What’s the first thing that catches your eye when you enter a store? More often than not, you’ll gravitate toward a well-lit, colorful, or uniquely shaped product showcase. These moments are no accident; they are the result of carefully planned retail display solutions. For a business, these fixtures are about more than just aesthetics—they are about engaging shoppers and guiding them toward a sale. A custom point-of-purchase display is designed to do exactly that. It showcases your product in the best possible light, communicates your marketing message, and creates an experience that helps your brand stand out from the competition.
Why Invest in a Custom Point-of-Purchase Display?
Standing out among a crowd is important on all levels, including products in a store. A successful strategy to do this is investing in custom designed point-of-purchase displays or custom retail fixtures. These point-of-purchase display fixtures can be entirely different from the traditional ones shop owners use.
For example, if you sell a particular product like vehicle fuel or golf club handles, you’ll need something custom to showcase these. Traditional retail fixtures won’t do the trick. Custom point-of-purchase merchandising can also help your marketing message that resonates with customers. Anything to improve a customer’s overall experience is a win in the business owner world.
Related Article: The Importance of POP Displays in Retail
POP vs. POS: Understanding the Key Differences
You’ve likely heard the terms 'Point of Purchase' and 'Point of Sale' used in retail conversations, and it’s easy to see why they’re often confused. While they sound similar, they refer to two distinct and equally important stages of the customer journey. Getting them right is fundamental to a successful retail strategy. Think of it as the difference between convincing someone to buy a product and actually processing their payment for it. One is about influence and attraction, while the other is about efficiency and transaction. A breakdown of these concepts helps clarify where you should focus your efforts, whether on merchandising or on checkout technology.
Point of Purchase (POP) is all about the environment where a customer engages with products and makes a buying decision. This is where strategic merchandising, compelling signage, and well-designed displays do the heavy lifting. It’s the 'shopping' part of the experience. On the other hand, the Point of Sale (POS) is the specific location where the financial transaction is completed—the checkout counter. While our focus at S-CUBE is on perfecting the Point of Purchase experience with custom fixtures, understanding both is key to creating a store that not only looks great but also functions flawlessly.
Point of Purchase (POP): Influencing the Buying Decision
Point of Purchase is the moment of truth in retail—it’s where customers are actively considering products and making the choice to buy. This isn't just one spot; it can be anywhere in your store where a product is displayed, from an aisle endcap to a special promotional area. The entire goal of POP is to catch the shopper's eye and influence their decision. As experts at Packaging Tech note, "Good POP displays can really help people decide to buy something." This is where custom fixtures and displays become your most powerful sales tools. They tell your brand’s story, highlight product features, and create an engaging experience that encourages a purchase long before the customer ever reaches the checkout line.
Point of Sale (POS): Completing the Transaction
Once a customer has made their decision, they head to the Point of Sale (POS). This is the specific location where they finalize their purchase and pay for their items. Traditionally, this has been the checkout counter with a cash register, but it’s evolved significantly. As Razorpay explains, "POS (Point of Sale) is where customers actually pay for their items and complete the purchase." Modern POS systems are much more than simple cash drawers; they are sophisticated hubs that can track sales data, manage inventory levels, and even run customer loyalty programs. The POS is less about persuasion and more about providing a smooth, secure, and efficient end to the shopping experience.
A Note on Point of Sale (POS) System Costs
While S-CUBE focuses on the POP displays that drive sales, we know that budgeting for the entire retail environment is critical. That includes the Point of Sale system, which represents a significant technology investment for any business. The total cost of a POS system is made up of several components, including the hardware (like terminals and scanners), software subscriptions, payment processing fees, and potential setup costs. According to an analysis by Wix, a complete set of POS hardware can range from $750 to $1,700. Factoring in all the associated fees is essential for accurately planning your store's operational budget.
Does Your POP Display Reflect Your Brand?
One of the first things you want to do when conversing about custom point-of-purchase fixtures is to know and understand your brand identity. Brand identity is visually what represents your products through your core values. Getting a custom point-of-purchase display to catch a customer’s attention is easy, but aligning it with your brand identity is where it can shine. Communicate with your fixture vendor, like S-Cube Fixtures, and tell them your specific fonts, logos, and color scheme so they can mimic it in the store fixtures custom made for point of purchase you order. This way, your display will represent your brand and make it stand out against competitors, creating a memorable shopping
How POP Displays Change the Way People Shop
Most people don’t know that the retail environment around us influences our shopping behavior. As soon as a customer walks through the door, they instantly look at marketing messages to drive buying decisions. Once you understand this as a retail store owner or product manager, you can use custom point of purchase merchandising to play a huge role in customer decision-making. Where should your point-of-purchase display fixtures be located? What type of products do you want to show most effectively? These are questions you’ll need to consider with shopping behavior in mind. Then, you’ll be able to remain competitive and improve your sales across the board.
