22 . 6 . 11
Whether you are remodeling or opening a retail store, you may want to hire a retail designer. A retail designer may also work with an architect to make sure that your merchandising plan fits with your space in the most profitable way. A retail designer may also go by the title interior designer, visual marketing specialist or merchandising designer.
Companies that offer these services or that employee the professionals will often have a team of specialists work on a design that works best for you.
When you work with a retail design team, they should always keep your profits in mind. They will not give you an extravagant design that is not very user friendly. They should consider your space, your products, your inventory, your budget and your customers. Retail designers can often come up with innovative designs that you haven’t thought of yet.
It can help you to take a fresh approach to merchandising that result in profits.
Retail and visual merchandisers are specialists in determining your clients’ needs. They anticipate what your clients will want and design the store around them. They will also want to catch the consumer’s eye and create new wants and desires along the way. All of this can be done by someone with a keen eye who does a lot of research.
Visual merchandisers will create the lure to get customers in your store. This often starts with the window displays. Mannequins and lighting designs can help to draw in customers. Once inside, the products need to be arranged in a logical fashion so that customers can easily feel their way around the store.
Your showcases should be strategically placed to guide customers deeper and deeper into the store. Impulse buy displays should finish out the design. They are generally located in areas where customers will be passing once they’ve decided to leave the store. Near the register and near the door are good places to make that last ditch effort in selling a few more items.
If you have a small space, a retail design team my suggest using the walls to maximize your display area. Gridwall and slatwall are great for managing a large amount of merchandise in a small area. You can constantly update your displays.
Spread them out for a more spacious feel, or arrange them close together to advertise just how much merchandise you have to offer. Gridwall and slatwall displays allow you to face your merchandise outward where it can be more easily seen, even from outside your store.
Hiring a retail design team will help you to purposely and diligently place each type of merchandise where it will be most profitable. You can get advice on what type of retail displays, like gridwall or slatwall, will work best for you. Professional opinions on merchandising are generally more profitable than guessing what is best for your type of store, so the investment could really pay off.
15 . 6 . 11
The design of your retail store can have a lot of bearing on your sales. Building a loyal customer base is so important in today’s world on cyber shopping and big department stores. Boutiques have a certain charm when they’re designed well and this can give your customers a reason to make a special trip to your store.
The goal, of course is to make more money. To do that, you need to carefully plan the “path” of your boutique so that customers have the experience that you plan for them.
1) Think about what you want customers to immediately feel when they approach your store. You’re in luck if you have front windows in which to display your favorite merchandise. Using mannequins has been long since proven to encourage people to buy.
This is not only because you can show them what clothes look like when worn, or because you can showcase many garments and accessories at once. It’s because you can actually answer a lot of the questions that need to be answered in a person’s mind before they buy at a single glance.
2) Think about what someone might be asking themselves as they consider shopping in your store and answer those questions either in your window displays or as soon as they come in. One, if someone is interested in a boutique, they probably want to find unique items or brands.
Make sure that they immediately see that within the first second or two of laying eyes on your store. Sidewalk or outside displays are a great way to do this.
3) The next question on their mind may be price. Does your store front and displays match your prices? You don’t want someone to get excited about something they see only to be immediately disappointed by the price. Try to communicate the price through the décor and arrangement of your boutique.
4) Now, the next question on a person’s mind will be something like, “how will this garment make me feel?” Communicate as much feeling as possible, either with your mannequins’ poses or the décor surrounding your items. A snowy scene with a campfire communicates coziness, a city scene may communicate cutting edge fashion, and so on.
5) The next thing people want to feel when they shop in a boutique is that it will be interesting to shop around. People avoid department stores and visit boutiques to have a pleasurable and enlightening shopping experience. Make sure that you have unique items scattered around the store.
Have things arranged in a “path” that leads the person from one interesting item to the next. Avoid crowding your clothing racks close together so that people stay comfortable, even if the store has a lot of shoppers. A clothing rack should not be overfilled, either, so that people can easily see what you have to offer without having to work to dig through too many items.
