Display Analytics
I’ve enjoyed the displays submitted for this month’s contest. (You have until midnight tonight to submit one for the July contest.) One tool that can help determine the effectiveness of your different displays is to run some analytics. But you’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way. With a notebook and POS reports.
Pull sales data for ISBNs on display for time periods that include before, during and after those titles were on display. If you notice that Book A sold well for a while and then suddenly stopped, look to see why. Was it moved? Did you sell out?
You can also perform a test on display locations. Try placing Book B on a table display, then after a set amount of time, move it to a window display. Next try it by the cash register. Try it shelved vs. faceout. What happens when you make it Book of the Week? Or put a “Staff Favorite” bookmark in it?
Running a test like this will not take much time and will require only a little bit of organization. Simply make notes on dates/locations of a title, and then run reports for those dates. This type of “analytics” study can really help identify display strengths and weaknesses.