Related Article: Unleash the Power of Custom Displays for Your Business
Common Types and Materials for POP Displays
Once you’ve decided to invest in a custom POP display, the next step is figuring out exactly what you need. The options can seem endless, but they generally fall into a few key categories based on their form and the materials used to build them. The best choice for your business depends entirely on your product, your brand’s aesthetic, and your budget. A high-end cosmetic line will require a different solution than a seasonal snack promotion. Understanding the most common types and materials will help you have a more productive conversation with your fixture partner and ensure the final product perfectly matches your vision and goals.
Exploring Different Types of Displays
The physical shape and placement of your display are critical to its success. Are you trying to grab attention in a wide, busy aisle, or are you hoping to feature a small, high-value item on a checkout counter? Each location and objective has a display type that’s best suited for the job. From large, freestanding units that can hold a lot of inventory to small, subtle holders for informational pamphlets, the form of your display directly supports its function. Let's break down some of the most common options you’ll encounter in a retail environment.
Display Boxes and Risers
Display boxes and risers are the unsung heroes of countertop and shelf merchandising. These fixtures are designed to give smaller products a literal lift, elevating them above the surrounding clutter to capture a shopper's attention. Think of acrylic risers creating a tiered showcase for jewelry or custom-printed boxes holding individual cosmetic items near the register. They are perfect for organizing small merchandise, creating visual interest, and making products easier to see and grab. Because they are compact, they are an excellent way to secure a dedicated space for your brand in a crowded retail setting.
Pallet Displays
When you need to make a big impact and move a high volume of product, pallet displays are an incredibly effective tool. These are large, freestanding displays, often found in main aisles or on endcaps, that are designed to hold a full pallet's worth of inventory. They are ideal for seasonal promotions, new product launches, or sale items because their size makes them impossible to miss. Often built from printed cardboard, they act as a large-scale advertisement that draws customers in from across the store, making them a powerful driver of impulse buys and bulk purchases.
Brochure Holders
Not all POP displays are designed to sell a physical product directly. Sometimes, the goal is to provide information that drives a future sale or builds brand awareness. Brochure holders are simple but essential fixtures for distributing pamphlets, flyers, and other literature. You’ll often see them in service-based businesses like banks or travel agencies, but they are also useful in retail for providing details on complex products like electronics or offering sign-ups for loyalty programs. They keep your marketing materials neat, organized, and easily accessible to interested customers.
Choosing the Right Materials
The material you choose for your POP display does more than just hold it together; it communicates a message about your brand. A heavy, dark wood display sends a very different signal than a bright, colorful cardboard one. The right material choice is a crucial part of the design and engineering process, influencing not only the display's look and feel but also its durability, cost, and suitability for different retail environments. Aligning the material with your brand identity and campaign goals is key to creating a cohesive and effective merchandising strategy.
Wood, Metal, and Acrylic
For a display that feels permanent and premium, materials like wood, metal, and acrylic are top choices. Wood can create a warm, rustic, or high-end feel, making it perfect for artisanal goods or luxury brands. Metal offers unmatched durability and a sleek, modern aesthetic that works well for electronics or industrial-style products. Acrylic, also known as plexiglass, is prized for its clarity and clean lines, allowing the product to be the star of the show. These materials are ideal for long-term fixtures that become a staple of a store's layout, reflecting a commitment to quality and style.
Plastic and Cardboard
When you need a versatile, lightweight, or more budget-friendly solution, plastic and cardboard are excellent options. Plastic is incredibly adaptable and can be molded into virtually any shape, making it perfect for creating unique, custom-designed displays. Cardboard is the go-to for temporary or seasonal campaigns, as it's cost-effective and can be brilliantly printed with eye-catching graphics. Many businesses also appreciate that cardboard is often made from recycled materials and is fully recyclable, offering a more sustainable choice for short-term promotions without sacrificing visual impact.
Make Your Custom Point-of-Purchase Display Stand Out
We’ve discussed shopping behavior and brand identity, but what attracts customers to your custom displays? The right point-of-purchase displays capture the attention with eye-catching signage, interactive displays, loud fonts, and colors. Your goal is to make the environment around your products and fixtures memorable for consumers. When you’ve achieved this, customers will keep coming back repeatedly.
Keep the Design Simple and Focused
When it comes to POP displays, clarity is king. A display that’s overloaded with text, colors, and images can overwhelm shoppers and dilute your message. Instead, adopt a "less is more" approach. A clean, simple design allows your product to be the star of the show. Focus on communicating one or two key benefits using clear, concise language and high-quality visuals. This directness helps customers quickly understand why they should care about your product, making their decision to buy that much easier. A focused design cuts through the noise of a busy retail floor and draws the eye right where you want it.