8 . 6 . 11
There are many customers that look through store windows simply to pass time – the job of retail design is to make them want to enter the store and then to spend money when they get there. Hence, it is very important that the design you have for your store should be able to invite customers directly in.
Another common mistake that most retailers make is to design a store that they personally like, without realizing that it simply does not appeal to customers. In other words, you have to design a store that can appeal to customers, drawing them in, so as to increase your overall sales.
When deciding on your retail design, what you need to do is to firstly determine the amount of space that you will be working with. One of the best things that you can do is to take a customer survey to find out what exactly it is they would like to have changed in a store.
You might be surprised to realize that many customers prefer to have a larger width for an aisle, rather than an increase in the overall length of it. If you manage to make your store appear larger than it really is, you can be sure that customers would be able to have a much easier selection process for what they require. Make use of Gondolas that run parallel as this can help add to the appearance of a longer aisle.
Another more modern form of design for retail is the using of cascading aisles. Such aisles usually end at interspersed different sections. This helps in the creation of different pseudo angles that can increase the overall sales space.
Another way in which you can create the appearance of an increase in space is by placing larger items next to the outside walls of the store so that smaller items can be placed in the aisles, thereby resulting in an increase in the width of such aisles.
Remember that when you go about the process of any redesign for your retail store, it is important that you design it in such a way as to create an impression in the minds of customers. At the same time, the design should be able to increase your overall profitability.
21 . 3 . 10
Recently, I received many inquiry calls pertaining to the opening of a retail shop in shopping mall. How can you get approval from the management smoothly and as a professional interior design firm, how can we help them are questions being commonly asked.
Some retail shop owner may be required to have their shop redesign earlier, as the shopping mall management is disappointed with their existing interior design. Managements are worry that those shops with outdated designs would affect the overall image of the shopping mall. These shop owners are often under great pressure by the managements to come up with a new retail design in order to continue their lease term.
These customers often tell us that they wanted a unique design for their store. Nevertheless, those designs from the interior design firms were lacking of uniqueness, and often not accepted by the shopping mall managements.
Customers often tell us that they had learn from other customers that, we had done many commercial projects for retail shops, and normally, our 3D design drawings are accepted by the managements and from our previously projects, they felt that our designs are unique and contemporary. In addition, they wanted us to provide the same for them.
Indeed, we had vast experiences in contemporary interior design for retail shop. From fashion, shoes, telecom, sport rims, eateries, bar, restaurants, car showrooms are some of the trades that we had done.
Through our designs, they are able to raise the standard of their retail shop to provide their customers with better service and shopping experiences, and more importantly improve their bottom-line. We wish to help more retail shop owners.
Here are some of the problems that shop owners faced, when they open outlets in shopping malls.
Q1: If I wish to open a retail store in the shopping mall, what should I do first?
After confirming the lease and retail space, you have to engage a professional interior designer to come up with the design drawings to submit to the managements for approval. The store design is extremely important, and that is why you have to communicate with your designer.
Q2: What do I need to communicate in order for the designer come up with a design that suits me?
Below are some questions that you may be asked by your designer:
1. Which trade are you in?
2. What kind of ambiance do you wish to provide to your customers?
3. What is the age ranges of your customers?
4. What is your corporate color?
5. Which age group are your primary customers?
With the above mention questions, you should be able to have a great design theme for your contemporary retail store. Through our designs, you can have a relax, professional and contemporary ambiance that you can provide to your valuable customers. More importantly, it brings out the professional image for your company!
Q3: What should I do if the shopping mall managements have many objections with my retail designs?
You should let your interior designer communicate with the management directly until the design has been approval.
Q4. I do not wish to overspend on the designs. By engaging a professional interior designer, will they cause my renovation cost to go beyond my budget?
Design should not add more to your renovation costs. For an experience designer, they can use simple materials to create unique designs. These potentially reduce your cost. Communication between you and the designer are important.
