How to Display Jeans in a Retail Store

If you visit a typical department store, jeans will most likely be hung on pants hangers or folded on shelves. If you're lucky, maybe a pair would be modeled on a mannequin here and there, and that would be the extent of it. However, if you want people to notice the jeans you're selling in your shop, it pays to think beyond the boring, basic department store displays. If you're trying to stand apart from the competition, you need to come up with a jeans display style that instantly distinguishes your store from the rest.

When it comes to merchandise available for purchase, your two main options are folding jeans and displaying them on tables or shelves or hanging them on display racks. Both of these choices provide shoppers with a good opportunity to easily sort through the merchandise in order to find what they want to buy or try on.

You want to make sure that these items aren't just easy for the customers to handle; they should be displayed simply enough for your associates to put back since you don't want to waste too much of your clerks' time with putting away clothes that people tried on but didn't buy, no matter how cool it looks when your pants are displayed that way.

There are more ways to display folded jeans than a simple rectangle on a shelf or table, just as there are more ways to hang up jeans than just clipping them on each side of the waist with a pants hanger. When it comes to folding, you can choose to fold and stack them in a rectangular pile on a typical retail shelf or table, but you can also fold them in half and leave them dangling off the edge of a table so people can see the entire length of the pants before picking through them to find their size.

Folded clothes don't always need to be laid flat. You can instead fold them in half, roll the jeans into a spiral and then put the spirals into rounded cubbies. This can make a particularly interesting visual display if you create a gradient with the different colors of denim.

Also, put some thought into what you stack the clothes on for display. Even rectangular, folded denim can look amazing on a rusted metal table with chains for legs or matte black floating shelves on a brick wall.

Similarly, if you're hanging pants, don't settle for cheap, white plastic hangers like the ones you'd expect to see at a budget department store. Using high-quality hangers in unique colors or using wood or bronze hangers will instantly help set your store apart from the generic competition. Just like buying different-looking tables and shelves can up your folding game, you can also consider getting some different-looking racks. If your store is industrial, consider buying racks made from black metal plumbing pipes, and if it's more rustic, you may want to look for wooden hang bars and perhaps some that are suspended by ropes rather than metal clamps.

You don't have to hang pants with two clips on the waist. Try different methods, like hanging them on the side of one leg next to the waistband. This will make your jeans hang just off kilter enough that the waistband faces the customer, which makes it much easier to see the size and style numbers on the rack.

When it comes to whether it's better to hang or fold jeans, it's largely a matter of personal opinion and the layout of your space, but it is worth keeping in mind that hanging will not leave creases in the pants, whereas folding may do so. Since this could make a difference in whether or not you sell your pants, you may want to stick with hanging.

You don't have to use hangers at all; you can also try using hooks. Denim hooks are S-shaped hooks that can loop over a typical rack on one side and through a belt loop on the other end. Some stores that sell high-price items in low quantities even display merchandise on hooks attached to the wall, which also gives you a lot of choices when it comes to different wall hook styles, which range from puppy dog tails to water spigots.

Hooks can also be quite useful for putting together more visual displays to show off your products. You can use hooks to maximize your display space, letting you easily hang pants from stair railings and even the ceiling. You can get really creative with hooks attached to ropes or even bungee cords to leave your clothes suspended from the ceiling or walls.

If the biggest difference in your jeans style lays in the width of the leg opening, then consider displaying your jeans upside down. It's a good way to show off how wide your leg openings are as well as any special washes, patterns or distressing at the ankles. It's also sure to get attention because practically no one else displays jeans this way.

In order for this to work, you'll need to hang mannequin legs upside down above the racks or shelves where each style is being sold or carefully place labels beside each set of legs so customers know which style is which.

Obviously, you won't want to display merchandise upside down on hangers because this will make it far more difficult for shoppers to find the right size, and you'll likely find yourself losing sales.

A window display is the highlight of a retail store display because it convinces people to enter your store, so it should be creative and inviting and should capture your brand aesthetic all at once. The best retail display will vary drastically from one shop to the next based on the image the company wants to present. This means you'll need to consider your specific branding before you decide if you should use funky and stylish mannequins, traditional mannequins or live models or if you want to display the jeans without any humanoid shapes at all. Similarly, if you only sell denim, it might make sense to make an artsy background or setting using only shredded-up denim fabric.

If you're looking for ideas for the perfect window display, you should look for examples of unique displays online. If you want to see some one-of-a-kind jeans displays to help spark your imagination for showing off your denim in a way that few have done before, then consider doing a search on Pinterest for "jeans display photos". You may find yourself blown away by some of the artsy and imaginative ways that different stores have put their denim on display.

One thing you'll probably notice is that the best displays, whether window displays or sales racks, aren't one dimensional. They use denim of different colors and display them at different heights and distances from where the customer stands, making them look dynamic and visually arresting. At the same time, don't try to squeeze too much into your displays, as this can provide too much visual noise, resulting in an overly busy display that doesn't do a good job of promoting anything in particular. Keep these rules in mind whenever you create a display, and you'll have the best chance of capturing your customers' attention, imagination and (most importantly) sales.