Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Store Design
Store Design
Store Design
Learning Objectives
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Understand the store design
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Examine Store Layout Design
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Identify the objectives of a good store design.
Introduction
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plans can be made to meet the need for storage and selling space. The
plan must specify the ways to achieve the best traffic circulation possible
throughout the store and the types and sizes of fixtures necessary to
display the merchandise in an appealing manner. A careful study of
these factors helps make stores attractive, conducive to shopping, and
as operationally efficient as possible. Comprehensive planning requires
developing a customer –bases holistic focus for the design and layout of
the store and for the desired store image. Only after this customer focus is
defined should a comprehensive plan be developed for both the exterior
and interior of the store that matches the desired store image.
1. Customer Focus
2. Store Image
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When customers enter a store, they want the displays and
departments to tell them all about the store. The image the store is
attempting to project should be immediately obvious to potential
customers. If the store wants price as the predominant image, departments
emphasizing this aspect should be placed near the entrance. Managers
should give the best space to the departments that say to the customer,
“This is what I am”.
3. Holistic Approach
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choices at home, make product selections, and conclude the purchase
transaction. They will be able to choose whether to wait and receive their
purchases through transportation carriers or to proceed directly to the
retailer’s store or depot where the merchandise will be ready for pickup.
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Store Design should
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Be consistent with image and strategy
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Positively influence consumer behaviour
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Consider costs versus value
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Be flexible
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Recognize the needs of the disabled
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Important criteria include cleanliness, labeled prices, accurate and
pleasant checkout clerks, and well-stocked shelves
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The store itself makes the most significant and last impression
In sum, once the prospective customers are inside the store, they
should be converted into customers buying merchandise.
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The more merchandise customers are exposed to that is presented
in an orderly manner, the more they tend to buy
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Retailers should focus more attention on in-store marketing
‘expensive’ spent in the store, in the form of store design,
merchandise presentation, visual displays, and in-store promotions,
should lead to greater sales and profits (because it is easier to get
a consumer in your store to buy more merchandise than planned
than to get a new consumer to come into your store).
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Visual communications
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Lighting
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Colour
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Sound
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Scent
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To stimulate customers’ perceptual and emotional responses and
ultimately influence their purchase behaviour.
Store Exteriors
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design elements. The display windows show a selection of merchandise
available in the store. Store exterior comprises the following:
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Location
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Parking
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Ease of access
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The building architecture
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Health and safety standards
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Store windows, lighting
Store Interiors
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Fixtures
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Flooring & Ceilings
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Lighting
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Graphics & Signages
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Atmospherics
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Examples
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c) Four way fixture: Which is also known as feature fixture has two
crossbars that sit perpendicular to each other on a pedestal.
b) Dominance: All displays should have a central point that will attract
the viewer’s eye. Ex: Display of titan watches.
c) Eye movement: Displays should direct the eyes away from the point
of dominance in a systematic fashion, instead of encouraging them
to jump from one end to the other.
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f) Grouping the merchandise: Instead of opting for long display of
merchandise, retailers should opt for grouping of merchandise
which facilitates the customers and also the store’s personnels. It
facilitates so that the customers eyes cannot travel from group to
group but stop and focus on particular product
g) Sales appeal: Display should always show best merchandise that the
retailer has to offer. Best way to generate sales appeal is to choose
the most important feature of the merchandise and focus on it.
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5) Ceiling: Ceiling represents a potentially important element in the
interior design. Higher the ceiling, more the space to heat and
cool, at increasing energy rates. Designers are making use of varied
ceiling drops to create distinction for different departments within
the stores.
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purchases. In addition, graphics, such as photo panels, can enhance the
store environment and the store’s image. Digital signage has several
advantages over traditional printed signage, but the initial fixed costs have
made the adoption of this technology slow. Feature areas are areas within
a store designed to get the customer’s attention. They include freestanding
displays, end caps, promotional aisles or areas, windows, cash wraps or
point-of-sale areas, and walls.
The interior design of the store determines the way the merchandise
is stored and offered for sale. The design should allow easy access to
merchandise for customer. Several layout patterns enhance the customer’s
access to goods. The interior also projects an image to the shopper that
should be consistent with that conveyed by the store’s promotion, price,
and merchandise and with the exterior design. The store interior must
make the customer comfortable and encourage shopping.
Exterior Location
Design
Prices
Merchandise
Layout
Services Retail
Format
Visual
Personal merchandising
selling
Advertising Promotion
Interior
design
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sell it, to guard it, and to provide a storage space for it. They should be
attractive and focus customer’s attention and interest on the merchandise.
One way to bring the cost of fixtures down is standardization.
2. Displays
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often take up premium space within the store, they carry a heavy burden
of productivity in terms of creating sales. There are several principle rules
of display that help ensure their effectiveness:
a) Balance
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b) Dominance
All displays should have a central point that will attract the viewer’s
eye. The point may be achieved by using prominent piece of merchandise,
such as a diamond pendant, using dramatic colours, such as a bright scarf,
or using streamers arranged toward the center of the display.
c) Eye Movement
Displays should direct the eyes away from the point of dominance
in a systematic fashion, instead of encouraging them to jump from one
end to the other. If the viewer’s eyes move indiscriminately around the
display, the shopper will miss some of the merchandise and will not get
the full message intended.
d) Gradation
e) Height of Merchandise
f) Grouping Merchandise
Too many retailers place one item after another in a long row. Shoe
stores, jewellery stores, and mass merchandisers tend to do this. Stores
with large amounts of one item or with one line of goods are likely to build
longer displays. Instead of creating long displays where the customer has
problems picking out merchandise, retailers should group items so that
the customer’s eyes cannot travel from group to group but stop and focus
on particular products.
