Useful Shopfitting Solutions from Space Planning Experts

As a store owner, you might not be concerned about the way your store looks and might fixate more on the merchandise you display. However, for an absolute success of your retail store there are numerous other aspects that, as a store owner, you must consider. The art of selling something is an intricate sport that requires several components, merchandise placement, and store layout to go hand in hand. It is a well-proven fact that upgrading your retail store design and shop systems from time to time can boost your sales. Consider the following shopfitting solutions for optimizing your store design and increasing your customer base:

1. Familiarize Yourself with Your Store’s Traffic Flow

Most of the store owners pay attention to their displayed merchandise as one of the shopfitting solutions but what they don’t pay much attention to is where the shoppers wander after they enter the store and before they check out. It is crucial that you pay attention to the pattern in which your customers choose to move. Tracing this pattern can help you place trending and ‘hot’ merchandise on strategic places and installing upgraded shop systems. Doing this can maximize your sales.

Numerous studies have already been done on retail traffic flow. These studies have proven that shoppers pick their direction of movement on the basis of road traffic direction in their native country. From this we come to a conclusion that countries that have right-hand driving are most likely to move in a clockwise direction. On the contrary, customers native to left-hand driving countries will move in an anti-clockwise manner. This fact may seem arbitrary at first, but being familiar with the route that your customers are going to pick can be used as a shop fitting solutions in the store layout, designing and merchandise placement decisions.

2. Avoid Placing Extravagant Merchandise Up Front

The space between the entrance of your retail store to the next few feet is termed by the retail experts as the ‘Decompression Zone’. This zone is primarily the space that entering shoppers can use for adjusting to the aura of the store. Your retail store might have a different lighting, temperature, or music as compared to outside which is quite natural. Therefore, shoppers might need a few seconds to make themselves comfortable in the new surroundings before they actually start looking around. Despite the changed surroundings, shoppers would not stop for the adjustment and walk past the merchandise and shop systems that are displayed at the front of your retail store without even noticing them.

3. Boost Your Store’s Q-Line Potential

Some big and popular places have a ‘Q-Line Area’ in their layout which consists of a place where the shoppers or customers can wait to be served in case there is a queue. The potential of the Q-Line area is often overlooked by business or store owners and they do not exploit the opportunities of impulse buys. There are two things we know to be true, whenever a shopper or a customer is waiting to be served:

• They’re willing to spend money.
• They’re killing time and will be more keen in their surroundings.

Combining these two factors can create an ideal aura for a customer to impulse buy, which is what makes the Q-Line area as one of the many shopfitting solutions. It would be unwise to display high-ticket merchandise and shop systems in this area; cheap and small merchandise would be the best fit for this area than anywhere in the store. As the customer has already made a decision to spend money on some items and they are waiting to pay for it, they wouldn’t mind spending a few extra bucks for a small, useful product.

An ideal Q-Line area is filled with affordable and useful things that are appealing to all kinds of audience. Some of the picks for this area can be undergarments, socks, toiletries etc, in a fashion store; snacks, cold drinks, etc in a convenience store and supermarkets.

4. Dodge Cramming

Paying for their retail space by the square meter, every store owner is tempted to use every inch of space available to display products and shopsystems. Whilst it may seem to many business owners like a great tactic to boost sales, overfilled retail stores are proven to put off potential shoppers from buying items, or in few cases prevent shoppers from even entering the retail store at all.

A well-organized store is likely to appeal more to potential customers. It is important to know about the taste of your customer while doing the layout of your retail store. Choose your merchandise wisely, display them neatly, and provide your customers enough space to maneuver and breathe. This can prove to be one of the most useful shopfitting solutions and can help to boost your sales.