Whether you have a tiny storefront window or two gigantic bays of them, you can draw people into your store with displays that excite visitors, which in turn, creates a buzz, increases traffic, and encourages people to learn more by entering your store. And you can do that by sharing your story.

Whatever your brand, whatever your inventory, whatever separates you from any other tea vendors, that’s your story. Do you offer specific products and tea, such as only Russian or Asian? Focus on that. Prefer organics and natural products? Accentuate that. Offer teas from around the world? Maps and photos can easily, and inexpensively, tell that story.

Window decorations are a way to allow people to dream with fantasies that capture their emotions like a grandparents’ tea or charmingly delight, like puppies and kittens (stuffed toys ones!) riding electric trains to deliver tea gifts to one and all.

Nothing sells tea like a party! Recreate a tea experience in your shop with dolls or teddy bears, funky knitted characters or painted cardboard ones, at a table from your shop “sipping” tea. Go Victorian or child-at-heart or thoroughly-minimalist-modern to make these characters come alive.

Not handy with yarn or paint? Take photos of real people having fun with tea in your shop. Mix up adults and children, elegantly dressed and casual, all using your great inventory of tea and accessories. Have a local photo shop enlarge the photo sized to fit the back area of your window display. In the front of the photo, display the accoutrements used on the actual table, if it fits your window, or on a pretty stand.

What’s your favorite tea memory? Perhaps it was a freshly-brewed Darjeeling offered to you at a roadside stall in the Himalayas. Or you among the songs of finches in bamboo cages, a weekend staple at a Chinese teahouse where you savored a gaiwan of fragrant LuAn. Were you a child, an adult savoring steaming pots of Earl Grey and a tier of scones and finger sandwiches at New York’s fabled Plaza Hotel? Maybe it was a solitary tea on a rainy afternoon re-reading a beautiful letter from someone you love, the room scented with the floral tisane infused with honey. Whatever memory surges, share that.

THE TECHNICAL STUFF

Design shop windows for eye level. Go outdoors and put some masking tape across the window at eye level, approximately five feet from the ground up. While, obviously, people are different heights, by starting from this point, you can adjust the items in the window area to “meet the eye” of the average viewer.

Adjust items in the window as necessary asking yourself if something would look better suspended from the window area’s ceiling, or would look better on the floor of the window space? Are things close or far enough apart to give the eye a break? Is the focal point where your masking tape is? If not, adjust. And, as indicated below, consider how to light the window.

P.S. Remove the masking tape when you’re through.

Light the lights! Nothing says excitement like strategically placed lighting or strings of light which are available in a plethora of shapes, sizes, and colors. They can, literally, frame your windows and illuminate your story. String lights are inexpensive and reusable for several years.

Use lamps to light up the upper center of a display which is, generally, in the line of a customer’s eye level.

Light from the sides or in front of the display to avoid unflattering shadows. This also provides a more definitive 3D appearance. Play with angles and note whether they clearly showcase your products.

Walk all around the lighted areas, front/back/sides. Adjust as necessary.

IDEAS FOR IN-STORE DISPLAYS

Arrange in-store displays for fun … and for sales. Go high, and low. That means situating the most expensive teapots right next to those priced for any budget; mixing stainless steel with sterling, and placing Meissen cups and saucers with plain-Jane mugs. This assures customers that there are possibilities for their gift buying everywhere in the store.

Arrange small items (tongs, infusers or boxes of tea samples) on elevated items like cake stands or three-tiered sandwich stands or mini ladders and position them at eye level on the tables. If necessary, cover a pile of books or a large box with a cloth, and place the stands on top to achieve that height.

Beautiful table surfaces should be left bare. Otherwise, cover with cloths of plain colors or subtle weaves instead of plaids or holiday patterns that could “fight” with the products you’re promoting.

Put fragile or expensive tea accessories in locked glass cabinets. That increases curiosity while protecting them from damage. More importantly, it gives you the opportunity to share/sell the story of this collection with customers and, knowing background of a special teapot or cup, is a great stimulus for buying.

Light up in-store displays judiciously to highlight specific items like gift baskets or new products. Strands of lights are easy to tape around cabinets and shelves and add excitement. Garlands and velvet ribbons are lovely alternatives.

Decorate from underneath. Cover the surfaces of trays or large platters with dried beans and legumes; they’re inexpensive and colorful ways to contrast or match the color of books, stationery or other paper goods. Lentils come in black or salmon pink or green; beans in all sizes in black, white, deep mahogany offering loads of choices.

You can also use loose leaf tea leaves too old to sell. Place them in display cases underneath your prized guywans and Yixing pots or clear glass tea service accessories. The sight of tea leaves is an intuitive draw.

FOLLOW UP

Be neat. Dust daily both the window displays and the in-store shelves and tables.

Replenish in-store displays as often as you can during the day or, at minimum, at the beginning of each sales day.

Make sure everything is organized and easy to access. Check that all products have a price on them or easy-to-read signage indicating their price.

Walk the store.

By eliminating any possible deterrent to easy strolling, you provide both customer safety and protection from breakage.

And, yes, do sell whatever a customer wants from the windows. That means your hard work is paying off!