Imagine you are your customer. When you walk into the store, what makes you notice the product first? When you pass a display, aisle, or shelf, what makes you like to browse products? What makes you stay at the entrance for only a few seconds before walking away? No matter how you answer these questions, they all point to the importance of the key steps when opening a retail store and designing a store floor plan.

You can have a great space, but you have to dress it up, make it look beautiful, and create a warm and inviting environment in which customers are happy to shop.

Let's see how to do this.

Use our simple inventory management template to simplify your process and save you time and money.

This is where the floor plan of the workshop can help. They are the layout of the route that guides your customers through your retail space. A good plan considers your typical traffic, product placement, and "traffic" flow.

We earlier hinted at the importance of floor plans to a successful retail business.

But it's actually hard to exaggerate their role in driving traffic, browsing, and in-store purchases.

“The store floor plan adopts the architectural floor plan and layered on the floor plan of traffic flow, area category adjacency, and fixture layout,” explained Ani Nersessian, a visual marketing expert at pop-up go, which helps retailers protect, design, and Execute and promote pop-up space. "This helps make the customer navigation experience as appealing, attractive and organized as possible, and is the first step necessary before determining the rest of the visual marketing strategy."

Different layouts will affect customer revenue in different ways. They can let your customers browse the products in your store. A good layout will help keep customers staying in the store longer, so they are more likely to buy something before going.

Think about your own shopping experience. Take, for example, a store like Costco or IKEA. They plan their sidewalks carefully, and they observe how customers navigate their stores in order to display as many items as possible while they are wandering in the store.

Ideally, you need to decide what kind of space you need before making a floor plan.

"This will help you adjust the floor design to the size and needs of a particular product," said Robert Johnson, founder of Sawinery, a woodworking service provider. "Remember that creative cross-selling or placing products that complement each other in a showcase—even if they are not part of the same section or department—is a good strategy to promote sales."

Let's take a look at some common retail store layouts.

Advantages: simple to set up and familiar to customers.

Disadvantages: The grid can be difficult for your customers to view all of your inventory.

You may have seen Grid at a grocery store or gas station before. They are very suitable for classifying different products. Grid layouts are popular among different retailers because they are easy to set up and organize. Customers have experience in the power grid and experience in the grocery store, so familiarity can be an asset. So it is familiar, easy to organize, and easy to set up for employees.

Advantages: useful for retailers who don't have much work space.

Disadvantages: It may be difficult for customers to see your product in the aisle.

This works well when space is at a premium, especially in long and narrow places. As a shopper, you may have seen such spaces on busy mall floors or on competitive streets in retail properties. As a retailer, you can make the most of the limited space by adding a focal point on the back wall of the store.

Advantages: very suitable for encouraging browsing and product exposure

Disadvantages: some customers may find this layout frustrating

This is the IKEA layout we mentioned earlier. This is a way for people to see a variety of commodities. This layout encourages customers to browse. It is perfect for reaching as many products as possible. This layout may not be suitable for small spaces. If you want your customers to be able to quickly pick up their goods and leave, that is not so good. Some customers may also be annoyed, especially if they have to traverse the entire "track" to find it just for one thing.

Pro: This layout may be very suitable for creative fashion companies and independent boutiques.

Disadvantages: Customers may find that they are confused when looking for products in large stores without proper signage.

You can call it a "no layout" layout. You might have different monitors, tables, and shelves for customers to browse. Unlike track or grid layouts, you will not guide customers along the established store path. Usually, the space is larger and customers feel less "managed", they can wander around and freely view different displays.

Accessibility reminder: Retailers need to make their products accessible to everyone. This means ensuring that customers with different mobility levels can reach all items. Set the maximum height of the product to be displayed. Train employees to have mobility awareness. And consider providing motorized shopping carts where possible.

We’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: your store floor plan seriously affects the customer’s shopping experience.

Data-driven, fact-based design will guide shoppers to browse your store, and a poorly designed store will annoy customers with accidentally placed items. According to Nick Drewe, CEO of Wethrift, an e-commerce sales and coupon platform, you can create a profitable and convenient layout in the following ways.

"If you sell flowers, fruits or vegetables, put them neatly in a basket near the entrance. Arrange your products carefully to create a fresh and fragrant environment. Then, display expensive, unsalable consumer products such as electrical appliances and imports. The gadgets after snacks and fresh produce," Drew suggested.

He recommends that you also display expensive items first, so that other products are cheaper in comparison. Then, on the left and right outer shelves, the cheaper, slow-moving consumer products of well-known brands are placed. Think of small and convenient items that shoppers can easily pick up.

"Next, put the essentials in the middle and back of the store," Drew said. "Ensure that shoppers will not be exposed to fast-moving consumer goods such as beverages, toiletries, and raw meat until they have passed through non-essential items. At this time, most shoppers have already grabbed at least one or two things they haven't grabbed." Finally, line up at the cash register to buy last-minute merchandise such as mints, chocolate bars and cigarettes. "

As Drewe's review suggests, your POS is your last chance to make additional sales with your customers. Therefore, the correct placement of the cash register is very important. You want the cash register to be in a clear primary position. And you need to reach it as easily as possible from as many points in the store as possible.

Allow customers and employees to move smoothly around the POS. And ensure that there is enough space for the formation and flow of the queue. Consider how many terminals you need and how to "decorate" the POS area to make it visually attractive and attractive.

No matter which floor plan you choose, don’t worry if the first attempt does not work well. You can get ideas through presentation and visual marketing to ensure you are always testing and learning. Even the smallest space.

If you really need some help figuring out how the point of sale fits your floor plan, then welcome to talk to one of our experts.

Lightspeed Commerce Inc. published this content on November 11, 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. The UTC time 11:16:09 on November 11, 2021 is distributed by the public, unedited and unaltered.