Retail design is an important aspect of high street trading. It is your main point of contact with customers, those who will be regularly browsing your store and shelves, and it communicates the quality and priorities of your brand. If it is not given due consideration, low-quality retail design can result in customers lowering their opinion of your business, product, and service. This applies to all aspects of your retail space too.
As the UK retail economy seeks to recover from the effects of lockdown, however, a significant number of businesses are minimising their expenditure, which limits the potential renovations and redesigns that can take place within their shop space. Thankfully, there are a number of affordable renovations that can spruce and entirely reinvent a retail space for the better.
Key Areas
A shop’s space is a collection of essential areas that are loosely connected. You may have heard of terms, such as power wall and decompression zone. They describe the key assets of a customer’s journey through your store, where their attention focuses, and the tools are their navigation. Identifying these features is key because it allows a store owner to focus their spend on the most impactful essentials, whether a slatwall display or a spotlit mannequins.
Create Space
There are two reasons why creating space has been an important design decision for retailers. Firstly, it is often preferred by customers and there is a connection between browsing comfortably, at a distance from others, and enjoyment. If customers are in too close proximity to each other, they are more likely to leave.
The second reason is that once space has been cleared, retailers are able to decompress and reevaluate their design choices, displays, and shop shelving decisions. Often, this leads to more ergonomic and efficient design choices, as well as bringing a refreshing vitality to the store. So, before you being spending, scale back your retail design first.
Light the Way
Lighting plays an incredibly important role within store design and even the most impressive, well-curated retail spaces can be easily undermined by low-quality lighting. Many retailers are surprised at how different their store’s atmosphere and aesthetic can become with only the simple act of replacing lightbulbs, for example.
Others will go further a seek to cultivate natural light within their store that, while temperamental in the UK’s climate, is a low-cost way of illuminating a store.
Refresh Your Floor
The ground of your store, whether luscious carpet or characterful floorboards, should be both safe and stylish. It is the foundation of a retail aesthetic, one that customers will consistently be interacting with. If it is flawed in any way, whether with a potential trip hazard or worn design, choosing to fix the issue will have the effect of rejuvenating your entire store.
While new flooring can lead to significant costs, depending on the size of your store, more affordable items, such as bespoke carpets and paint, can have much of the same effect at a fraction of the cost.