Maximizing Your Small Store Space
I find myself shopping day to day in a vast mixture of stores and service businesses: big, small, professional and mom-and-pop. Most of them pass in a blur of sameness and boredom. I just want to get in, find that one item I need, and be gone. Aren't we all "laser shoppers" these days?
But then once in a while I stumble on a true gem of a store. A place that is exciting and captivating, and really reflects my own personality and style. The experience of shopping there stays with me for weeks. These stores are the pearls in an otherwise indistinctive sea of retail monotony.
This is what retail stores should strive to be, even if they are located in a very small space.
Actually, a wonderful small space can have a greater impact than a really big one. It can feel cozy and safe, and help focus customers on the merchandise since most of it is easily in reach. And a wonderful small space can be truly memorable.
As a retailer, the thing to remember about preparing any retail space is that emotion and "perceived value" drive sales. This means you will sell more merchandise if you:
- Tell stories with your displays, illustrating how to use merchandise or how several products work together. We call this "bundling." Furniture stores do it all the time: they want you to buy the whole room not just the sofa. And let's not forget, sometimes the best profit margins are on impulse or accessory products.
- Find ways to connect with your guest mothers and fathers in terms of their love for their new child. Perhaps create a feature wall with an amazing (large) photograph of a baby or display wonderful quotes from great literature about the joys and wonder of childhood. (Remember to include the name of the book and author – maybe even a date to remind them of the timelessness of parenting.)
- Display your merchandise so it looks great. This will make the price look small in comparison … and that is "perceived value." Disney sells a Mickey Mouse t-shirt for $20. The same shirt might be available in Wall Mart for $7. Why do people pay this high price in the Disney store? Because they are bringing the store (and brand) experience home with them. This store experience is the key to maintaining margins while still creating strong perceived value.
- Create a retail experience that is powerful and memorable so it stays in the minds of your guests. Every great store has such a clear personality that if all the signs were removed, customers would still immediately know where they are shopping. Can you say this about your store?
OK, enough general retailing philosophy. Here are some specific design ideas to try:
- Create a unique color scheme for your store. This is not easy to do, and you probably will need a professional interior designer to help. Color choices in a small store can make the space feel bigger, smaller, warmer, or cooler. But a great color scheme will enhance the merchandise and make your store distinctive. (Tip: rich colors might work on the walls, but keep the ceiling light. A dark ceiling in a small store is very oppressive.)
- Have a distinctive name and logo professionally executed in exterior and interior signage.
- Implement a cohesive interior sign program, even if it only means a few logo signs and simple graphics. Have the signs professionally produced. Remember that cheap unmatched signs also send a clear message: "We are a little disorganized, but please still buy from us!"
- Light your store with halogen spotlights. Great lighting can increase sales by as much as 15 percent all by itself.
- Create a focal point in the store that draws people in and really connects emotionally. Look around the great stores you love: they each create powerful focal points in their own unique way.
- Use consistent materials and design details so your store has a distinctive personality. A jumble of fixtures, colors, merchandising tools, and signage say to the guest: "We really do not know who we are or what we are selling."
- Have a voice and a stand on important issues that affect your guests. Customers love stores that stand for something: witness the tremendous popularity of the Body Shop and its well-publicized corporate philosophy of saving the environment.
- Rack and stack your merchandise so there is room to breathe. Customers need to rest their eyes and minds as they shop. You will sell more if you display well, not by cramming too much stuff into the shelves. Remember: less can be more.
- Be careful about tall fixtures in a small space. They impede sightlines in the store and give the perception of an even smaller store.
Also remember that the quality of your customer service can be more important than the design of your store. If you do not reinforce the store experience with excellent and caring service you will not increase sales no matter how fantastic your store looks.
If you put into place any or all of the suggestions outlined in this article, I have a final piece of important advice: whatever you do, do it well. Implementing any of these ideas in a partial or haphazard manner will make you look like an amateur. The retailers in the big leagues hire interior designers to plan every tiny detail of their store experiences. Then they spend a lot of money to implement the ideas in a superb manner. Why do they invest so much time and money?
- To look better than your store.
- To be more exciting than your store.
- To look more professional.
- To make a truly memorable impact on their guests.
These smart retailers achieve tremendous profits doing this. You need to learn from them. Be equally professional about the execution of your store. It will send a clear message that you are a professional in the baby products field too.
And that is an important message to send.
You may not be able to plan and produce a store renovation by yourself, and make it work well. (That is why professional store designers like me have a job.) Again, you should take a tip from the guys in the big leagues: they spend money on design because it pays them back tenfold. I have designed renovations for stores that have doubled their sales virtually overnight. That is how powerful good store planning can be.
My number one rule of retail store design? "Who remembers anything ordinary?"
The answer, of course, is … no one.
(Note: For more information on the benefits of working with an interior designer, check out the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) Web page at www.asid.org.)