Key Steps for a Store Design that Engages Consumers and Supports your Brand Objectives
Your store environment should envelop the shopper in a brand experience. It is important that the experience differentiates your brand from the competition and inspires time-constrained consumers with reasons to make the shopping trip. Let’s take a look at some steps to follow in creating your store of the future.
The Creative Brief
Any design project starts with a well crafted creative brief. Your brief not only gives your team and outside resources the information they need, it also insures alignment of the design objectives with company leadership and other company functions. In addition to core information like total square footage, cost per square foot target, selling space, navigation and space allocation by category, your brief should include the target customer and brand positioning information. Establish opportunities for retail theater, differentiation, ease of shopping, add on sales and increased shopper dwell time.
Engage Your Company Partners
Interview your company partners in store operations, merchants, planning and allocation, IT and others to insure your final product meets their objectives as well. In the same way that consumers are developing a new shopping behavior that is more frugal, it’s a good bet that your brand leadership has adjusted their spending behavior as well. What can you do to reduce costs? Here is an example.
Core Fixture Library
When I joined a leading department store retailer as the VP of Store Design and Visual, I spent a lot of time touring the stores, learning about the many different prototypes and store sizes, fixtures and operations. I found that no two stores looked alike and that there was over-assorted fixturing. I counted over forty different fixtures in the women’s department alone. I interviewed merchants, allocation and store operations partners to determine their needs and developed a core fixture library that was flexible. We went from over forty fixtures in the women’s department down to ten core fixtures including nested tables, hang folds, four ways, T-stands and others that would apply to new stores, remodels and new fixture rollouts. We followed the same direction for the design of the walls, end walls and components. With this strategy, the company enjoyed significant cost reductions, particularly because the bones of the fixtures were the same throughout the different departments, they were “skinned” differently by department consumer segments in women’s, men’s, kid’s, young men’s and juniors. An advantageous by-product was that the store fixture package aided in the planning and allocation of goods to common fixture profiles rather than too much on small fixtures and too little on large. This fixture package also aided in common merchandise presentation standards that were consistent and easy to execute.
The core fixture package “set the stage” for the product. We developed topical visual and in-store marketing components that defined the brands and departments. The fixture package along with a dynamic floor layout contributed the flexibility needed as product categories grew and contracted based on consumer’s shopping behavior.
Modular Merchandising
Many of you face the challenge of designing to a variety of store prototypes and sizes. It feels like you are trying to fit ten pounds of potatoes into a five pound sack. We have all seen examples of retailers launching a smaller store prototype for urban shopping centers and freestanding stores and they neglect to edit their assortment to fit the space. We have all faced the tension between projected sales volume and the selling space available. We also face the challenge of the journey of the product from the truck to the back room and on to the floor. Do you stage back stock in the back room or on the floor by under stocking in your fixtures or overstocking on your walls? This is when the technique of modular merchandising enters the equation. The merchandising modules are created by square footage and fixture count. This tool creates an edited mix to execute a merchandising strategy in a broad spectrum of store sizes.
An example is rolling out an open sell athletic shoe shop for a department store retailer. The shop ranged from 300 square feet up to 1,500 square feet with linear fixtures and walls.
We broke down the statements by gender and activity and identified the “module” by store size and volume. The merchants and allocation team then edited the assortment to fit the appropriate module. We applied this technique to all departments throughout the store including apparel, jewelry and home.
Hybrid Stores
E-commerce doesn’t have to be the enemy of brick and mortar stores. Look for ways to integrate these two consumer touchpoints to create a “hybrid” business model. Many retailers are breaking down silos of e-commerce and store operatons for common merchandising, pricing, fulfillment and marketing.
Clicks to bricks: “Prior to Covid-19, recent research cites 88% of consumers search for information about products online, less than 11% of retail sales actually take place online.” - Yahoo Finance
A retailer’s websites offers consumers product information, promotions, suggested add on items and most importantly product availability in the store nearest you.
Others have aligned their POS stations to their online assortment. This aids a successful shopping trip. If the product is out of stock in that store, the associate can direct them to the nearest store or the customer can purchase online right at the cash wrap for delivery to their home. What is the role of your e-commerce site within your physical store environment? Now is the time to address this opportunity as online sales are projected to account for 25% of retail sales by 2025.
Consider other components of the hybrid store model.
Digital wayfinding signs.
In-store features on the retailer's mobile app.
Separate desks for traditional and omnichannel shoppers.
High-tech fitting rooms with smart mirrors, allowing shoppers to try on items virtually.
Lounges where customers can take a break from shopping.
Dedicated space for curbside pickup.
Other examples include the addition of complementary assortment extensions and services. For example, a women’s apparel store may consider the addition of a makeup and skin care shop in shop. This can provide an increase in the frequency of store visits. Some retailers have added, food and beverage, spas, manicures and even vintage-inspired barber services. Many of the potential hybrid store components can add to the shopper’s “dwell time” in your store. Research indicates that for every 1% increase in dwell time, stores enjoy an increase of 1.3% in sales.
As you and your team begin the journey of creating your store environment, insure that all your design elements align with your brand positioning which must be ownable, defendable and differentiated from the competition.