March 28, 2024

Window display and visual merchandising workshop

Two years ago, Osceola Chamber Main Street (OCMS) was awarded a grant from Main Street Iowa to help with retail technical assistance.

The grant was offered to all Main Street Iowa communities to help with visual merchandising and window displays in the downtown Main Street District.

Competitive applications were accepted from all 51 Iowa Main Street communities and Osceola was one of 14 selected for the honor. The grant consisted of two parts: One was a community workshop that focused on the basics of window displays; and two was visits to four stores in the community that had signed up to take part in the consultant visit.

In May 2015, OCMS was awarded the same grant from Main Street Iowa again.

On Thursday, May 14, the community workshop was held at the OCMS office and focused on the basics of window displays.

Anna Woodward, the grant consultant, discussed the different aspects of lighting, product placement, balance and much more in the hour-long workshop, including pictures of the last time she visited the community. In 2013, Shoes & Shirts and Robinsons were done as installation examples. While a limited number of businesses were represented at the workshop, everyone walked away with ideas.

Friday, May 15, found some volunteers for some hands-on help with window display consulting and implementation. Darlene’s Delights, in her new location at 113 E. Washington St., Mattress Wholesale Center at 117 S. Main St., and Long Term Medical Supply at 144 W. Jefferson St., were the businesses that opted to be part of the installation process.

“It was incredibly clever the way Anna could look at what I offered in my store and get all of these ideas to help bring people into the building,” said Darlene Oliver, owner of Darlene’s Delights.

Since Darlene’s Delights has ice cream treats, the window display revolved around fake ice cream cones of different colors hanging in the windows to attract attention.

“Snack and food items can serve as major traffic drivers for stores,” Woodward said. “You only have 11 seconds to grab someone’s attention from a window display, so you want to make sure it’s something that will attract them into the store.”

Derek Lumsden, OCMS executive director, said the window displays were already causing people to talk and hopefully would inspire more changes in businesses.

“There is no better way to encourage people to shop in your business than to have a great way to draw them in. This grant helped several business owners again this year to get ideas on how to do exactly that,” he said.

OCMS hopes that more businesses will see the effect and want to have help from the Osceola Chamber Main Street to help revitalize their displays.

“We are here to help the community prosper and we want businesses to come to us with questions on how we can help,” Lumsden said.