The retail experience is influenced by a number of factors. Sales representatives remain, understandably, at the helm, being an essential point of contact for shoppers, overseeing each transaction of sale. However, the foundation of a shopping experience is built upon the shop’s design, from its stylistic choices to the very shelves upon which products are displayed.
There are a number of essential ways that shop design can influence customer experience, each of which is important for a high street retailer to consider. This is because the adjustment and improvement of assets and aesthetics can improve a store’s reputation among customers, draw in new shoppers, and even increase sales.
Effortless Navigation
If a customer beings to feel disorientated or confused, then a store’s design has failed. The shopping experience should feel effortless to navigate, with products and store arrangements leading customers through the retail space. To achieve this, retailers must work navigation into their design, highlighting key areas with spotlights or informing customers of directions with clear sign fittings.
Relief Spaces
It may seem counterintuitive to allocate a certain area of shop space to the absence of products and information but, especially within larger retail concepts, these relief spaces are essential. Dedicating an area, especially one that has seating, to customer respite is more likely to improve the customer’s stamina while reducing their stress. These effects encourage customers to spend a greater amount of time in the store while simultaneously improving their perception of the brand’s quality of comfort, both of which are conducive to positive opinion and increased spend.
Elevation Of Quality
Perception of product quality involves the furniture and retail shelving upon which each item rests. A retailer that does not invest in suitably complementary store displays or shop fittings will find their products being undermined by lesser-quality retail assets. Additionally, retailers who select high-quality fittings and furniture will find their products gaining quality, being elevated by the bespoke design and manufacturing of their displays.
Statement Design
In an era of social media, retailers can find word-of-mouth success by dedicating an area of the store entirely to an aesthetic backdrop. Some are finding success in neon light script, making brand-related statements that are easily captured in photos and then shared online. Others are using curated designs and props around their shop spaces to generally encourage customers to take photographs and share them with friends, simultaneously promoting the brand’s quality and advertising the products on display.
Appealing Window Display
Even a store situated at the centre of a high street can fail to assure footfall if its window and exterior display are not well-designed. Retailers must consider their shop facades one of the most important parts of their store’s design due to the potential impact it can have on those passing by.
In addition to displays and information, exteriors should describe a refined and simple message about the brand, using materials and colour to describe the intended associations of the retailer’s products. By achieving this, shops will find a greater number of customers being drawn into their spaces.
