MODULE 8: STORE LAYOUT, DESIGN, AND VISUAL MERCHANDISING

• OBJECTIVES OF THE STORE ENVIRONMENT:

  • Get customers into the store
  • Once they are inside the store, convert them into customers buying merchandise
• OBJECTIVES OF GOOD STORE DESIGN:

  • Be consistent with image and strategy
  • Positively influence consumer behavior
  • Consider costs versus value
  • Be flexible
  • Recognize the needs of the disabled - The Americans with Disabilities Act
• Store Image

  • Serves a critical role in the store selection process.
  • Important criteria include cleanliness, labeled prices, accurate and pleasant checkout clerks, and well-stocked shelves.
  • The store itself makes the most significant and last impression.
• Space Productivity

  • The more merchandise customers are exposed to that is presented in an orderly manner, the more they tend to buy.
  • Retailers focusing more attention on in-store marketing – marketing dollars spent in the store, in the form of store design, merchandise presentation, visual displays, and in-store promotions, should lead to greater sales and profits (bottom line: it is easier to get a consumer in your store to buy more merchandise than planned than to get a new consumer to come into your store).
• TYPES OF FLOOR SPACE IN STORE:

  • Back Room
  • Offices and Other Functional Space
  • Aisles, Service Areas, and Other Non-Selling Areas
  • Merchandise Space
• Back Room

  • Receiving area and stockroom
  • Department stores (50%)
  • Small specialty and convenience stores (10%)
  • General merchandise stores (15-20%)
• Offices and Other Functional Space - employee break room, store offices, cash office, restrooms.
• Aisles, Service Areas, and Other Non-Selling Areas

  • Moving shoppers through the store, dressing rooms, layaway areas, service desks, customer service facilities.
• Merchandise Space - must have floor and wall.
• Store Layout in Retailing - refers to the arrangement of fixtures, displays, aisles, and other elements within a retail space to optimize traffic flow, enhance the shopping experience, and maximize sales.
• Conflicting Objectives in Store Layout:

  • Ease of finding merchandise versus varied and interesting layout.
  • Giving customers adequate space to shop versus using expensive space productively.
• FOUR TYPES OF STORE LAYOUT:

  • Grid
  • Racetrack
  • Free Flow
  • Spine
• Grid Design:

  • Straight design of a retail store.
  • Best used in retail environments in which the majority of customers shop the entire store.
  • Can be confusing and frustrating because it is difficult to see over the fixtures to other merchandise.
  • It should be employed carefully; forcing customers to back to large stores may frustrate them and cause them to look elsewhere.
  • The most familiar examples for supermarkets and drugstores.
• Racetrack Design:

  • Major customer aisle(s) begin at entrance, loop through the store (usually in shape of a circle, square, or rectangle), and returns the customer to the front of store
  • Exposes shoppers to the greatest possible amount of merchandise by encouraging browsing and cross-shopping.
• Free-Flow Design:

  • Fixtures and merchandise are grouped into free-flowing patterns on the sales floor – no defined traffic pattern.
  • Works best in small stores (under 5,000 square feet) in which customers wish to browse.
  • Works best when merchandise is of the same type, such as fashion apparel.
  • If there is a great variety of merchandise, fails to provide cues as to where one department stops and another starts.
• Spine Design:

  • Variation of grid, loop, and free-form layouts
  • Based on a single main aisle running from the front to the back of the store (transporting customers in both directions)
  • On either side of the spine, merchandise departments branch off toward the back or side walls.
  • Heavily used by medium-sized specialty stores ranging from 2,000 – 10,000 square feet.
  • In fashion stores, the spine is often subtly offset by a change in floor coloring or surface and is not perceived as an aisle.
• Visual Merchandising - the artistic display of merchandise and theatrical props used as scene-setting decoration in the store.
• MERCHANDISE DISPLAY PLANNING:

  • Shelving
  • Hanging
  • Pegging
  • Folding
  • Stacking
  • Dumping
• Shelving - flexible, easy to maintain.
• Pegging - small rods inserted into gondolas or wall systems – can be labor intensive to display/maintain but gives neat/orderly appearance.
• Folding - soft lines can be folded and stacked on shelves or tables - creates a high fashion image.
• Stacking - large hardlines can be stacked on shelves, base decks of gondolas or flats – easy to maintain and gives an image of high volume and low price.
• Dumping – large quantities of small merchandise can be dumped into baskets or bins – highly effective for soft lines (socks, washcloths) or hardlines (batteries, candy, grocery products) – creates high volume, low-cost image.
• Feature Areas - within the store designed to get the customer's attention.
• Feature Areas include the following: end caps, promotional aisle/area, freestanding fixtures, windows, walls, and point-of-sale (POS) displays/areas.
• TYPES OF APPAREL DISPLAY FIXTURES:

  • Straight Rack
  • Gondola
  • Four-way Fixture
  • Round Rack
• Straight Rack - long pipe suspended with supports to the floor or attached to a wall.
• Gondola - large base with a vertical spine or wall fitted with sockets or notches into which a variety of shelves, peghooks, bins, baskets and other hardware can be inserted.
• Four-way Fixture - two crossbars that sit perpendicular to each other on a pedestal.
• Round Rack – round fixture that sits on pedestal.
• Wall Fixtures

  • To make the store’s wall merchandisable, the wall is usually covered with a skin that is fitted with vertical columns of notches similar to those on a gondola, into which a variety of hardware can be inserted
  • Can be merchandised much higher than floor fixtures (max of 42” on the floor for round racks on the wall can be as high as 72”).
• THREE PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS TO CONSIDER IN MERCHANDISING STORES:

  • Value/Fashion Image
  • Angles and Sightlines
  • Vertical Color Backing
• Value/Fashion Image => trendy, exclusive, pricy vs value-oriented.
• Angles and Sightlines

  • Customers view the store at 45-degree angles from the path they travel as they move through the store.
  • Most stores are set up at right angles because it’s easier and consumes less space.
• Vertical Color Backing

  • Merchandise should be displayed in vertical bands of color wherever possible – will be viewed as a rainbow of colors if each item is displayed vertically by color.
  • Creates a strong visual effect that shoppers are exposed to more merchandise (which increases sales).
• STOREFRONT DESIGN must have: 1. Clearly identify the name and general nature of the store; 2. Give some hints as to the merchandise inside; 3. Includes all exterior signage; 4. In many cases including store windows – an advertising medium for the store – window displays should be changed often, be fun/exciting, and reflect merchandise offered inside.
• Atmospherics

  • The design of an environment via visual communications, lighting, color, sound, and scent.
  • They are used to to stimulate customers’ perceptual and emotional responses and ultimately influence their purchase behavior.
• Visual Communications

  • Name, logo, and retail identity
  • Institutional signage
  • Directional, departmental, and category signage
  • Point-of-Sale (POS) Signage
  • Lifestyle Graphics
  • Coordinate signs and graphics with the store’s image
  • Use signs and graphics as props
  • Keep signs and graphics fresh
  • Limit sign copy
  • Use appropriate typefaces on signs
  • Create theatrical effects
• Lighting

  • Important but often overlooked element in successful store design.
  • Highlight merchandise.
  • Capture a mood .
  • The level of light can make a difference.
• Color

  • It can influence behavior
  • Warm colors increase blood pressure, respiratory rate, and other physiological responses – attract customers and gain attention but can also be distracting.
  • Cool colors are relaxing, peaceful, calm and pleasant – effective for retailers selling anxiety-causing products.