Change windows frequently and ensure that you give shoppers a reason to come back. That was the advice given by Gary Temprell, retail director at The White Company and Beverley Aspinall, managing director of Fortnum & Mason at the Retail Week Conference.

Temprell admitted that working with a product range that features only variations on white was difficult, but said that changing windows “every three to four weeks” remained the principal way of generating in-store excitement.

He added that The White Company seeks to localise its offer, taking a general theme and then making it applicable to a specific location.

This is done by using an “event table” at the front of the store that is changed very fortnight, he said: “It’s about small tweaks, rather than changing themes totally.”

Aspinall stressed that window themes should be taken across the in-store landscape. She said that in the face of competition from the internet, creating a sense of occasion and excitement for shoppers was “more important today than it has ever been.”

She added: “It’s no longer enough to choose a single colour, put it in the windows and then hope that the shoppers will come.” Both speakers were adamant that visual merchandising was at the heart of maintaining shopper footfall.

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