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Store Design Goals - Phase II - Develop Your Environment

In phase I, I discussed the elements of retail store design and how they affected shopping behavior. Now that you have a better idea of your store type and the elements that go into creating an effective retail store design, you can begin to further develop your retail store. The tools needed for this next phase are retail merchandising, retail marketing, and of course your store employees.

Retail merchandising is the next step towards developing your retail store environment. The stores design layout will guide your customer traffic using strategic placement of the department categories. Along the way shoppers are exposed to many different products. The arrangement and placement of these products are vital to a profitable store. Merchandise placement at eye level will drive the sales of that product dramatically. For this reason, your most profitable or high priced versions of those products should be placed at eye level. Utilizing just this one aspect of retail merchandising will give your store a distinct advantage over its competition. Merchandise placement can give your store a competitive leg up, but don't forget that the merchandising still has to be visually appealing, organized and properly stocked. These details in your retail merchandising have great impact on your stores profitability.

The marketing of your retail store will naturally be geared to serve its retail store type. An upscale retail store for example will offer more high end products choices and provide exclusive brand names. Marketing these products along with upscale services will draw that stores preferred customer type into the store. This stores marketing plan should include an attractive well developed logo, branded colors, employee uniforms, custom colored shopping carts, print advertising in the best local publications and sponsorship of a well known local event, such as a golf tournament. This stores marketing plan should constantly communicate to their customer base where ever they spend time. What customer type should you market to, and where do they hang out?

Your store employees are a critical part of your business. They provide customer service, product knowledge, and a personality to your store. That is why you should make every effort to constantly improve their customer service skills and product knowledge education. Making a practice of investing in your employees will engage them by appealing to the most basic of human needs...self improvement. Educating and coaching your employees will undoubtedly increase their knowledge level and result in better customer service, loyalty, confidence and sales ability.

Whether you are building a new retail store or making improvements to an existing one, perfecting each of the core elements of your store is paramount to your success. Good retail store design, retail customer service, employee training, retail marketing and strong retail merchandising are the foundation blocks of your business and will determine your stores future

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Store Design Goals - Phase I - Establish Your Environment

Before we begin discussing the specifics of retail store design, I feel I should warn you that I have strong opinions on the subject. Whether you have a new store project or an existing retail store in need of a rehab, the first thing we all have to keep mindful of is that the retail environment is constantly changing. Once you have completed a store design project it does not mean your store is set for life....quite the opposite. If you are considering a new retail store or a remodeling project, you must have some progressive sensibilities. These sensibilities should help you to understand that your retail store has to remain current and relevant to its customers. Understanding this will make change a permanent part of your business plan. Retailers who don't understand this are left standing still, and are relegated to spectators in the fast paced ever-changing retail world. Sorry for the diatribe, but it is important to realize that retail store design should never be viewed as completed. Therefore store design should be reviewed often. This is an important point to be made before we talk about the basic elements of store design.

The purpose of retail store design is to create a shopping environment that is unique to your store and its store type. By store type, I am not referring to a grocery store or hardware store, per-say. I am referring to the type of grocery store or hardware store. To clarify this, I'll ask a question. Is your grocery store a full service/full line store or is it a price driven store? Your store type should shape its identity and dictate the blend of store design elements that constitute its decor. Your store decor should have the correct combination of theme, color, and lighting to create a powerful design. Experienced retail designers use these elements to develop the proper environment, for the specific store type plus the customer type that the manager has identified as his target.

Remember that your colors, lighting, decor and layout are all used in the creation of your store's retail environment. These elements should be used to influence your customers shopping behavior. The goal of any successful retail store design is to make the customer feel good about their store choice and to increase the time they spend in that retail store. More time spent shopping exposes the shopper to more items. Successful retail store design will produce more sales, more profit and more repeat business.

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Bottlenecks-Do You Have Any?

What is a bottleneck? A bottleneck is an aspect of your business that restricts or constricts productivity. Bottlenecks hold up precious revenue producing resources. They restrict progress, effect efficiency and cost you money. For many retailers bottlenecks can be anywhere. Can you think of an area in your store where productivity is at a stand still? Do you have any?

In order to improve efficiency you will have to identify your bottlenecks. Possible bottlenecks for a retail home center might result from a backlog of deliveries or merchandise returns. Stacked up or over scheduled deliveries can lead to cancelled orders and the loss of a positive shopping experience. Long lines of customers waiting to return products can be equally damaging. Good customers wishing to exchange products that are incorrect or defective don't appreciate long wait times. They may leave vowing never to return. Bottlenecks can be found in other types of retail as well. Customers who are also on their lunch hour can easily overwhelm a drug store operating on a lean staff over the noon hour. A lumberyard or plumbing supply business may do a significant percentage of their business in charge accounts. If at the end of the month the charge statements are not sent out on time, it will greatly affect the income steam of that business. Any one of these scenarios can result in lost revenue, and not for just one instance, but possibly forever. What is the cost of a good customer over multiple years?

Once found, take action. Whether it is merchandise returns, monthly statements, or daily deliveries, ask yourself is it a staffing issue. If it is, correct it. You may only need to increase your staff levels at peak times. If it is a procedural issue find out where the breakdown in policy occurred. If it is a personnel issue, make a change. As an owner or manager of any retail business, you must recognize that the bottleneck potential is always there. It is important for you to be vigilant and train your staff to recognize the signs of a possible bottleneck.

Successful retailers build their businesses on good service. They are able to do this by avoiding the negative elements that effect productivity. This is because they believe in training. Training your staff is the best investment you can make to increase your productivity and your profits.

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