This month, I loved working with the Retail team at The Paddington Store in London’s Paddington Station, to support them with dressing their windows and in store visual merchandising for their new store opening.

I work with many attraction sites and museums to support their teams with the Visual Merchandising within their gift stores and pop up retail areas. As this is a sector which is becoming very popular for Visual Merchandising, I thought I would write some key points in this months blog article upon the importance of applying VM techniques to this sector.

Museum and attraction gift shops are often destination retail spaces, customers visit them not just to shop, but as part of the cultural experience and to be able to take home part of the experience.

These stores rely on seasonal exhibitions and events, so window and in store displays need to quickly adapt and tell fresh, relevant stories to your customer.

Merchandise often has an educational, cultural, or artistic connection, making storytelling through displays and signage a critical part of their sales strategy.
Please click on the the full blog post to find out more….

This month I was excited to be offered a space in the Fashion Cafe at Spring Fair 2025, held at the NEC Birmingham. I was invited to create a Visual Merchandising hub to support visitors and exhibitors with their Visual Merchandising. I enjoyed sharing my Visual Merchandising expertise to support retailers achieve more effective product placement, enhance their instore merchandising and maximise link selling opportunities.  The Visual Merchandising workshops also featured practical tips on mannequin styling and dressing. For this month’s post, I wanted to share with you my top tips on successful mannequin dressing and styling.
Please click on the the full blog post to find out more….

For my first post of 2025, I wanted to start by introducing Rifai’s new Knightsbridge store in London which opened late last year. The iconic Lebanese brand who are renowned for their gourmet roasted nuts, luxurious confectionery and coffee has launched here in the UK !

It was a pleasure to work with Rifai’s retail team to work with them on installing their Windows and Visual Merchandising within their new store.

Please click on the the full blog post to find out more….

I cannot quite believe this is my final blog post for 2024 – how quickly has this year gone by !  I wanted to wish you all a Very Happy New Year and thank you for your support of my business over the past year, its very much appreciated.

I have really enjoyed creating this year’s Christmas windows and in store displays on the run up to Christmas. My highlights as featured in the images below include ; Installing Christmas at Tower Bridge. The main window display featured Paddington Bear in celebration of the new Paddington movie, the front windows featured Bella, the Tower Bridge Cat. The colour theme of gold and navy featured within the windows and also continued consistently in store.  I love working with my ex colleagues from Selfridges each Christmas, this year working with Karen, Martin and Milly from Freelance Visual Merchandiser. It was fantastic to work with the team to install Christmas throughout the Warner Leisure Hotels across the UK. Then finally, working together to install Christmas across the itv Daytime Shows, GMB, Lorraine, This Morning & Loose Women !

Please click on the the full blog post to find out more and to read my VM tips for creating the perfect Christmas Window….

Probably my favourite Visual Merchandising job of the year ! Working with the brilliant Retail Team at The Paddington Bear Store to merchandise their recently launched Paddington In Peru Pop Up Shop on Platform 1 at London’s Paddington Station.
Please click on the the full blog post to find out more about the Paddington Pop Up Shop….

Last month I was grateful to sit down with Hannah, from Creoate.  CREOATE is on a mission to make wholesale work for independents. Their community is made up of the small, unique, and independent businesses that make local retail so special. 

It was a pleasure to discuss all things visual merchandising, specifically with independent retailers in mind. We covered the visual merchandising basics a shop owner should know, what people tend to get wrong when laying out their stores, and accessible ways to build that elusive ‘retail experience’. 
The article titled How to Nail the Fundamentals of Visual Merchandising, with Sarah Manning can be found on Creoate website , please click on the link within the full blog post to read the article in full….

During July, I have been very excited to be working again with St Albans Museums, offering their museum teams Visual Merchandising consultancy and bespoke training workshops which will run during September.

When I first worked with St Albans Museums in 2022, I worked with their teams on the importance of creating monthly seasonal promotions by installing an impactful in store hot spot area at the front of their store. Creating a monthly hot spot space, creates consistent newness and interest for your customers and can help to connect to your monthly promotions. I was very pleased to see a fantastic hot spot table example which was featured in the Verulamium Museum to celebrate Queen Bodica, who famously burned Roman Verulamium to the ground. 

A very useful store layout exercise which I usually set attendees of my bespoke visual merchandising training workshops is a customer flow/ customer mapping exercise. I wanted to share the details of this exercise with my blog readers for you to carry this out within your own stores. Please click through to the main blog article to find out more about how to carry out your own customer flow exercise…..

For more information on how I can support your business with either in person or online Visual Merchandising Consultancy, please get in touch ;
Email   sarah@visualmerchandisingconsultant.co.uk
Mobile UK +44 7976 575847

This month I have been working again with Nagwa, a confectionery brand based in Kuwait. It was great to work with the team at Nagwa again, we first worked together in 2015. This month I carried out online Visual Merchandising Consultancy with their team, to assist them with designing the new store design concept. We worked on creating a window concept which will change monthly to highlight seasonal promotions, linking the window campaign with an impactful in store hot spot area, designing merchandising planograms to assist their staff with implementing effective Visual Merchandising techniques and creating a hospitality counter space at the rear of the store, to assist with successful customer flow.
Following on from supporting Nagwa with online Visual Merchandising Consultancy, I wanted to share my tips with my blog readers for successful window dressing and connecting your windows effectively to your in store hot spot spaces.
Please click through to the main blog article to access my top tips…..

For more information on how I can support your business with either in person or online Visual Merchandising Consultancy, please get in touch ;
Email   sarah@visualmerchandisingconsultant.co.uk
Mobile UK +44 7976 575847

Over the past couple of months I have been working with Sosen Botani to assist her with Visual Merchandising and Window Dressing for her recently opened boutique in Islington London.

Sosen opened her beautiful fashion boutique, B’Atelyer in Spring 2024. After working as a dentist for 18 years Sosen decided her real passion was fashion and decided to open her own boutique. She loved the buying process, sourcing new brands and really enjoys interacting with customers. 

For my April blog post I wanted to share with you the Spring windows which I installed this month at Tower Bridge. The front two windows as well as the in store display areas incorporated a late Spring theme using butterflies and bees. This was also a great opportunity to showcase a new range of kids merchandise and baby clothing within the main window space.

The side window now showcases an installation to celebrate the birthday of  Bella, The Tower Bridge Cat ! I dressed this window using navy, red and white paper party decorations to compliment the Tower Bridge Cat merchandise.