Imagine a retail business where throngs of people create bottlenecks. This is what poor store design and space planning look like. Unless the cause of the chaos is that your shelves are displaying the hottest items around, your customers will be frustrated and unlikely to return.
Shoppers like order, space, convenience, and streamlined payments. Effective store planning considers these facts to optimize the customer experience and solidify your brand.
This guide explains how to create a brick-and-mortar space that will keep customers coming back. It describes store layouts, where to place payment and kiosk systems, and how to deliver a brand experience your customers will both remember and return to.
Retail stores understand the customer-centric approach. A customer-centric approach focuses on the customer’s in-store experience rather than conversions or other sales metrics.
A great customer experience is achieved in various ways. Like the beauty store Sephora, some stores offer an app that mirrors the in-store experience with virtual try-on. Sephora allows customers to test samples, put them in their "beauty bag," and book in-store appointments. Other stores, like Kohls, increase foot traffic by offering in-store coupons or discounts through their app.
While the above customer experience strategies are key to attracting consumers and bringing them into your store, you need to make sure to continue the experience. Effective store planning and design improves the customer experience and increases foot traffic by providing great flow, stress-free shopping, and a convenient checkout. Done right, great layout will also boost profits by steering customers to high-priority products and impulse buys.
Retail store planning and design tend to follow five basic layouts: grid, loop, free flow, geometric, or angular. Which one will work for you depends on your floor space, the products, and the experience you want the customer to have.
Grocery stores, big box stores, and convenience stores use grid layouts. They are characterized by several long aisles and mostly follow a set layout that is easy to navigate. Retailers place impulse-buy items at the end of aisles so that customers walk by them on their way to get the items they were planning to buy.
Items can be grouped on shelves so that customers can find what they are looking for. Also, retailers can maximize shelf space for product display and reduce whitespace.
The drawback with this design for smaller retailers is that there may not be enough floor space, and they may need a strict merchandising strategy to control inventory. If the aisles are too narrow, customers will feel cramped. Part ofTarget’s initial success was due to wider aisles in their stores, which improved the customer experience.
Loop layouts lead shoppers along a set pathway where they can see merchandise on walls and on shelves. Think of museum gift stores as an example of a loop layout. The advantage of loops is that shoppers pass by all of the merchandise, and the loop directs and controls traffic.
A drawback is that customers who want a specific item must complete the whole loop. However, there are ways to keep the customer engaged and improve their experience. For example, offering apps for in-store discounts or through creative marketing.
Boutiques, such as high-end clothing stores, use a free-flow layout for their store operations, as do duty-free shops in international airports. In a free-flow environment, shoppers can wander anywhere and do not follow a predetermined traffic pattern.
Strategic signage, displays, product placement, and traffic paths encourage customer engagement and sales. However, planning this type of layout is difficult. Common mistakes include placing shelves too close to each other, not adding space or visual breaks, and poor checkout placement that confuses customers or makes it awkward for customers to pay.
Done well, this plan allows for creative marketing and a unique in-store experience that will differentiate a brand from its more staid competitors. This type of layout suits small higher-end businesses that have less merchandise but strong brand identity.
Tech and electronic stores often use geometric layouts composed of displays of different shapes and sizes — e.g., squares, rectangles, or ovals. These shapes can accentuate a space with an existing angular design due to its existing walls or structure.
The shapes are compelling to the eye and create a contemporary design. This layout can accentuate a brand’s image, but the new-age tone might be off-putting to older demographics. The big-box tech store Best Buy uses a geometric layout to great effect.
Angular layouts are popular in high-end designer or specialty shops. An angular store actually uses curved product displays so that the customer is encouraged to flow to the different displays. Each free-standing display is unique and separate from another to give a perception of high-quality merchandise. The smaller displays also give an impression of limited stock, which adds a sense of urgency to shoppers, encouraging them to purchase.
The downside to angular displays is that the retailer must sacrifice space, particularly wall space, and limit how much they display. Extra merchandise must be stored, which could cause inventory management problems for smaller retailers.
A blueprint, or a planogram, is a bird’s-eye view of your store, including what products are displayed where.
Your store planning should start with a blank blueprint to which you add features, such as your free-standing displays, wall displays, and checkout area. Your checkout area might be a counter with cashiers and point-of-sale (POS) systems or self-service kiosks where customers can place orders or complete contactless payments. If your business is a clothing store, don’t forget to plan seating areas and changing rooms as well.
Draw your blueprint to scale to accurately assess how much space you have. You can use your blueprint to change the layout and play with different options in the planning process. The following planning solutions may be helpful for creating a blueprint:
Microsoft Visio
EdrawMax
Floorplanner
Lucidchart floor plan creator
ConceptDraw
Studies on customer behavior have shown that most people turn to the right as they enter a store and walk counterclockwise around the space. So, according to that science, the front left of a retail merchandising establishment is the best place for a POS area because it is the natural exit point for customers. It also would prevent clogging up pathways and display space.
Some retailers choose to place the POS at the back of the store to free up space in the front. However, for small businesses with few employees, this might leave the front of the store unattended.
In addition to its location within the store, there are other checkout area considerations to keep in mind. For one, checkout counters should be large enough to accommodate products from customers who wish to continue shopping and manage an efficient checkout process. For example, shoppers should have enough space to put down a handbag.
If you’re using self-service kiosks in your checkout area, signage and lighting are important. Customers need to see that the kiosks are operational and to know how to use them. The screen should be easy to see when customers are typing in orders or using the touchscreen to pay. It may also be a good idea to have a sales floor employee located near the self-service area in case a customer needs assistance.
Your retail store layout will direct customer flow to avoid frustrating bottlenecks. The right retail space is also integral to creating your brand. Your layout and assortment planning will depend on your existing space, what you sell, and how you envisage the customer experience.
It’s worthwhile to invest time and money in your store layout so that your customers keep coming back. An important part of this is designing a quick and easy checkout process that’s optimally located within your store. If you’re interested in adding self-service kiosks to streamline the checkout experience, start your free trial with KioskBuddy today or schedule a quick call with our expert team.