MODULE 8: STORE LAYOUT, DESIGN, AND VISUAL MERCHANDISING

Cards (54)

  • 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.