How to attract the customers?

How to be better at putting up shop display to attract customers?

• Is there a way to learn how to arrange items in the shop to make customers really want to buy? I work in an antique auction company where we often have to display a lot of high price items unrelated to each other and of various sizes, colors, age, shape, materials together in display cabins with spotlights.  Are there a list of golden rules, or rule of thumb how you arrange items? I know designer brands do these really well, with posters and light displays to go with the merchandise. Our items are not mass produced though...  For example, where should I put that white vase in the display? what if there are three different sizes but similar plates? Can a pot go with a jade figure? How should two wood carvings of people be placed next to each other? How to place 20 pieces of unrelated jade items? Should the spotlight be pointed at the head or chest of a statue? 

• Answer:

  the skill is called "merchandising" and it might be valuable to bring in a house decorator or a store decorator or even a merchandising teacher from a community college.