Store Design

What can your store design do for you?

Inside-out marketing involves creating an environment with your store that is visually stimulating enough to promote word-of-mouth advertising, and informative enough to let your customers know what you stand for and what they must buy from you. The initial store design, both interior and exterior, is critical to this function and to establishing a strong retail identity.

Is your store for a specific type of person? Does everything in the store work for them?

Depending on your target, you may have different needs. Mothers need room for baby carriages or children's play areas. Senior citizens may need larger signage or sitting areas. Address these needs and make them fit your store's personality while doing so.

Does your location work with your store goals and target market?

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Have you thought about what elements of the store design will be essential to your business?

If you are a cosmetics store you need to have areas for customers to sit so you can apply makeup, 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 in your store design serves a specific inside-out marketing purpose and is not simply made to be pretty. From fixtures, shelves, wall decorations, colors, signage, window displays, and other design elements, these all need to reflect who you are and be catered to your specific business. Along with the design, an efficient store layout can play a pivotal role in your sales. A plan will help ensure that you consider all of your objectives and are developing the store design to work with who you are while meeting 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?

In this fast-paced world we live in, people need to quickly understand your store and what it offers them. If the store is too confusing or doesn't explain itself, many times you will lose a valuable customer. Make sure that you have clear, simple 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 the best store design for your needs.