Working with an experienced design partner can make all the difference in achieving this focus. The team at S-CUBE excels at designing and engineering custom fixtures that are both beautiful and effective. We help you distill your brand’s core message into a powerful visual statement. By strategically using negative space and a clear visual hierarchy, we ensure your display highlights your product's best features without unnecessary distractions. The result is a sophisticated and compelling presentation that guides the customer’s attention and encourages a purchase.
Use Good Lighting
Never underestimate the power of good lighting. The right illumination can completely transform a standard display into a must-see attraction. Strategic lighting draws the eye, makes colors pop, and creates a premium atmosphere around your products. Think about how you can use light to your advantage. Spotlights can highlight a hero product, backlighting can create a dramatic silhouette, and integrated LED strips can add a modern, high-tech feel. As one expert notes, "Well-lit displays catch the eye more," making them an essential tool for standing out in a crowded store.
Incorporating lighting is a key part of the custom fixture design process. Whether you want a warm, inviting glow or a bright, energetic vibe, the right lighting helps set the mood and reinforce your brand identity. At S-CUBE, we can integrate a variety of lighting solutions directly into your custom POP displays. We handle the technical details to ensure the lighting is not only effective and attractive but also safe and durable for the retail environment, ensuring your products are always seen in the best possible light.
Add Interactive Elements
Want to keep shoppers at your display longer? Give them something to do. Adding interactive elements turns passive browsing into an active, engaging experience. This doesn't have to be overly complex; it can be as simple as allowing customers to touch and feel the product. You could also incorporate a small touchscreen with product details, a QR code that links to a how-to video, or even offer product samples. When you let people "play with the display," you make the shopping experience more memorable and fun, which can directly influence their decision to buy.
Creating a display that encourages interaction requires thoughtful engineering. The fixture needs to be sturdy enough to handle customer engagement while keeping any technology or products secure. This is where a partnership with a custom fixture provider is invaluable. We can help you develop displays that seamlessly integrate interactive features, creating a unique experience that captures attention and provides customers with valuable information. By making your display a destination rather than just a shelf, you build a stronger connection with your audience.
Promote Special Offers
Your POP display is prime real estate for advertising promotions and creating a sense of urgency. If you have a sale, a bundle deal, or a limited-time offer, your display is the perfect place to shout about it. Use bold, easy-to-read graphics and action-oriented language like "Limited Time Only" or "Buy One, Get One" to grab attention. Clearly communicating a special offer can be the final nudge a customer needs to make an impulse purchase. It creates a feeling of getting a great deal that’s too good to pass up right now.
A well-designed fixture anticipates the need for promotional messaging. When designing your custom display, consider including elements like interchangeable sign holders or digital screens that make it easy to update your offers. This flexibility allows you to keep your promotions fresh and relevant without needing a whole new display for every campaign. By planning for promotions from the start, you ensure your display can consistently work hard to drive sales and create excitement around your products.
Tell a Story with Your Display
A great POP display does more than just hold products; it tells a story. This is your chance to share what makes your brand special and help shoppers form an emotional connection. Use your display’s design, materials, and graphics to communicate your brand’s values and personality. For instance, a display made from reclaimed wood and earthy colors can tell a story of sustainability, while one with sleek metal and acrylic speaks to innovation and modern design. This narrative helps differentiate your product from the one sitting next to it on a standard shelf.
Translating a brand narrative into a three-dimensional object is what custom fixture design is all about. We work with you to understand your brand’s story and then bring it to life through creative and intentional design choices. By looking through our past work, you can see how we’ve helped other brands create immersive experiences that resonate with their target audience. When your display tells a compelling story, it becomes more than just a point of purchase—it becomes a point of connection.
Putting Your Custom POP Display to Work
The advantages of custom point-of-purchase (POP) merchandising and retail displays are compelling: they capture attention, invoke an emotional response in customers, and often boost sales. But when investing in such a display option, it’s important to understand the right display for you and your product. By following these steps, retailers can reap the rewards of investing in POP merchandising and retail displays. When beginning this process, consider S-CUBE Fixtures a reliable resource for finding cost-effective problem-solving fixture solutions, where customer satisfaction is always a top priority!
Frequently Asked Questions
1.What is a custom point-of-purchase display?
A custom point-of-purchase display is a branded fixture placed near checkout or high-traffic areas to showcase products and drive impulse sales. These displays are tailored to fit your product size, design theme, and marketing goals.
2. How much do custom POP displays cost?
The cost depends on materials, complexity, and quantity. Simple cardboard displays may cost less, while permanent fixtures made of wood or metal are more expensive. Custom POP displays typically offer a strong return on investment by boosting product visibility and sales.
3. How long does it take to create a custom display?
Designing and producing a custom point-of-purchase display usually takes 4 to 8 weeks. This timeline includes initial concept development, prototyping, approvals, and final production.
