Humans are predators. Our eyes are in front like a lion or a wolf, and we search from side to side. We also form a search image of our "prey" like predators do.

Customers who are searching for a product in your store have an image in their mind of what they are "hunting." They walk through your store scanning from side to side searching for their "prey."

While scanning, they see what you have put at their eye level. Since about two-thirds of a store's merchandise is below eye level, you benefit by merchandising in a manner that allows the customer search below what is natural for them while not changing their nature.

When considering how to merchandise your products, keep this simple idea in mind. Over 80 percent of what you sell is at eye level due to the nature of people. This does not mean it has to be that way, but people find what they are looking for between the area of 4.5 feet and 6 feet off the ground. This is where sales are generated.

Knowing that people will find their products in this zone will allow you to use all your space more effectively.

Using fish food as an example, let's say you carry three brands. Let's also say you put all your best-selling brand of food on the top two shelves. The four shelves below are costing the same amount of monthly rent as the top two shelves but they aren't generating more than 20 percent of the sales. That return on investment can be greatly improved.

The simple remedy is to merchandise the brands in vertical stripes, top shelf to bottom shelf with one brand. Take each of the three brands and put two or three of the smallest containers of a "flavor" on the top shelf, one or two of the next size of the same flavor directly below the top shelf and so on to the bottom shelf.

The goal is to keep all of one flavor in a straight line from the top shelf to the bottom shelf. Put the largest containers of food on the bottom shelf and the smallest containers on the top shelf. The space below the "buying zone" will start being shopped by your customers.

This usage of space below the buying zone means that you will have increased the amount of space your customers are shopping without any additional cost to you, reducing the rent on the whole space as even the bottom four feet are being used for products that sell. This will decrease the cost of storing products on the lower shelves as the containers that are selling are often the larger containers of food that will be found on the third or fourth shelves.

Getting customers to buy product off shelves that they normally don't even see is a victory. Making it easy for people to see you have a large selection of fish food is an even bigger victory.

Most people don't shop at a grocery store with one brand of cereal, soup, beer, etc. You reinforce that your store isn't a "one-trick pony," even if they keep buying exactly the same item. Now you are using the top two shelves to cross market other foods in less space, improving your image with your customers and utilizing the space that you pay for every month three times more effectively.