How Dickinson Retailers Can Turn Window Shoppers into Walk-Ins

Your storefront is a sales tool, not just an address. Research shows that nearly 60% of shoppers drive in-store purchase decisions after they arrive — and 24% of those purchases are directly influenced by in-store displays, even without a price discount. For Dickinson business owners competing for foot traffic along the city's main corridors, that's a lever worth pulling.

What Makes a Window Display Actually Work

Visual merchandising — the practice of arranging products, lighting, and signage to guide customer attention — comes down to one principle: lead the eye somewhere specific. Creative displays outperform plain ones on both consumer attention and store-entry rates. Creativity here doesn't mean elaborate — it means deliberate. One well-positioned item with clear context beats a window packed with products competing for the same glance.

SCORE, funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration, advises retailers to "visualize a path that you want customers to follow and use lighting, signage, and displays to draw them along" as a core visual merchandising strategy. That path starts before anyone walks through the door.

The Full-Window Trap

If you've loaded your window edge to edge to signal abundance, the logic makes sense — more visible product should mean more reasons to come in. But transparent displays attract longer looks: a 2022 peer-reviewed study found that window displays allowing a view of the store interior scored higher on attractiveness ratings and held passersby's attention longer. The mechanism is psychological — reduced visual complexity increases feelings of pleasure and curiosity about what's inside.

Filling your window blocks that effect. When customers can't see into the store, the pull disappears.

In practice: Show less product, reveal more store — the space itself is part of the draw.

When Clutter Becomes a Conversion Problem

A busy, packed sales floor might feel like abundance to you. Customers often read it differently. A 2019 retail report found that clutter directly hurt sales and foot traffic — 64% of shoppers reported leaving a store without buying because the retail space was cluttered or poorly maintained.

The practical move: walk your floor as a first-time visitor would. If it takes more than a few seconds to understand what's featured and where to go, the layout is working against you.

A Pre-Season Display Checklist

Before your next seasonal refresh, run through these elements:

• Window is no more than 60–70% full — enough product to inform, enough space to reveal the interior

• Lighting is placed close to glass, spaced 18–24 inches apart, angled into the display (not at pedestrians)

• One clear focal point — a hero item or seasonal theme

• A visible path connects the window to the interior of the store

• Exterior signage is legible from at least 10 feet away

• All promotions and seasonal messaging are current

• The entrance area is clean and easy to navigate

According to Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation retail guidance, the single most common storefront recommendation is to improve your storefront lighting — specifically, fixtures placed close to glass, spaced 18–24 inches apart, and angled back into the display rather than into pedestrians' eyes.

Bottom line: Lighting is the first upgrade most storefront assessments identify — fix it before rearranging anything else.

Plan Your Layout Before You Move Anything

Imagine a shop owner on Dickinson's main commercial corridor deciding between two window layouts before the spring season. She has the concepts in her head but no way to compare them without doing the physical work twice. 

This is where generative AI tools change the process. Type in what you're imagining — "spring display with light neutrals, one focal table, clear sightline into the store" — and the tool generates visual concepts you can refine and compare before moving a single fixture. Creative AI tools help users produce visual content from simple text descriptions. For business owners without a design background, reviewing the 3 benefits of generative AI can speed up visual production and support creative exploration without requiring design expertise.

What Your Sign Is Actually Worth

Signs often get underestimated. Research published by the Sign Research Foundation found that businesses with good external sign visibility boost profits with better visibility — 124% higher profits compared to those with poor sign visibility, based on a University of Cincinnati study that remains the standard reference in retail signage research. For businesses considering an upgrade, the U.S. Small Business Administration co-published a report showing that adding an electronic message display typically increases business by 15% to 150%.

Sign investment tiers:

Tier 1 — Basic: Vinyl-cut or hand-lettered sign. Low cost, permanent message. Works when your location is well-established and foot traffic is consistent.

Tier 2 — Lighted: Illuminated box or channel letters. Increases visibility after dark — important for Dickinson's winter hours, when most foot traffic happens in lower light.

Tier 3 — Electronic: LED message board or digital display. Lets you update messaging daily or seasonally. Best ROI for businesses running frequent promotions, time-sensitive offers, or events.

Bottom line: If your sign hasn't changed in five years, a lighted upgrade will pay for itself faster than most other storefront improvements.

What to Do Next

Improving your storefront doesn't require a renovation budget. Pick the one element that's furthest from where it should be — the window, the lighting, or the sign — and make one concrete change before the next season turns.

The Dickinson Area Chamber of Commerce has connected Southwest North Dakota businesses since 1906. Bring display questions to the next networking event — there's a good chance another Chamber member has already solved the problem you're facing, and that kind of practical peer knowledge is exactly what the Chamber network is built for.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to hire a designer to improve my window display?

Not for most changes. The research consistently rewards simplicity over complexity — remove items before you add them, establish one clear focal point, and make sure the interior is visible from the street. Professional help makes sense for new signage design or major renovations, not a seasonal refresh.

Simple and deliberate outperforms elaborate every time.

How often should I update my window display?

A seasonal rotation — roughly every 8–12 weeks — is a practical starting point. More important than the frequency is staying current: outdated promotions or last-season merchandise signal inattention to customers who walk past your window regularly.

Change your display before it looks stale, not after.

What if my storefront has a small window or limited street visibility?

Small windows demand discipline, not more product. Use limited display space for a single high-context item with clear signage. If street visibility is the bigger issue, invest in an exterior sign with enough size and contrast to be read from a distance — electronic displays let you update messaging without reprinting materials every time an offer changes.

One strong focal point works better than five competing ones.

Does visual merchandising apply to service businesses without physical products?

Yes. Service businesses can display certifications, client testimonials, before/after work samples, or a clear "what we do" statement in the window. The core principle is the same: give a passerby a reason to stop and a reason to come in, even when there's no product to show.

The goal is a reason to enter, not a product to display.