Designing Your Store

• Is your store for a specific type of person? Does everything in the store work for them?
  Different targets have different needs. Mothers need room for baby carriages, changing tables or children's play areas, while seniors may need larger signage or sitting areas. If women will be shopping with men in tow, make sure there is something that the man can look at and find interesting to purchase too. If you are trying to attract the time starved alpha mom, she doesn’t want to have to ask to find something, make sure there is clear and easy signage to direct her in and out quickly. Incorporate these needs into establishing your store’s personality to arrive at a consistent design that pleases your target consumer.
• Does your location align with your store goals and target market?
  If you offer to-go food, ensure your location is somewhere convenient for people to pick up either with walking traffic or easy access parking. If you are targeting young men with your products, make sure you are in a location where they tend to go. If you plan on being a destination store, be prepared to spend more on marketing so people will know how to find you and why it is so important to go the extra mile for shopping (and accept that this may eat into the rent savings you had from being off the beaten path). Find demographic census information through American FactFinder.
• Have you thought about what elements of the store design will be essential to your business?
  A cosmetics store needs seating areas so you can apply makeup to customers, and a clothing store needs dressing rooms. Think about your functional needs and how you can integrate these with your store identity to make them not only work but act as a marketing tool to promote your brand.
• Have you created a plan to ensure that you have a good store design?
  Every element of your store design serves a specific marketing purpose, which means you need to be concerned with more than just looks. All fixtures, shelves, wall decorations, colors, signage, window displays, and other design elements need to reflect who you are and be catered to your specific business. An efficient store layout detailing design specifics can play a pivotal role in your sales. A plan will help ensure that you consider all of your objectives and that store design represents an image that will effectively address these goals. A properly done plan forces store design to connect to and enhance marketing and merchandising strategies.
• Does your store "say" what you want your customers to hear?
  We live in a fast-paced world, and you have the challenge of making sure people can quickly understand your store and what it offers them. If layout and design is too confusing, and you’re missing sufficient signage for the visually inclined, you could lose valuable customers. Make sure that you have clear, consistent signage and messaging available throughout the store so that customers can help themselves and easily find what they need.

If you are having trouble answering these questions on your own, Retail Concepts can help you plan a store design that best addresses your needs.

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