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Notes
g) Sales Appeal
Displays should always show the best merchandise that the retailer
has to offer. As discussed above, displays take up some of the most valuable
space in the store. Using show-moving items for display is a waste. One
way to generate sales appeal is to choose the most important feature of
the merchandise being displayed and focus on it. Another way is create a
theme that already exists within the customer’s mind, such as Valentine’s
Day, Christmas, or back to school. Customers relate best when they can
grasp the total picture.
h) Keeping it Simple
3) Colour
4) Lighting
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mood retailer is attempting to create with the rest of the store décor and
should complement, rather than detract from, the merchandise. General
illumination is needed throughout the store. However, most stores need
additional localized lighting to highlight special displays and showcases,
help bring out colours, and relieve the monotony of even, overall light.
Too much or too little lighting, or even the wrong type of lighting, can
create false impressions about the merchandise on display. Incandescent
lighting used alone, for example, accents yellow and red. Fluorescent
lights frequently build up blues and purple. Therefore, retailers must use
a lighting combination that gives a correct impression of the merchandise
while de-emphasising the source of the light itself.
5) Ceilings
6) Flooring
7) Shelving
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general merchandise store, Glass shelving, framed in the woods, creates
an element of elegance difficult to achieve otherwise. General shelving
considerations and merchandise display are discussed in the next selection.
One of the key tools of modern shelf and layout planning is the
Plano gram. This graphical representation visually shows the space to be
allocated by describing where every stock keeping unit (SKU) within a
space is physically located. As you will see in Chapter 10, every product
has its own SKU. The Plano gram produces a map for the length, height,
and depth of shelves with the number and location of the SKU.
9) Other Considerations
Some factors that retailers consider when deciding how much floor
or shelf space to allocate to merchandise categories and brands are:
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and demand/destination merchandise throughout the store, retailers can
increase the chances that customers will shop the entire store and that
their attention will be focused on the merchandise that the retailer is most
interested in selling. In locating merchandise categories, retailers need to
consider typical consumer shopping patterns.
Store layout is a plan that shows how the space in the store will be
used. In this connection the placement of the following items will have a
major effect on store image
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The signage displaying the name and logo of the store must be
installed at a place where it is visible to all, even from a distance.
Too much information should be avoided.
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The store must offer a positive ambience to the customers. The
customers must leave the store with a smile.
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Make sure the mannequins are according to the target market
and display the latest trends. The clothes should look fitted on
the dummies without using unnecessary pins. The position of the
dummies must be changed from time to time to avoid monotony.
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The trial rooms should have mirrors and must be kept clean. Do
not dump unnecessary boxes or hangers in the dressing room.
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The retailer must choose the right colour for the walls to set the
mood of the customers. Prefer light and subtle shades.
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The fixtures or furniture should not act as an object of obstacle.
Unnecessary furniture should be avoided at the store.
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Notes
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The merchandise should be well arranged and organized on the
racks assigned for them. The shelves must carry necessary labels for
the customers to easily locate the products they need. Make sure
the products do not fall off the shelves.
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Music at the store should not be loud, rather it should be soothing.
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The store should be adequately lit so that the products are easily
visible to the customers. Replace burned out lights immediately.
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The floor tiles, ceilings, carpet and the racks should be kept clean
and stain free.
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There should be no bad odour at the store as it irritates the
customers.
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Do not stock anything at the entrance or exit of the store to block
the way of the customers. The customers should be able to move
freely in the store.
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The retailer must plan his store in the following way which
minimises theft or shop lifting:
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Grid (Straight) Design
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Best used in retail environments in which majority of customers
shop the entire store
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Can be confusing and frustrating because it is difficult to see over
the fixtures to other merchandise
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Should be employed carefully; forcing customers to back of large
store may frustrate and cause them to look elsewhere
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Most familiar examples for supermarkets and drugstores
Source: www.radford.edu
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store sections or departments as possible. They are therefore exposed
to a great number of products and promotional material. They exposes
shoppers to the greatest possible amount of merchandise by encouraging
browsing and cross-shopping
Source: www.radford.edu
Source: www.radford.edu)
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Fixtures and merchandise grouped into free-flowing patterns on
the sales floor no defined traffic pattern
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Works best in small stores (under 5,000 square feet) in which
customers wish to browse
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Works best when merchandise is of the same type, such as fashion
apparel
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If there is a great variety of merchandise, fails to provide cues as to
where one department stops and another starts
Summary
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of fixtures necessary to display the merchandise in an appealing manner.
A careful study of these factors helps make stores attractive, conducive to
shopping, and as operationally efficient as possible. The basic elements in
a design that guide customers through the store are the layout, signage,
and feature areas.
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