Tiered display, rack, or counter display? How to make small items visible
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by Verpakkingdeals.nl
6 min reading time
Which display suits your counter or stall? We compare step displays, hooks, stands, and freestanding displays, including sizes, prices, and a checklist for when you order.
Lay ten keychains flat on a counter and two will remain visible: the ones on top of the pile. Place the same ten on a six-tier display and a customer will see the entire offering at a glance. This difference is not a matter of taste, but of height: a counter is usually half a meter deep, while your customer looks at it obliquely from about a meter away. Anything lying flat behind the first row is out of sight.
Display material solves this by tilting or stacking your items. There are roughly four types, each with its own task. Below, we'll compare them, along with the questions to ask yourself before ordering.
First, measure: how much space do you really have?
The most common mistake is buying a display that doesn't fit. Grab a tape measure and write down three numbers: the width you can spare on the counter or stall, the depth of the surface, and the clear height to an overhead cabinet, canopy, or shelf. Compare these with the measurements in the product description.
An example. The Metal Counter Display 50x38x80 cm (€ 49.95) takes up half a meter in width and 38 cm in depth, and at 80 cm high, it's almost as tall as a bar stool. This works great on a free corner of a counter or on the side of a stall, but not under a 60 cm overhead cabinet. The Jewelry Rack Black with Wooden Base - 27x7x31 cm (€ 20.00) is the opposite: 7 cm deep, so it still fits on a narrow ledge next to the cash register.
Also consider the journey to it
If you're at markets, transport is just as important as size. An 80 cm high metal display goes upright in the van; acrylic stair displays are lighter but scratch more easily. Store them in a separate box or cover and not loose among your stock, otherwise, after three markets, you'll see the scratches in the light of your stall lamp.
Stair display: if you want everything to be visible at once
A stair display is an ascending series of steps. The advantage: each level is slightly higher than the previous one, allowing you to fit six rows of items in approximately the footprint of two rows. Handy for boxes, cans, jars, card games, and anything with a readable front.
There are two versions in transparent acrylic: the Acrylic Transparent Stair Display – 6 Steps (€ 34.95) and the Acrylic 6-Tier Transparent Stair Display (€ 29.95). Transparent has a practical advantage that you only notice when you use it: the display itself recedes, allowing your product to define the color on the table. When a shelf is full, this is calmer than black or white material competing for attention.
What to look for: place your cheapest or largest item on the bottom step and work your way up to the more expensive items. Customers will naturally pick from the top row, so don't put your leftover stock there.
Hooks and stands: for everything that hangs or leans
Keychains, hang cards, and items on a blister fall over if you stand them up and disappear if you lay them down. These belong on a hook. The Metal Display Holder for Keychains (€ 17.95) is the cheapest solution for this and is available in black or white, so you can match it to your own color scheme.
For items you want to lean or drape, there are stands. The Plastic Jewelry Stand Black (€ 19.95) keeps necklaces at length, which makes them much more attractive than rolled up in a tray. It works the same for glasses: the Sunglasses Display Pink 15.5 x 25.5 cm (€ 19.95) lines them up instead of in a drawer.
The price with it, or you sell nothing
A good-looking display without prices will cost you sales. Visitors to a stall or shop who have to ask for the price often don't bother and walk on. The quickest way is a pricing gun: it prints a sticker with the amount directly onto your item or packaging.
A price sticker on a lacquered or printed surface can leave behind adhesive or a piece of print when removed. If in doubt, stick it on the packaging, on a hang tag, or on the bottom. Test one item before labeling an entire batch.
How to set it up: the four layers of a counter
An effective counter usually has four layers in a row. At the front, impulse items under five euros, which someone grabs without thinking while checking out. Behind that, a stair display with your regular small assortment. Next to it, a hook or stand display with a single product group, so it becomes a corner and not a jumble. And at the very back or side, the tall pieces: a standing display or a rack that is visible from the door.
What you leave in between is at least as important. Five centimeters of air between two displays reads as two separate groups; zero centimeters reads as a messy bin. And if you're selling something that's given as a gift, place the matching box next to it — a Black Jewelry Box 9 x 6.5 x 2.8 cm costs € 2.95 and often sells along with the item itself.
A quick checklist before you order
Measured the width, depth, and clear height of your counter or stall and compared them with the product dimensions.
Determined whether your items lie, stand, or hang — that dictates your display type, not the other way around.
One product group per display, so the customer understands what's available.
Prices arranged: pricing gun with stickers, or hang tags.
For markets: how will it be transported and where will you store it in between?
Reserve stock on hand, because a half-empty display sells worse than a full one.
Get started
Walk past your own counter once from where your customer stands, not from where you stand. What you don't see from there, you won't sell. Start with one display for your best-selling small item and expand as you notice it works.
For displays, racks, and storage material, see Storage, for pricing and labeling, see Pricing Guns & Labels, and for boxes to place next to your items, see Gift Packaging & Gift Boxes. If you're unsure whether a certain display will fit on your counter, email the dimensions to info@verpakkingdeals.nl and we'll help you out.
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