Clever floor planning is the way to your customer’s heart and wallet. For as long as I can remember, I have loved shopping. When I was a little girl, Saturdays were spent with my mom, having our much-needed girly bonding time while indulging in some family therapy ... retail therapy!
Every human being on this planet is a consumer. We make so many purchase decisions by looking to the world’s innovators and opinion leaders for advice. The world’s social media gurus, trend-setting celebrities, forward-thinking business tycoons, and clever retailers all guide us to being early adopters of new products.
With smart and appealing marketing and advertising campaigns, we are made aware of products and why we simply cannot go another day in this world without them. So the next step would be to go to your nearest retail haven and do the thing that retailers want – buy these must-have products. Easier said than done. Before I started working in the retail industry I was just a regular customer. I didn’t understand the complexities involved in getting the right products on the shelf!
All I cared about was having an enjoyable and pain-free shopping experience – I wanted to be able to walk into a store and go on this journey of self/brand discovery. Instead, I noticed that my shopping experience was pretty much like my experience driving in Johannesburg – stressful.
Traffic flow, dodging potholes, and getting lost are standard when driving in a big city, but this is not how consumers should be when walking into a store. In the past, many retailers focused all of their energy on buying, buying, buying, if we have the product the customers will come! Yes ... we will.
And then when we have spent 30 minutes searching high and low through a sea of product clutter we will turn around and march right on out the door. The 21st century is fast-paced and hectic enough – we don’t need to have a therapy session after our retail therapy.
So the solution to eliminating product clutter and helping your customer cut down on trips to their therapist is simple: strategic, logical, and visually appealing store layouts.
Clever floor planning and space planning can mean the difference between gaining and losing our valued customers.
Reasons why clever floor planning is the way to your customer's heart
1. Floor planning is the view from the top
It’s the macro space – the bigger picture – our view from the top. The longer a customer is in a store, the more likely they are to buy, therefore, the goal is to keep them shopping longer. How do we do that?
By telling a story about the way products are merchandised and how categories flow from one to the next.
2. Higher trading densities & logical product placement
Floor planning is a science. The flow should be able to enable increased sales through higher trading densities per square meter and logical product placement. Utilizing the space you are trading in wisely can mean the difference between that awkward meeting with the board explaining why there is negative GP growth; and that incentive trip to Bali.
3. Complementary categories
The layout can organize product categories together so that customers find different items they are looking for conveniently. By strategically merchandising complementary products or similar brands nearby customers will be more inclined to buy products connected to the one they are shopping for.
Grouping designers that cater to a similar customer, or merchandising winter hats, gloves, and scarves in the same area, is an example of driving additional cross-category or cross-brand sales.
4. Emotions are evoked during the shopping experience
Most retailers want customers to feel at ease and comfortable when shopping so that they transfer the same attitudes to the products they are buying. The store layout design can determine what emotions are evoked in the shopping experience. Factors such as merchandise arrangements, fixture colors, and aisle space affect whether a customer likes, and therefore regularly visits, a store.
Tall fixtures that restrict visibility might cause unease in shoppers, as they are forced to navigate every aisle. In clothing stores, a congested or ill-designed layout where fixtures are too close together can create tension by rushing shoppers through their purchase - which is the exact opposite of our goal. Open layouts where merchandise is visible can eliminate tension, making customers want to shop longer.
Conclusion
Invest in floor planning and store layout specialists who will be able to guide you by displaying your products in a way that promotes sales growth and faster sell-throughs – while also helping you retain your customers in the harsh and fast-changing retail environment that is a reality in the 21st century.
Want to learn more about our floor planning software? Book your free meeting with a DotActiv expert or browse our online store.
