Visual Merchandising
Effective visual merchandising is a powerful marketing tool for your business. It can help attract and engage customers, motivating them to buy from your business.
The busy Christmas sales period is a particularly important time to consider how you can boost your visual merchandising to make your business really stand out.
Below are a list of resources and a checklist outlining some helpful guidelines when planning a magical display this Christmas. There is also the opportunity to enter your business in this year’s Christmas Magic Displays Competition for the chance to win a fantastic prize!
Contents
- Enter the Christmas Magic Displays Competition
- Checklist for your Christmas display
- Tips for preparing your photo
- Useful resources
- Competition media pack
Enter the Christmas Magic Displays Competition 2025
As part of our Buy Local Gift Happy campaign, we are inviting entries from local businesses and charities for our Christmas Magic Displays Competition.
The competition aims to celebrate the festive windows, market stalls and internal displays which help to make our towns and villages a magical place.
Explore our FAQs below, to find out more.
Who can take part?
Businesses and charities in Horsham District with a festive window or display which is visible to visiting customers.
When will voting take place?
A public vote will take place from Friday 5 December to Sunday 14 December 2025, with the winners announced w/c 15 December.
How will winners be determined?
The public will be invited to vote for their favourite displays based on the photo provided by your business / charity, to determine the following awards:
- 3 overall winners including the winning window, internal and charity display.
- 9 town and village winners. In collaboration with Your Horsham, Horsham’s Business Improvement District, there will be 3 awards for winning displays in Horsham town centre as well as 6 across rural towns and villages in Horsham District.
This year a new award for the Most Sustainable Display has been introduced, which will be judged by Kinder Living, a local CIC who support sustainable local businesses. This category will celebrate those who have gone the extra mile to design their display with sustainability in mind.
How will my business / charity benefit?
- Publicity for all participating businesses and charities during December as part of the public prize competition.
- Publicity for overall winners.
- Framed certificates for all winners to showcase their win.
- And more exciting prizes!
How do I enter?
- Fill in our Expression Of Interest form for the Christmas Magic Displays Competition, with your business name, business location, contact details and type of display you intend on entering. The online form will open Monday 29 September and close Friday 7 November.
- We will then contact you via email with simple step-by-step instructions regarding your involvement in the competition.
- Be prepared to take a good photo of your magical display as you will need this as part of the competition. Businesses who have filled in our online form, will be invited to email in a photo in landscape orientation to us from Wednesday 12 November in advance of the public vote in December.
If you have any queries regarding the competition, please email Business.Support@horsham.gov.uk.
Checklist for your Christmas display
Use this checklist when creating your magical window, internal or market stall displays this Christmas.
- Know your target audience and design for them
- Feature the products that make you unique and you can sell in volume before Christmas
- If your products are high value - keep it simple
- Create a story or theme – is it Instagrammable?
- Have a focal point to the display
- Effective lighting is essential, highlight ‘hero’ products
- Turn ‘window shoppers’ into ‘active shoppers’ - incorporate graphics that allow people to buy from you 24/7
- Remember ‘Eye level is buy level’ – use the available height effectively
- Frame empty space if you want people to see through to your interior displays
- For internal and market stall displays, encourage customers to interact with the products
Explore the resources section below for further tips for creating a fantastic display.
Do you have any top tips to share with local businesses? Let us know by emailing Business.Support@horsham.gov.uk for the chance to be featured in our Business Support e-Newsletter with over 2,000 subscribers.
Tips for preparing your photo
Here are some tips for preparing your magical display photo, to enter the competition:
- Lighting: When taking the picture of your display make sure the area is well lit. Be aware of shadows, reflections, or glare if you are taking the image at dusk.
- Background: What is in the background of your display? If there are people in the image, make sure you have permission to take their picture. Clear the area around your display so as not to incorporate packing boxes or signage that will detract from your creation.
- Cleaning: It might sound silly, but to get the best photo it is always best to make sure you give the camera or phone camera lens a wipe before you take the image, as well as your window if it is a window display, to make sure there are no smudges or marks.
- Image size: Take an image in landscape orientation
Useful resources
There is a wealth of information on visual merchandising, available for your business to access. We have done an online search using terms such as 'visual merchandising' and 'creating store displays' to collate examples of some of the resources available to help you create fantastic displays for your business.
Videos
The 5 Commandments of Christmas Windows
Join Chichester College Group and Solent University for this short video exploring the '5 Commandments of Christmas Windows'.
Top Tips for Christmas Displays from John Lewis Partnership Horsham
Join the team at John Lewis Partnership Horsham for this short video where they share their top tips for Christmas displays.
How to make the most of your market stall
Join Brendan from the National Market Traders Federation (NMTF) to learn useful tips, as a market trader, on how you can make the most of your market stall.
The five-part video series covers what to bring, social media for market traders, maximising your stall layout, pricing and signage and taking cashless payments.
Access for free on the West Sussex Business Hub.
Online guides
How to design a shop window display
Read this article from UK POS on how to implement an attractive storefront, regardless of your budget.
The rules of creating effective retail window displays
Read this article from Spur Creative exploring the unwritten rules of window merchandising to create impactful retail window displays.
12 retail window displays that drive sales
Read this article from Shopify which covers the benefits of window displays, how to build one and tips on taking your display to the next level.
11 retail display ideas for boosting product visibility
Read this article from Shopify which explores product and visual merchandising and tips on how to boost your product visibility.
20+ tips and ideas for your retail store window display
Read this article from Fit Small Business where they share their top tips and examples to help you create a retail window display that wows.
Visual merchandising: how to make standout product displays
Read this article from Lightspeed covering visual merchandising, its purpose and key techniques and tips for implementation.
Download our competition media pack
Once you have entered our competition, it's time to get the public voting for you! The public vote opens on Friday 5 December. Use the social media graphics and poster artwork below to help spread the word about your entry.