In the competitive landscape of building product showrooms and independent firearms dealerships, retail displays are one of the most powerful tools for claiming market share. Put simply, a high-impact retail display captures attention, engages consumers, and educates them to drive sales. The importance of enhancing the brand's image can't be overstated either.
At PFI Displays, we've spent over 50 years designing retail displays that command the spaces they occupy. We've gathered the seven most essential features your retail display needs to earn its keep on the showroom floor.
Before you think about colors or logos, identify the hurdle your display needs to solve.
Answer the common questions people may have. How can you educate your audience on how your products will benefit them? A successful retail display is a tool that answers the most common questions visitors have, without needing to ask. When you make the sale easier for the dealer, you secure your spot on their floor.
When Kimber launched the PepperBlaster II, they faced introducing a radically different product design with a higher price point into the market, meaning the display had to solve the education hurdle. By capturing attention and letting consumers get hands-on with an integrated "demo unit," customers experienced the product benefits firsthand. This solution led to a 400% sales increase. Talk about effective!
High impact requires a dedicated territory. The goal of a professional display program is to claim permanent real estate on the showroom floor. By providing a high-quality, hardworking fixture, you discourage dealers from moving your product to a generic shelf. A dedicated display locks in your brand presence and ensures your footprint remains secure - or even expands - as the dealer’s inventory shifts.
We focus on right-sizing - maximizing impact without blocking the store's line of sight or hogging the aisle. For Hornady, this meant a modular system with a 500 lb. shelf capacity that could scale from a small endcap to a massive gondola run. This modular engineering creates opportunities to expand your footprint within a dealership without requiring a total redesign.
A retail display is the primary vehicle for showing your audience something they haven't seen before. When you use a display to debut innovations and highlight product features, you immediately increase your audience impact and capture the shopper's attention in a crowded environment.
This is how your display can build a powerhouse brand presence. By acting as a silent salesperson for your offerings, the display moves the brand beyond a basic presence and establishes you as a market leader. When you provide a destination that educates and better presents your products' features, you ensure your brand is the one they remember long after they leave the store.
Many displays incorporate a video monitor to share more content in-store, but these monitors are often left turned off. If video is important to your strategy, you need a digital signage solution that allows you to manage and update the content remotely. This gives the store a strong reason to leave the monitor on.
While remote management is key, the most impactful tech integrations move beyond simple looping video.
Our Interactive Glass Display for Therma-Tru is a perfect example, using technology to tell the product story in a real-life application. Click the image for a brief video walk-through of how this display effectively drove sales nationwide.
In the firearms and industry trades, the countertop and the inside of the glass showcase are prime real estate. Dealers are protective of these spots. To win them, provide a functional tool - like a product riser or a demo unit - that helps their staff explain your product’s benefits. A display that helps a dealer sell is a display that stays on the counter.
Establishing a professional, corporate image is critical for building trust with high-end contractors. Your display is the physical embodiment of your brand’s precision and the realities of your product's performance.
When Fabral made a big marketing pitch, they knew they needed a display that would stand out in a big way. Most of the competition in the market utilizes simple, "me-too" stock displays to show their product samples. We created an eye-catching display with interesting angles, lots of graphics, and other features to build their brand presence, stand out, and sell product.
You can have the best design in the world, but if it shows up at the dealer with a cracked base or a dented header, your investment is wasted. Since we manufacture, we control the build and the packing. Our team designs all displays to survive the hustle and bustle of UPS/FedEx and arrive ready to use.
Larger displays that ship to the field on pallets also need the right protection. Spacers, foam inserts, and an organized pack out eliminate lost hardware, scratched graphics, and other damages.
A retail display program for showrooms and trade dealers is a strategic investment in your top-line growth. It requires a partner who understands the realities of the dealer floor and the precision of domestic manufacturing. At PFI Displays, we move projects from the first sketch to the factory floor, ensuring every unit we ship is a hard-working asset that drives ROI for your brand.
Define your next brand experience. Together, we can build the turnkey retail display of your dreams!