For retailers looking to maximize their sales there are all sorts of tricks and tips that are supposed to increase customer spending. However, focusing on retail design will not only improve your bottom line, it will also create an aesthetically pleasing environment. In this article we’ll go over the top retail design ideas that will boost your sales.
Traffic Flow
Understanding how your customers flow through your store will give you important clues on the ideal setup for increased sales. Placing your most enticing items so that they will be the first things encountered when a customer enters the store is a time honoured tradition in retail. It’s been found that which side of the road a country drives on influences the way shoppers move around stores. North Americans typically move around a store in a counterclockwise fashion, whereas British and Australian shoppers tend towards clockwise movement. This natural tendency can give you some ideas as to the ideal layout of your store.
Impulse Items
It’s probably already dawned upon you why chocolate bars, packages of gum and interesting gadgets are always displayed near the cash register. Of course these items are impulse buys and are placed as such to make you grab them on a whim. Small, easily grabbed items with inexpensive prices are prime impulse items and should be used as such. Even though the checkout area is a small portion of the entire store, it accounts for a disproportionate amount of sales. Use this knowledge wisely.
Create Breaks
Customers who are overwhelmed with choice tend to start ignoring what’s in front of them. It’s akin to a reader looking at a massive block of text with little white space – it all becomes too much to digest. By creating breaks for your customers in the form of displays, focal points or actual physical breaks in the shelving, these “speed bumps” allow the shopper to momentarily refresh. Another tip for retailers with a large elderly customer base is to actually place rest areas throughout the store. People with breathing or mobility problems can find long aisles exhausting which may cause them to avoid the store entirely.
Adequate Space
Related to creating breaks for customers is having adequate space for both the products and the customers. It’s been found the shoppers who are bumped by other shoppers tend to move away from any product they are examining. Ideally you’d like to extend their examination process for as long as necessary, not cause a customer to move away from a product they’re contemplating. Give people space to move around without inadvertently touching each other. Similarly, cramming too much stock onto the shelves creates the aforementioned massive block-of-text that readers find so daunting. By giving your merchandise breathing space, you’ll find your customers will relax as well.
