Many companies are under the impression that with the rise of virtual reality and the shift of stores onto the web, online work would be at the forefront of retail. Consequently, make physical stores obsolete. It is true that due to recent leaps in technology, the online presence requires special attention. However, this doesn’t make the retail store outdated, but on the contrary, makes them the perfect hubs for strengthening the bond between the brand and its customers.
Thus, given the increased importance, the layout and design of the retail store space must be given special attention.
Retail stores are no longer about convenience and a wide array of choices.
The strength of the retail stores lies in their human element. Therefore, every aspect of the retail store needs to be carefully picked and managed to provide the necessary balance between personalized attention and freedom.
The retail store layout design can be divided into three broad phases.
The three phases are Fixed factors, Research, and Design. Only after these three are taken care of will the implementation get the brand the result it seeks. These three phases are interlinked but require individual attention for maximum effectiveness.
Phase One (Fixed factors)
These include the things that are fixed, thus serving as the baseline for everything that follows. Factors such as brand values and vision. The actual physical space available, the primary and secondary purpose of the store. Like anything concerning design. What needs to be tackled is the purpose of design. What is the store trying to accomplish? Is this a new establishment starting from scratch or a brand looking to upgrade to increase engagement?
All these factors would play a vital role in determining the trajectory of the design. A store concerned with luxury products would be set up entirely differently than a convenience store. Something established to improve the brand’s reputation in the market would have been designed with different factors in mind than the one centered around a niche sector of the market.
Phase 2 (Research)
Once phase one is completed and the purpose is clear. It is time to dwell on research. The design must cater to the people that the store is aimed at while leaving enough margin for experimentation to pull in new customers.
Unlike the fixed factors. Research and Design don’t stop. They follow each other, running in a loop. However, the best starting point for research is customer behavior and customer flow. There are several programs or software that can be used to calculate the customer flow and recognize behavioral patterns. The research needs to be constantly updated with regular monitoring for the emergence of new patterns.
One true and tested method of finding out the crowd flow patterns is observing and analyzing the time-lapse of store footage. The planning of the retail store should be done around the areas of high engagement while facilitating the engagement of new additions.
Phase 3 (Design)
The design of stores is as varied as the types of businesses and the customer base associated with them. However, some fundamentals must be kept in mind while designing the layout.
The front of the store is most important when it comes to primary engagement. In the case of well-known high-end brands, the front of the store can be minimalistic with the brand name being the most prominent element. As that is what the targeted customer base would look for. In this case, the design is influenced by the reputation and expectations tied to the brand name.
In case medium to small scale brands. The front of the store is of great importance and thus should be used to showcase the best that the company has to offer.
Once the customer enters the store. The first 10 – 15 feet of the store should be kept empty of high-end products or products which have high engagement. This is the primary transition area and thus anything kept in this area is glazed over in favor of products at the back.
After the initial engagement. The flow of the customer depends on two major factors. The customer intention and the floor arrangement. The secondary factor is the type of store it is.
For a retail store, dealing with the daily necessities of the customer would best be served by a simple grid layout. The placement of products should be adjusted accordingly. For example, the products mostly brought together should be grouped and shifted to back sections to increase browning time and customer convenience.
On the other hand, a high-end store (Fashion or Tech) would enjoy a less predictable layout. Sections are divided by purpose with enough areas of rest in between. Such stores would have more negative space and minimalistic design to highlight the points of focus.
A store catering to a mixture of both high-end and day-to-day purchases would benefit most from a continuous racetrack layout (Interior design). Interconnectivity of different sections is obvious for those who prefer browsing. This along with clear pathways and indicators for customers looking for solutions to their specific problems.
The seamless flow of the customers in the store is extremely important and therefore bottlenecking is a major concern. Bottlenecking is the crowding of people in a specific section of the store. People desire certain free space to walk around and browse in the store. Constant bumping will result in irritation in the customer, causing them to make a beeline to the exit. Therefore, the design of the store needs to constantly be attentive against any areas of bottlenecking in the store.
The layout of the store at first glance seems like an arbitrary thing. Given how much space there is, widens the possibilities of experimentation. Even a random chaotic arrangement is appealing if done in a small controlled space.
The main thing to keep in mind when it comes to the layout of the retail store is to be open to updates. The layout of the retail store may need to change in case of new arrivals or with the change of seasons.
In the end, every design or layout decision is made to increase the time that the customer stays in the store while making the experience more personal and human. Prompting the customer to buy more and better than what they intended.
