As a retail business owner, you want your store experience to be wonderful for your customers. Every aspect of your store matters: the training the staff has received, the products you want to keep in your inventory, and a store that is clean and tidy are all important aspects of your regular store routine. All of those measures, however, are useless without a store layout that is designed to boost your sales and present your merchandise in an intuitive way that will appeal to as many customers as possible. If you’re worried that your store layout might be working against you, these four clues will stand out.
You Aren’t Offering Visual Clues to Your Customers
You want your customers to be able to tell how your merchandise is organized. If you don’t have visible divisions between the types of products and signs that will help customers find the specific item they’re looking for, your customers are going to struggle to figure out where anything is in your store—and that means frustrated customers who are going to leave and make their purchases elsewhere. You also want written or graphically organized information that will convey relevant information to your customers no matter where they are in the store.
There’s No Natural Sequence
As customers step into your store, they should experience a natural flow through the buying experience that encourages them to check out everything your store has to offer. A choppy layout can make it difficult for customers to simply browse through your products, while dead ends or hidden corners can lead to merchandise that is never explored. If you really want to help guide your customers, you can even mark out their pathway around the store for maximum effect.
There’s Too Much Clutter
It’s often tempting to fill your store with as much merchandise as possible. After all, customers can’t buy items that they don’t know that you’re selling! If everything is piled up together and there’s no room for a product to stand out, however, it’s impossible for a customer to become impressed by a particular product. Instead, you need striking visual merchandising that has some air to breathe, allowing it to stand out from the crowd. Wire baskets, hanging wires from the ceiling, and other techniques can all allow you to maximize the display space in your store without overwhelming your customers.
You Don’t Have Plans for a Great First Impression
Getting customers to step into your store among all the others they could browse through is a challenge. Keeping them there after they glance through the door is even harder! You need to be highly intentional about the first impression your customers get when they walk into your store. What do you want them to think about your store when they first step inside? In many cases, they may hurry through the store and choose to browse or buy little if the first impression isn’t a great one.
From the moment your customers walk by on the sidewalk outside your store, your layout and design should reflect the experience that you want them to have. Do you want them to see your store as a cozy little nook where they can pick out niche items that they can’t find anywhere else? Is it a bright, colorful place where you always have the latest merchandise in a particular industry? By understanding the role that your store plays in your industry, you can create a consistent experience for your customers that deepens their connection to your brand and increases your sales as a result. Avoiding these four common mistakes will help you improve the shopping experience in your store and increase your customers’ satisfaction.
Author Bio: Josh Astor works for Marvolus manufacturing, a leader in the point of sale display industry for over 60 years. Marvolus prides itself on being a true manufacturing company and importer that partners with select suppliers on custom projects to deliver innovation that helps you become more profitable. Please visit their website to learn more marvolus.com
