You may spend a great amount of time designing your display tables and windows, and the way these areas look are crucial to the overall effect of your visual merchandising. Store fixtures such as baskets, totes and other props get overlooked sometimes, but they can have an enormous benefit to your store's appearance.
Bags, buckets and baskets are a great way to group items together to increase sales. Even if you don't sell the items together as a package deal, a customer might be more inclined to buy a soap, lotion and towel together if they are arranged in a bath tote. The same can be said for food items, kitchen supplies, makeup and other merchandise. When these items are attractively displayed in a basket or other container, the customer might want to wrap it up and give it as a gift, too.
Using baskets or other props to group your merchandise also gives shoppers ideas for use. A shopper might not have thought to use a certain jam with a muffin mix, for instance. Seeing them together in a basket helps them make that connection, and may encourage them to buy both products.
Arranging your merchandise in topical store fixtures can also help a shopper envision themselves using it. Try packing flip-flops in a wicker basket to conjure an image of wearing the sandals to the beach, or group bracelets together on a bracelet bar to show how several may hang together on the wrist.