You should also listen to your designer’s suggestion and work hand in hand to come up with a design that is contemporary, unique while keeping renovation costs within your budget.
Q5. Can professional interior designing really increase my business? I always thought that spending on the design and renovation are a waste of money.
More and more companies are emphasizing their company image and packaging. We have a customer who opens a telecom retail shop for more than ten years and the store was old. After the new face-lift, she was surprised that her business had gone up by 20% – 30%. She then realizes that a good corporate image is extremely important.
8 . 1 . 10
This is a case study of a retail design for a car workshop sport rims showroom. It used to be old and untidy. Find out how we transform the retail showroom for the sports rim.
We had just completed a retail design and renovation for a sport rims retail showroom cum workshop. We received a compliment from the workshop owner when we visited him recently. He was extremely happy, as his business has been booming even since the renovation of the sport rims retail showroom. This was definitely to his surprise.
In the eyes of the majority, tyres and service workshop often gave them the impression of a dirty premise. However, with the creativity from our interior designers, a total new company image has been born.
This particular workshop is located at Serangoon North Avenue 4. Our concept is to present a retail design for the sport rims showroom that is spacious, modern and a professional branding image.
We had used bolder color like red and black to invoke the modern feeling. Huge advertisement posters were used to project a stronger brand’s presence. We had also used the stainless steel displays for the sport rims, as it was very neat and customers could view all the sport rims from a single glance.
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Four pieces of simple rims and a piece of glass top over it became the coffee table for the showroom. It is the bi-product between the creativity of our designers and their products, and once again brings out the design theme of the sport rims retail showroom.
Will you step into this modern yet creative sport rims retail showroom?
19 . 12 . 09
This is a case whereby we have came up with two different retail design themes for a hair salon. The owner was caught between the three design themes.
Which type of retail hair salon design theme will attracts you?
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We have a retail hair salon customer whom we had help her to come up with a new retail design for her. While our designer had came up with a Modern design theme, nevertheless, she has some other suggestions.
She had visited many spa salons and she felt especially comfortable. She likes that ambiance and had asked whether can we have a Indonesian Tropical Design theme for her hair salon. Of course, we said.
Our designer had came up with another design theme with the Indonesian Tropical ambiance. When the owner saw the new retail design, she finds it difficult to make her choice.
If you are a customer, which design theme will you prefer and will you step into the hair salon? Can you help our customer who is in dilemma to make a decision?
9 . 12 . 09
Retail design is how commercial properties and stores can artfully display their inventory, in order to make sales successful. There has to be the perfect combination of interior design, architectural structure, and the display of products. The more appealing a retail area is, the more sales usually occur. The aspects involved with creating a functional and artful display in one location include; advertising, graphic design, ergonomics, and interior decorating.
Interior Decorating- This aspect is used for creating an attractive area, but making it functional as well. Interior decorating is used to enhance the quality of life, while still following regulations and codes. These standards are incorporated into the design of the retail area and are used to encourage environmental sustainability. There is an analytical method used to create the perfect retail site, it’s more than combining loud patterns and off the wall designs to attract attention.
Interior Decorating- The main visual portion of an area, when combining functional attractiveness, as well as the enhancement of the quality of life, is where interior decorating comes in. Codes and regulations are always coordinated into the designs, plus there is the encouragement for sustainability of the environment. It isn’t just the slapping together of a variety of patterns and designs, there is a analytical method to the area’s formation.
Advertising – Of course the items on display in a retail area are there to be purchased, so they must be visible and accessible. The more an item stands out, the more it is noticed and likely to be purchased.
There shouldn’t be any strain involved with making rounds through the retail sections. An easily maneuverable workplace is the ultimate goal of a designer, while also making it pleasing to the eye and functional.
Advertising- Displayed items are there to be purchased, so advertising is used to draw people towards them. They should be easily attainable and very visible to all those that walk past. Advertising is also used to tempt people into wanting what they see, even if they don’t really need it. When a product stands out from the rest of its surroundings, it is most likely going to be the one purchased.
