Your Map to the Store Design that will Optimize Space and Facilitate Sales
A stellar store design has never been more important--with new pressures to keep bringing customers off the couch and into stores, your customer experience built environment needs to offer something fresh, exciting, or generally pleasant.
But when it comes to store design, it’s not just about flashy displays and elegant fixtures.
The best-designed stores are arranged to not only draw customers in, but take them on a journey that encourages browsing and facilitates impulse buys. But how do you make sure your store is making the best use of its space? We’ve made a roadmap for you.
The Entrance
Your store’s entrance is key to drawing customers in. As mall tycoon and retail giant Alfred A. Taubman said, “good retail design is all about overcoming threshold resistance, bringing customers into the store.
Threshold resistance is the combination of psychological and physical barriers that prevent customers from entering your store--which is to say, the threshold can be make-or-break when it comes to making a sale. Your store’s entrance should draw the customer in, communicate a beautiful and welcoming environment.
Lighting, entryway product displays, and even the kind of doors you use can play a role in drawing the customer in--or pushing them away.
Remember, though, that the threshold is more about communicating a personal brand than it is about selling products.
Right beyond the threshold is known as the “decompression zone,” where consumers will be transitioning from the parking lot to the store and acclimating to the space--not browsing.
The threshold should be open, inviting, and not overcrowded, as customers will blow right by anything located in the decompression zone as they get their bearings.
Creating a threshold that presents a beautiful, compelling space with a uniform design will let the customer adjust to your store’s environment, and keep them wanting more.
Take a Right
After they pass through the decompression zone, 90% of American consumers will walk to the right--retail experts will leverage this tendency to build a “path” through the store that customers will follow, picking up products along the way.
The wall immediately to the right of the decompression zone is key in carrying out your path, so build a “power wall” that keeps consumers walking forward.
Your wall should feature exciting new products, important or best-selling departments, seasonal items, or other products that can tell a compelling product story.
Follow the Path
A carefully laid-out store will use furniture, displays, and other roadblocks to create a sort of path through the rest of the store. If most consumers take a right after entering, a natural path will weave counter-clockwise from the power wall on the right.
A well-designed customer experience path will guide the customer through the store, managing foot traffic while optimizing consumer exposure to products. Your path can follow a variety of patterns, depending on your store shape and shelving design--a grid pattern will encourage shoppers to weave through every aisle, while a loop pattern creates a sort of perimeter along which shoppers will walk and pick up products along the way.
Whatever the pattern, there are a few key elements to a successful path. First, your path needs to be sufficiently clear as to encourage customers to follow it--this can be achieved by creating a single wide aisle that snakes around the store, creating a visual path of clear flooring (some retailers will even use a different floor design on their path, creating a visual demarcation that encourages shoppers to follow).
Width is important--retailers will try to avoid the “butt-brush effect,” as coined by Paco Underhill, which finds that consumers will be less likely to walk down an aisle if there’s a chance they could brush another shopper’s backside or have their own brushed. Sufficiently wide aisles will encourage foot traffic instead of turn shoppers away.
The other essential element to a successful path is speedbumps--displays, furniture, and other fixtures that slow customers down and encourage them to buy.
After all, a path is only so useful if shoppers are trotting along and blowing by all your products.
Well-placed speedbumps, like island displays with flashy products, sale tables, and merchandise outposts with easy-to-grab impulse buys, will help customers follow a path while promoting your products.
The Checkout Counter
Finally, your path should lead naturally to a checkout counter. Often a checkout counter will be found in the mid-back of the store, placed so customers have to walk through many products before landing at the checkout area.
Another natural place for checkout is the front left of the store--if you’re following a loop pattern, and you start on the right, your shoppers will end on the upper left corner of the store.
This can be a good way to really encourage a total review of all your products before checkout, so even customers who’ve come in looking for “just one thing” will leave with hard-to-resist impulse buys.
The checkout area is also a good place to have small, less expensive product shelving that encourages impulse buys for shoppers bored in line.
Their footflow has all but stopped, so they might as well browse the products around them.
The checkout area should be delineated by exciting signage--video monitors showing visual advertisements behind the counter can be an effective way of building a brand, as bored shoppers waiting in line are looking for something to catch their eye--and a general open vibe to help shoppers decompress after touring the store.
The checkout process is an opportunity to leave the shopper with a positive impression--that means ample space for bags, a clean, visually-appealing area, and an easy checkout process that leaves the customer satisfied.
The Takeaway
A good in-store experience has never been more important. But experiential retail isn’t all about flashy tech and expensive fixtures--a thoughtful, well-laid-out store is the foundation of any successful retail venture.
Think like a customer, and lay out your store to build an intuitive shopping journey that draws the shopper in and keeps them there.
Have questions about a custom retail design experience? Give us a call at 203-221-4777 ext. 100 or drop us a line below and an In-Store Experience representative will contact you shortly.
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