Help you keep up with – or surpass – your "big retail" competition
Ever wonder why big retail chains are so successful? It's true that they may have advantages like the ability to charge lower prices and huge marketing departments, but it's more than that. Retail chains know how to present themselves to customers and make their wares enticing. Their store layouts are carefully engineered to draw customers in, enhance the customers' shopping experience while they're there, and keep them shopping, too.
Use enticing window displays to catch customers' attention; then, position a seasonal or hot new product display that greets customers right when they enter the store to capture their attention and whet their appetites for even more shopping.
Position retail shelving and other fixtures throughout the store to create a designated "traffic path." That traffic path should guide customers to the right when they first enter and then should meander through the store in a counterclockwise circle. Customers will naturally follow this path without knowing they're doing it – but they won't miss a single one of your displays or merchandise offerings as a result.
An unchanged store layout and dated decor can do more than just make you look behind the times. It can actually cost you money. When you don't change your layout or decor regularly, your merchandise can actually become invisible to customers. Familiarity breeds a sort of blindness.
The cure is to update your look with some fresh new paint or wall coverings, new carpeting and floor coverings, bright but soft lighting, modern retail shelving and fixtures, and professional signage that incorporates your store's "brand" or logo.
Laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act now require that businesses like retail stores make "readily achievable" changes to their layouts in order to accommodate people with disabilities. For example, your store's layout may need to be rearranged so that aisles are wide enough for wheelchair access, and retail shelving and displays should be arranged whenever possible so that products can easily be reached from a sitting position.
Indoor air quality
Your retail store layout must be changed if necessary to allow for adequate heating and cooling, and for fresh air exchange. Therefore, your layout and any retail shelving or other fixtures used must not block the ducts, fans, vents or heating/cooling coils necessary for proper indoor air quality.
Fire safety
Fire hazards are often commonplace in retail stores. Flammable materials such as cloth or chemicals should be kept away from heat sources such as hot lights or heating vents. Fire extinguishers should be available throughout your store and your employees trained to use them. Extinguishers should also be regularly inspected to make sure they function properly.
Shopping safety
Customers' merchandise access should be limited to retail shelving and displays no more than 6 feet high, preferably lower. Personnel must provide assistance to retrieve items above that level.
Do a visual inspection of your store throughout the day to ensure that spills, trash, and other slip and fall hazards are addressed immediately.