What? Visual Merchandising. What is it?

Visual merchandising is the activity and a profession of developing the floor plans and three-dimensional displays in order to maximise sales.
This is the description you will get on Wikipedia. But on the last word there is a little "1" taking you to a ton of references and a list of literature on VM stuff. The best and most simple description I have have ever found was in this book of Romeo Richards "Visual merchandise display"
He relates VM to the horror film director: "When someone goes to watch a horror film, they already know someone is going to die. Therefore the directors understand that the killings no longer scare the audience, it is the events leading to the killing that are intriguing."
Therefore he says "It is not about the merchandise; it is the presentation of the merchandise that matters to the customer. A good visual merchandise display captures the imagination of its targeted audiences just like a good film does. The store is a theatre where customers come to watch spectacular displays of merchandises. If they like the display they will buy; if they don’t like the display, they will leave."
In my opinion with this explanation even a 5yrs old would understand what it's all about. One thing and the most important I have learned in my job is to keep things clear and simple, and most of the time working this way saves your ass, with tight deadlines in retail being a very common thing. Unfortunately, there are plenty of examples out there of exactly the opposite.