4. What types of custom POP displays are available?
Common types include countertop displays, floor stands, endcaps, wall-mounted units, and interactive digital displays. Each type serves a different purpose depending on product size, placement, and customer flow.
5. Should I choose a stock or custom POP display?
Stock displays are faster and more affordable but lack brand distinction. Custom POP displays offer full control over design and branding, making your products more memorable and aligned with your store’s identity.
Ensure Your Display is Durable
A retail environment is a high-traffic, high-touch space. Your custom POP display needs to be tough enough to withstand daily interactions with customers and staff without showing wear and tear. A flimsy or damaged display not only fails to do its job but can also reflect poorly on your brand’s quality. Choosing the right materials from the start is essential for longevity. Whether it’s sturdy wood, sleek metal, or durable acrylic, the materials should align with your brand aesthetic and be robust enough for the store floor. A knowledgeable partner can guide you through these choices, ensuring your investment is built to last and continues to look great for the entire duration of your campaign.
Track Performance to Measure Success
Once your display is set up in stores, its job is just beginning. The next critical step is to measure its effectiveness. After all, the goal is to see a return on your investment. You can track performance by analyzing sales data for the featured products before and after the display’s launch. It’s also helpful to observe how shoppers interact with the display and gather direct feedback from store managers and employees on the front lines. This information is invaluable, providing clear insights into what works. You can then use these learnings to refine your approach and make your next retail display program even more successful.
The Custom Design and Manufacturing Process
Bringing a custom point-of-purchase display from a simple idea to a finished product in hundreds of stores is a detailed journey. It’s a collaborative effort that requires clear communication and expert execution every step of the way. Generally, you can expect the entire process to take between four to eight weeks, from the initial concept conversations to the final production run. This timeline covers several key phases, including initial design and engineering, creating and approving a prototype, full-scale manufacturing, and finally, logistics and distribution. Understanding these stages helps set clear expectations and ensures a smooth workflow with your fixture partner, resulting in a display that meets your vision, budget, and deadline.
From Design and Engineering to Prototyping
The first phase is where your vision starts to take shape. It begins with the creative design process, translating your brand identity and marketing goals into a visual concept. But a great design also needs to be functional and stable. That’s where engineering comes in. This step ensures the display can be manufactured efficiently and will safely hold your products in a busy retail setting. Before committing to a full production run, creating a prototype is a crucial checkpoint. It allows you to see and touch a physical sample of the display, confirming that every detail is perfect and making any necessary adjustments. This design, engineering, and prototyping phase prevents costly errors and guarantees the final product is exactly what you envisioned.
Working with a Partner on Design Proofs
Getting a design proof or a physical prototype is one of the most important moments in the custom fixture process. It’s your opportunity to see exactly how the display will look and function before you give the green light for mass production. A reliable partner will provide detailed proofs so you can verify colors, dimensions, branding, and overall construction. This step is all about alignment and quality assurance. It gives you the confidence that the final units delivered to your stores will be consistent and match the approved design, eliminating any unwelcome surprises down the line.
Finding a Reliable Manufacturing Partner
Your display’s design might be brilliant, but its success ultimately depends on the quality of its production. That’s why selecting a reliable manufacturing partner is so important, especially for regional or national rollouts. You need a partner with the experience and infrastructure to handle your project’s scale. Look for a company that specializes in custom solutions tailored to your specific needs, rather than offering generic, one-size-fits-all options. An experienced partner will have established processes for managing complex projects and can often leverage both domestic and international manufacturing capabilities to deliver high-quality fixtures cost-effectively and on schedule, ensuring a seamless launch across all your locations.
The Importance of Quality Control and On-Time Delivery
For any retail campaign, timing is everything. A display that arrives late is a missed opportunity for sales. Likewise, receiving fixtures with inconsistent quality across different stores can dilute your brand image. This is why rigorous quality control and dependable logistics are non-negotiable. A great partner will have a complete quality control system in place to inspect fixtures at every stage of production, guaranteeing every unit meets your standards. They will also manage the complex logistics of shipping to dozens or hundreds of stores, ensuring every display arrives safely and on time for your big launch.
Key Takeaways
- Master the Moment of Decision: A Point of Purchase (POP) display is your tool for persuasion, designed to influence shoppers long before they reach the checkout counter. Differentiating this from the Point of Sale (POS), the transactional endpoint, is key to creating a powerful in-store strategy.
- Design for Connection, Not Clutter: An effective display uses a simple, focused design and strategic lighting to make your product the hero. Go beyond just showing an item by incorporating interactive elements or a compelling brand story to create a memorable experience that drives sales.
- Execution is Everything: A brilliant design is only effective if it's manufactured well and delivered on time. Choosing a reliable partner who manages the entire process—from prototyping and quality control to logistics—is critical for a successful rollout across all your stores.