Wood and wood composite materials such as MDF and particle board are also commonly used in retail store displays. Like plastics, wood materials can be complex and knowing the best materials to choose for specific applications, as well as the cost of those materials, is critical for creating display fixtures that work. MDF with a high pressure laminate or melamine finish is widely used and relatively cost-effective, but it is generally heavier than plywood or solid wood and therefore more expensive to ship. Plywood is stronger than MDF but has fewer finish options. Pre-finished birch plywood tends to be a popular choice among our customers who require stronger materials with a more finished look.

Solid wood is often a good choice for making store fixtures, particularly if the design requires a natural or organic look such as you might find in a produce department of a grocery store. Some solid woods like pine are soft while oak and maple are examples of hard woods. Selecting the right type of wood for a particular POP application requires experience and frequently depends on whether the display will be knock-down or assembled and what type of stain or finish is desired. An increasingly popular material choice for display fixtures is bamboo because it is environmentally sustainable, extremely strong, and offers a premium look. Aside from its natural beauty and inherent dimensional stability, bamboo has higher tensile strength than many types of steel, higher compressive strength than many mixtures of concrete, and a higher strength-to-weight ratio than graphite.

We look forward to attending and exhibiting at Globalshop! in Chicago, March 27-29.

Globalshop! is the largest tradeshow in North America for the retail design industry, including store design, visual merchandising, retail technology and shopper marketing.

We will be in Booth 5068. Contact us if you’d like to set up an appointment, or stop by during the show.  We’d love to help you improve oversea production efficiency!

Styrene – technically known as polystyrene, this resin-based plastic is commonly found in everything from packaging to toys to advertising displays. For printed graphics, it is available in thicknesses from 10 pt. to 120 pt. and comes in an array of opacities and colors, with white as most common. Styrene provides an excellent print surface and easily cuts to shape, providing excellent solutions for stanchion sign inserts, shelf talkers, ceiling danglers and aisle markers.

Wondering what “10 pt.” thickness means? A “point” is 1/1000 of an inch, meaning that “10 pt.” stock is 10/1000 inch thick. This is also referred to as 0.010 thick.

Plastic materials are even more complex than metal. The most common type of plastic used in retail fixtures is acrylic. POP displays are relatively easy to fabricate out of acrylic, and acrylic displays are widely used in retail. The downside of acrylic is it can scratch easily, is more fragile and damages more easily than other types of materials, and can turn yellow over time after prolonged exposure to UV lighting in stores. Injection molded plastic shelves, bases and other display components are also fairly common in the point-of-purchase industry. Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of injection molded plastic materials such as ABS, HIPS, PMMA, and PP is important in creating an effective design. Also with injection molding, unit costs may be lower, but upfront tooling costs can be hefty so volume plays a bigger role as the tooling costs will need to be amortized across the quantity of units produced.

Vacuumed formed plastic is also widely used to create displays, most notably in the cosmetic industry as well as for in-store signage. Vacuum formed plastic is fabricated using a lower tech process, and therefore tooling costs are lower than injection molded tooling costs. However, vacuum formed plastic lacks the strength and durability of injection molded plastic. There are many other types of plastic fabrication methods such as blow molds and rotational molds as well as many other plastic materials such as PVC, expanded PVC, extruded plastic, and so on. If you are working with a China POP displays company, make sure they have a solid understanding of these types of materials.