How to be Creative with your Festive Window Displays

With Christmas fast approaching, retailers across the country are starting to think carefully about their festive window displays, which serve multiple purposes. Not only do they celebrate the festive spirit, they also showcase your wares in the best possible light and they get people talking too: word of mouth is fantastic for businesses looking to differentiate themselves during a busy retail season.

Large stores such as Harrods and Selfridges are renowned for their elaborate Christmas displays – which are so impressive that people visit for that reason alone. Even without that kind of budget, it's still possible to create an effect that wows, that gets people talking and that pulls in the sales. Here are five examples.

Choose your theme carefully

If you're planning a themed display, choose one that fits your range. If you're an outdoor clothing retailer, for example, a wintry woodland with mannequins may work well - for kitchenware retailers, a festive baking scene or Christmas dinner table could impress.

Think about your focus

Which specific products are you looking to sell most of over the Christmas period? Think about ways to incorporate these into your window display to draw attention to them. Window displays are a fantastic visual marketing tool that can really help individual products to stand out from the crowd.

Unity, unity, unity

It can be so tempting to go all out at Christmas and throw everything festive you have at a window display. Without a unified approach though, it'll just look messy and disorganised. Choose a common thread and run with it: think giant baubles or a Christmas tree as the centrepiece - more isn't always merrier.

Design with your space in mind

Before you even start to plan your festive window display, start by taking stock of the space you have to work with. An effective display will be constrained by the dimensions of your windows and by the amount of space you want the display to take up inside your store. In a large space, tiny decorations will be lost - similarly, in a small space, huge decorations could overpower the whole display. You want to create a scene that fills the space but without overdoing it.

Go technological?

In 2013, Norwich men's clothes store Jonathan Trumbull used an LED screen with a snowy background able to snap photos of customers, which could then be seen on Facebook. The Selfridges "Journey to the Stars" display in 2015 allowed shoppers to control LED constellations with their smartphone. Interactivity can lend a whole new dimension to festive window displays. If you have the inclination, the creativity and the budget to do so, you'll get plenty of word of mouth and most likely, a great deal of PR too.

Thinking about a brand-new approach to your Christmas window display this year? KAS Shopfittings specialises in a wide and varied range of shop fittings that come complete with friendly, family service and efficient delivery.