Merchandising - The hard sell

The buying public are not getting thebest deal when it comes to PC instore merchandising. Drew Culleninvestigates how manufacturers are tackling the problem and what the futureholds in the fight for shelf space.

Manufacturers and retailers are groping towards better ways of merchandising PCs and related products. But an awful lot of work needs to be done.

When customers walk into a computer store they may find demo stations displaying error messages, or staff who are unable to supply them with what they need to make informed purchasing decisions. Instead they face a blizzard of packaging arrayed along the shelves.

Standards have improved enormously in the last three or four years but there is still too much brown box marketing in the computer industry. Retailers want products on the shelves which will sell themselves, which means vendors need to make their packaging work harder.

Computer retailers have adopted some broadly similar floor layout strategies. Most arrange their stores by category rather than brand. (Watford Electronics in Luton is a rare exception with