When it comes to effectively merchandising products in a retail environment, there’s little that compares to the powers of acrylic.

With the versatility of metal and wood at the price point of plastic, acrylic is a truly ideal material for the retail world.

Popular for its transparency and durability, acrylic is eminently versatile, light and possessive of smooth, clean lines. It’s affordable, blends with any decor and is easily transportable. Outfitted with locking doors, acrylic display cases offer unprecedented measures of safety and protection.

Acrylic exploits the wonders of colour, light, translucence and strength — all critical properties for retail display options. Better still, the material can be enhanced with multiple coatings and finishes (glossy, matte, mirrored, textured, etc.), and mixed and matched to create truly unique retail environments.

But the hands-down most remarkable feature of acrylic’s part in a retail display is its ability to complement a product without distracting attention from it. After all, there’s no point in a retailer choosing a display material that’s so stunning that it — and not the product it seeks to highlight — becomes the centerpiece.

Acrylic plastics are polymers, made up of many molecules linked together. The material’s beginnings track back to 1909 when Leo Baekeland developed the first commercially successful synthetic plastic polymer. Bakelite, the phenol formalde-hyde resin he patented, was an immediate success. It could be machined and molded; was an excellent electrical insulator; was resistant to heat, acids and weather; and could be coloured, dyed, drilled and formed.

It wasn’t until 1936 that sheets of acrylic were commercially produced on a large scale. These early incarnations were used for periscope ports on submarines and gun turrets on airplanes during the war.

Today, acrylic is a regular fixture in the retail environment, highlighting everything from shoes and jewellery in compact enclosed boxes to books and plates on stylish easels. And a fixture supplier who can manufacture in acrylic, polycarbonate, high-impact polystyrene and PVC is a friend every retailer needs.