Every retail store wants to attract more foot traffic to their store, but the big challenge is how do you achieve that? With online stores gaining even more traction today, making your retail store stand out is one of the best ways to maintain relevance and generate interest. Oftentimes, a detailed shop refurbishment is all you need to give your store an edge over your competitors, whether it be in the online space or physical space.
Here is how you can draw in more customers to your store by following these expert renovation ideas.
Pay attention to your store’s entrance
The first one to five metres of your store is the space that customers first see when they walk inside. This area of transition is where your shoppers are taken from the chaos of the outside world to the confines of your store’s shopping atmosphere. From here on, your customers make a critical judgment based on their first impression on your store.
The fixtures, the lighting, and your colour choices will influence the kind of impression you make on your customers, so it pays to nail down these elements the moment they step inside. Choose colours that match well with your brand and the lighting should be bright enough to highlight your products, but not too bright that it’s blinding and distracting.
Create a sensible path
Now that they’re inside the store, the next logical step is to create a layout or path that will direct the shoppers to your store’s focal points. Depending on how big your space is, you can utilise different sizes of aisles that are both wide and narrow.
Wide aisles allow customers easier access to a specific product they see while narrow aisles encourage impulse purchases. A good example of these is wide aisles in supermarkets where customers pick exactly what they want while in convenience stores, narrow aisles are used for specific grab-and-go areas.
Add or remove walls
There are instances wherein a physical store may benefit from a more open floor space. This means removing visual barriers like walls to make your store more spacious and visually appealing. Of course, this decision should be done in consultation with your contractor to ensure the walls you plan on removing are load-bearing and require professional help.
If, on the other hand, you want to separate different product lines in small areas, then adding a wall certainly helps. Partition walls are perfect for creating temporary spaces whilst drywalls are more of a permanent addition.
Remove visual clutter
When remodelling a retail store, it’s important that the interior design remains cohesive. Different signages, mismatched aisles, and ill-positioned product racks can significantly affect the shopping experience and make it difficult for your customers to find what they want.
To avoid these, make sure to remove any visual elements or clutter that don’t belong in your store’s interior. For example, you can remove certain products or fixtures if they’re already crowding a specific area in your store. You should also check that the aisles in certain areas are kept similar. If one side of your store uses wide aisles, use wide aisles.
Renovations that you should focus on
Perhaps you’re looking for renovations that will make the biggest impact on your customers. If that’s the case, then we’ve got 3 of the freshest ideas that are guaranteed to give your retail store a significant design uplift.
1. Freshen up the walls with a new paint job
Putting a fresh coat of paint on the walls can make a huge difference in terms of the overall ambience of your retail store. Neutral colours are a great choice since they help make your products stand out. Do paint an accent wall with a bold colour that matches your brand to catch the shopper’s attention on specific products you want to emphasize.
Textured panels, vibrant wallpapers, and peel-off wall stickers are also perfect for freshening up your store’s interior. Just make sure the patterns and colours resemble your brand to maintain cohesiveness with the paint job.
2. Upgrade your store’s lighting
Setting the mood is crucial to any retail store and what better way to improve that by upgrading your store’s lighting. The type of lighting you use matters because fluorescent bulbs generally aren’t flattening to the eye while incandescent lightning can create too much heat and make your shoppers feel uncomfortable.
Thus, the most logical lighting choice is LED light bulbs which are energy-efficient and more pleasing to the eye. Try it out with a small section on your store and take it in strides.
3. Change the flooring
Over time, your retail store’s flooring will accumulate plenty of scuffs and scratches. If it’s showing signs of age like cracks and general wear and tear, then you might want to change the flooring with a material that’s built to withstand high foot traffic. Wood vinyl planks and polished concrete are some examples of flooring materials that are not only durable but also exude sophistication which definitely adds to the appeal of your retail establishment.
