As a consumer, it is easy to overlook how much care and thought goes into laying out the stores that we visit every week. However, the difference between a well-planned out retail space and one thrown together at random is night and day.
If you are concerned that your business’s retail space is stagnating and failing to bring in the punters, here’s how you can change that.
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Make Your Business Immersive
Creating an immersive retail space will encourage your customers to spend as much time in your store as possible. The more time they spend in your store, the more likely they are to give you their money. Good retail design isn’t just about an aesthetically pleasing design; the best retail design creates an experience for anyone in your store.
If your store is able to maintain a consistent theme throughout, including both the retail environment and your product merchandising, visitors will find it much more immersive.
Use Your Layout to Direct Traffic Flow
Another key element of good retail space design is that the flow of traffic is directed by the layout of the store. Different items will encourage people to spend different amounts of time looking at them. One of your items is going to be things that people will want to look at carefully and consider, while others they will pick up and put straight into the shopping cart.
By strategically separating these different types of items, and thinking carefully about how you create walkways between them, you can easily influence the rate of traffic through different parts of your store.
Don’t Be Afraid of Major Works
Many businesses, especially small businesses, are not keen on the idea of shutting down for any significant period of time in order to undertake renovations. However, there are many situations in which it makes much more sense to do this.
If you are one of the many businesses that have inherited their retail space from a previous tenant, there may be numerous things about it that don’t really fit your business. Taking a retail space and turning it into something that is unique and fitting to your business can transform it from an elected and forgotten about part of town to a bustling boutique that everyone wants to visit. Businesses like this one that provides Winnipeg commercial renovations can be just as important in helping you reach new audiences and transforming your fortunes.
Keep a Decompression Zone Near the Entrance
The decompression zone refers to the area of your store immediately after the entrance. This is where new visitors will stop and take a look around to get their bearings. If you fill this area with merchandise, then you will end up with a serious bottleneck and people will find it difficult to get into your store. Instead, use this decompression zone to lay out your best products and give new visitors a brief taste of what your store has to offer.
The design and layout of your business’s retail space can have a significant impact on its overall fortune. If you haven’t changed your retail space since you opened your business’s doors, it is worth considering whether investing in a new look might be a justifiable marketing expense.