Customers form impressions on the quality of your business from the physical appearance of your store or showroom, which makes it vitally important to ensure the quality of your shop fittings communicate the correct message to visitors to your store. In consumer marketing research these items come under the category of ‘tangibles’, and is related to the concept that the things that consumers can see, touch and feel give cues to intangible aspects such as quality and value.
If a store looks run down, disorganised and bland then the customers are more likely to receive the message that the store is low-quality. Seemingly simple items such a broken slatwall accessories, low-quality display stands, fittings that don’t match in colour or size, plain-coloured vs custom-coloured gondola shelving, and the style of shop fittings all contribute to the opinion the consumer forms about your shop.
Walk Into Your Store Imagining You Were A Customer
A simple exercise to do regularly is to put yourself in the shoes of your customer and forget that you are an owner. Maybe even start down the street and run through the whole process of approaching your store. When you walk into your store consider things like:
- What areas do you look at first?
- What path do you naturally follow?
- Which products capture your attention first?
- Are the products neatly laid out?
- Do the fittings and displays look consistent and organised?
- What does the mood of the store feel like?
- Do areas of the store feel cluttered and hard to move through?
- Is it easy to see products and sort through products to find sizes, colours or other options?
- If you had a shopping list for a particular product how easy would it be to find that product?
The design and style the shop fittings can make some products more inviting and help customer find the products they are looking for. By doing this exercise you can start to make a list of the gaps in your store display and what shop fittings you may need to improve the visibility of your products.
Plan The Display Your Most Profitable Items First
Making your most important items prominent and easy to find needs to be a priority. So make a list of the products that contribute most to the profitability of your store. Sometimes these won’t be your most expensive or highest-selling products. They may be smaller products with high margin and solid sales volume, or products that encourage people to buy other add-on products over time.
Once you have defined the products that contribute most to the success of your store then you can plan where and how to to display these products to make them easy to find, select and buy. Think back to the earlier exercise and work out the fittings that will help a customer see these products as they walk in and easily select the one they need. Then think about positioning related products around the main products and what fittings will be complement and be consistent with the main product display. You might also want to choose the style and color of your shop fittings according to the color brand of your product.
Plan For Regular Changes To Retail Displays
Shop fitting involves displaying merchandise in the most enticing way for your customers but customers lose interest quickly if the store is always the same. Try small regular changes to make the store interesting and different so that regular customers learn something new each time they walk in. As a minimum this should be one change every 4-6 weeks but if you look at your sales data and customer visits you may find this need to even quicker than this.
Think about creating a supply of shop fittings that allow you to mix up the look and feel of particular sections of the store. having extra fittings also gives your staff the ability to get creative and innovative with your displays to create extra sales.
Call Us If You Need Advice On The Best Fittings For Your Store Design and Displays
Our team at Advanced Display Systems have many years experience helping store owners in a range of industries. We can help you with advice on what has work for others and help you find the fittings you are looking for. We have a wide range of quality shop fittings that includes gondola shelving, slatwall, showcase counters and the fittings and accessories to work with these products. Contact us and we will be happy to help.
