipment is continually developed to cater for new products;
• The customer is now planning to use our solution in its Birthday chain of stores.