Shops appear to be very simple things, often simply a collection of the retailers wares laid out so people can see as many things they might want to buy as possible, right? Whilst this might be true of some shops, especially smaller, independent shops, bigger and more experienced shop owners have spent a vast amount of money over the years researching and fine tuning the layout of their stores. There are many different approaches depending on a vast array of factors, but in general the logic can be distilled to what a shop is selling and the amount of people that pass through it. All of this can feel overwhelming if you are unfamiliar with the practices, and if this is the case then a shop fitouts company will be able to offer the expertise and services to aid you.
The grid
For many, the first design type they would think of would be shops that are laid out in a grid formation, such as most supermarkets. The goal with this design choice is to maximise the amount of shelf space available and as such the amount of products that are on display. This enables the shop to stock a lot of high turnover items and offer a large degree of choice, whilst also encouraging people to make their way through the store in a fairly linear fashion and as such exposing them to more products they might not have been thinking of before entering.
Free flowing
The opposite of the grid design is the free flow model, commonly used for boutiques and fashion stores. This model is trying to encourage a feeling of calm and to allow customers to enjoy the browsing experience. There will be no set flow to how customers are encouraged to move throughout these stores but they will have products grouped in ways such as range or type to maximise choice.
The funnel
The funnel is a design made famous by a certain Swedish flat packed furniture retailer, where customers are lead on a tour through a set of showrooms on a fixed path. This enables the store to show customers exactly what they want them to see and offer a lot of opportunities to promote different or extra products along the way. There are several variations of this design choice, mostly relating to how the customers actually receive their products, but the idea of leading customers through is the same.
These three are not the only options for shop layouts, but they are by far the most common you will find. If you know exactly what you want for your business, or need some help deciding how to layout your shop, then companies like DB Projects will be able to help. They provide shop fitting services and all of the expertise that goes along with it to ensure that your shop is so much more than a set of shelves and a cash register.
0
0
