Considering a Window Display for the Holiday Season??

Have you considered a window display for the Holiday Season??

The busy holiday shopping season is the time to go all out with your window displays. Your traffic is the highest it will be all year and shoppers love the tradition of window shopping this time of year. Snowflakes are a great seasonal display theme that will cater to all holidays. You can even keep it up through January! Here are some of our favorite snowflake display ideas.

Many retailers achieve a disproportionate 20 to 40 per cent of their overall annual sales in just a few weeks before and during the holiday season, when average temperatures often drop below 0 C (32 F) and winter precipitation falls in various treacherous forms. These short weeks—made shorter by fewer hours of daylight—can make or break a retail business. As such, there is all the more need to stand out and attract shoppers into stores by commissioning bright, colorful window graphics from sign shops.

It is important that sign shops, print-service providers and media suppliers to collaborate with retailers from the initial stages of planning, well before the holidays, to ensure they have the right materials, the application surfaces are compatible and correctly prepared and the printed graphics will remain as vibrant toward the end of the promotional campaign as they are at the beginning.

Inside and out

Pressure-sensitive vinyl graphics for window advertising applications need to be easy to install and then stay adhered throughout a wide range of temperatures, resisting yellowing and fading, until they are just as easy to remove, leaving no residue behind. Additional factors to consider as winter approaches include the expected ambient and surface temperatures of the location and time of installation.

Another issue is to which side of the window the graphics will be applied—the inside or the outside surface. The decision will require consideration of durability, esthetics, local regulations and protective graphic finishing.

If a promotional campaign entails occasional window display graphic changes with new product visuals during its run, for example, then an indoor-surface application is probably the best-suited option, when weather conditions outdoors are not conducive to frequent changes. Perforated window graphic materials are designed for such indoor applications, with a 70/30 or 60/40 perforation ratio (i.e.printable area to see-through area) allowing the brand images to be viewed from outside, while also allowing people inside the store to see out through the windows.

Indoor window vinyl applications are advantageous in preventing vandalism and ensuring easy access to the graphics even when the window is not on the ground floor. Some retail locations are themselves not on the ground floor and need window graphics all the more to catch the attention of passersby across the street.

And some municipalities have imposed ordinances limiting the application of graphics on the outside surfaces of buildings. In areas where such ordinances do not apply, when a retailer wants window graphics to last an entire season without changes, outside installation may well be a feasible choice, thanks to materials that can withstand harsh winter weather.

Most window films can be printed with graphics through a variety of ways, including solvent-based and ultraviolet-curing (UV-curing) screenprinting; solvent, eco-solvent and UV inkjet printing; conventional and UV offset printing; and aqueous, solvent and UV flexographic printing. In some cases, a primer is necessary first.

The prints will retain their vibrancy if properly protected. Overlaminates will be useful in protecting images against abrasion when severe precipitation could affect the window graphics, while others with UV-inhibiting properties can prevent image fading. Signmakers are a valuable resource for retailers at this stage, ensuring the correct inks, preparations and overlaminates are selected.