A Comprehensive Guide to Display Compliance

What is Display Compliance?

Display compliance ensures that store signage, product pricing labels, promotional materials, and product information align with specific standards, regulations, and guidelines set by industry bodies or legal authorities. It involves verifying that the store’s displays are truthful, accurate, and not misleading, which is essential across various retail sectors.

Accurate in-store displays require ongoing checks of product labels and price signage so customers always receive reliable information at the point of purchase. Display compliance is essential for companies to avoid legal repercussions, maintain consumer trust, and uphold industry standards.

Importance of Display Compliance

In visual merchandising, display compliance is the foundation of successful in-store marketing. Here are some key reasons why display compliance is crucial for any retail business:

• Meet Marketing Goals: Compliance ensures your campaign delivers—boosting sales, building awareness, or driving traffic.

• Influence Purchases: With 82% of buying decisions made in-store, effective displays guide customers to choose your product.

• Strengthen Retail Partnerships: Following retailer rules helps you avoid fines and chargebacks and keeps relationships smooth.

• Build Trust and Reputation: Sticking to standards shows professionalism, making your brand more reliable to retailers and shoppers.

• Protect Against Risks: Compliance with product signage and labeling regulations helps avoid penalties, legal issues, and reputational damage.

Barriers to Effective Visual Merchandising Compliance

Several barriers can hinder effective visual merchandising compliance, many of which directly affect overall retail operations. These include:

Incomplete Signage and Label Packs

Displays often fall short when pricing labels, shelf tags, or promotional signs are missing or delivered incorrectly. Without the full set of accurate materials, staff risk creating displays with incomplete information, leading to confusion or even inaccurate pricing on the sales floor.

Errors from Outsourced Setup

Relying on third parties to set up displays can not only reduce the workload for store teams but also introduce risks. Installers may overlook proper signage placement or labels, making it difficult to confirm that prices and product information meet store standards.

Delayed Accuracy Checks

After setting up displays, teams must confirm that all signage and labels display the correct product details and prices. However, follow-up checks are often delayed due to competing priorities, allowing inaccurate or misleading signage to remain in place longer.

Poor Ongoing Maintenance

Store teams must consistently maintain displays, even after setting them up correctly. Left unchecked, faded shelf tags, misplaced labels, or damaged signage can easily lead to customer frustration and compliance issues.

Consumer Protection Laws for Product Displays

Various countries have consumer protection laws to ensure fair and ethical business practices. These laws may include regulations on product labeling, pricing, and advertising.

Below are some examples of consumer protection laws in different countries:

United States

• Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act): The FTC Act prohibits deceptive acts like false advertising and misrepresentation in displays, ensuring truthful labeling and warnings.

• Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act (UDTPA): The UDTPA addresses misleading claims, bait-and-switch tactics, and unfulfilled refund or price policies.

• Sector Laws: Examples include the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates labeling for food, drugs, and cosmetics, and the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA), which covers warnings, recalls, and safety standards.

Australia

• Australian Consumer Law (ACL): ACL requires truthful displays, clear pricing, and accurate labeling. It also bans misleading ads and omissions.

Canada

• Canada Consumer Product Act (CCPA): Enforced by the Competition Bureau, the CCPA prohibits false or misleading claims on pre-packaged products.

• Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR): The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) enforces the SFCR to ensure food safety and labelling accuracy.

European Union

• Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD): This is the primary EU law against misleading or aggressive business practices in consumer transactions

• Price Indication Directive (PID): This EU law regulates how businesses show prices to consumers.

United Kingdom

• Consumer Rights Act 2015: This legislation mandates accurate product info, labeling, and pricing for all sales channels.

• Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024: This act expands the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) powers to fine up to 10% of global turnover for deceptive displays or pricing.

Practical Ways to Ensure Compliance in Displays

While regulations and laws provide a framework for businesses to follow, it is equally important to implement practical strategies to ensure compliance in their pricing and display practices. Some ways to achieve this include:

Inspect Product Signage

Use a display compliance checklist to review product signage regularly and confirm the accuracy of prices and details. It helps ensure customers always see the correct information. A structured approach like this minimizes errors and lowers the risk of misleading displays or compliance issues.

Photograph Inaccurate Signs

Taking photos of incorrect signage provides clear proof of compliance gaps. These images make it easier to document issues and track them through correction. It also helps teams spot recurring problems across different stores.

Escalate for Correction

When errors are found, having a process to escalate them ensures swift action. Assign follow-ups to responsible teams so problems don’t go unresolved. It prevents small issues from turning into bigger compliance failures.

Use a Single Source of Truth

Maintaining compliance across stores requires one centralized system that houses all approved product details, pricing labels, and signage templates. With everyone accessing the same verified information, you reduce miscommunication and prevent errors that could lead to regulatory violations.

Create Store Profiles

Each store may have a unique layout or fixture type, but compliance requires consistent messaging and labeling. By setting up digital store profiles, retailers can match the proper signage and pricing details to each location, ensuring accurate and uniform displays across the network.

Issue Clear Instructions

Compliance relies on teams following precise guidelines for signage and product labeling. Clear, tested instructions ensure staff can update displays correctly and consistently, reducing the risk of non-compliant pricing or misleading product information.

Establish a Feedback Loop

Compliance must be monitored continuously, not just at rollout. By gathering real-time feedback from store teams, retailers can quickly catch and correct signage, pricing, or product information errors before they escalate into compliance issues.

Avoid Over-Reliance on Managers

Relying solely on regional or store managers to identify compliance issues often creates delays. Empowering in-store teams to perform spot checks on signage and pricing accuracy enables faster resolution and prevents consumer protection risks.

Maintain Campaign Visibility

Ongoing visibility into active campaigns and store displays ensures compliance doesn’t slip through the cracks. Tracking tools allow retailers to monitor signage and pricing accuracy in real time, step in when needed, and keep all stores aligned with consumer protection standards.