The main purpose of a retail area is to sell the items on display. With the use of the above aspects, the design of a retail space will determine just how fast a store’s inventory sells. The object is to sell a lot and be able to restock the supplies quickly for further sales. The demand for selling a large quantity of items sets heavy on most stores. Many rely on the constant movement of inventory in order to stay in business.
Retail design has changed over the years, with the coming about of stores that are part of a chain. Stores used to pride themselves on individuality, but when it is part of a huge chain, they all tend to have the same layout. This also holds true for many brand name products. They often have to be displayed in the same fashion, despite what store they are being sold in.
7 . 12 . 09
The retail design of your business can play a huge role in the overall success of your business. In fact, your retail design is one of the key factors in communicating to customers who you are and what you stand for as a business. In retail image is everything.
Retail design tries to stimulate people visually by incorporating shop fittings with advertising material and graphics. The retail design of your business should look clean, attractive and in good condition. In order to keep your business looking fresh, it is recommended that you do a shop refit at least every seven years. When your business is placed inside a mall, there will normally be a clause in your rental contract that obliges you to refit the shop every so many years.
A whole shop refit can be very costly, but there are things that you can do to improve your retail design without having to shell out huge sums of money. Placing visually appealing displays in your shop windows and in key areas around the store can have a positive impact on the retail design of your store.
Your displays should be colorful, seasonally appropriate, interesting and use different props to make your point. You can probably get help from different companies that you deal with in your business as many product manufacturers employ visual merchandisers who can come and do displays for you in store.
Shelving is another important consideration in retail design. You should place your best selling items and higher cost items at eye level, which is a hot spot. Some companies may even give you better deals on product buys if you promise them key position on the shelf. Bigger products in the same product line should be placed to the left and the smaller size to the right. The reasoning behind this is that people read left to right and look naturally to their left first.
Your shelves should be placed with just enough space above the products to reach them comfortably, there should not be a lot of empty space between shelves. You should also ensure that your shelves are well stocked. If you have plenty of stock on hand you create confidence in the product and create more of a visual impact.
You should place a lot of emphasis on keeping your store clean. Shelves that are full of dust will never inspire someone to purchase something from you. All products and shelving should be in perfect condition. Faded products are better disposed of than staying the shelf. They cheapen the image of a business and it is worth losing the money you paid for the product than giving customers a bad impression of your stock, products and services.
When planning your retail design make sure there is a flow to the layout and that bulk items, quick sellers and high priced items are in hot spots around the shop. The front of the shop as customers walk in the door is the hottest spot of all.
With a little thought and consideration put into your retail design you can easily maximize your sales and achieve higher turnover of stock which leads to more profit and a more successful business.
29 . 11 . 09
Retail design plays a very important role in creating better retail shop image, raising product value and as well as attracts more customers. Find out how interior designer can help you in this aspect.
In Singapore, huge numbers of retail shops are situated in shopping mall or commercial building. Normally, the building management may request the shop owners to have their retail shop redesign upon the expiry of the lease.
If the building management feels that the retail design is very old, they will insist for the change. It is during this moment that the retail shop owners had to crack their head for the retail design.
Once, we had a customer who was operating a computer retail shop. Just when they about to renew their shop lease, the building management requested them to engage a professional interior designer for their retail design as they felt that the shop interior was without any design and was too plain. This way, the retail shop design will be able to match with the building image thus raising the value of their products.
The retail shop owner came to know us. He told us that he do not really know what the management wants as they had already presented two design drawings for their approval, but the management always felt that the retail design was not good enough.
The retail shop owner felt that we were very experience in retail design and had approached us for the design. They were also concern whether can we apply to the building management for the approval and they wanted it to be done fast.
We told him, of course! We had done many retail designs and we have dealt with various building management. In addition, we understand their requirements very well. Normally, we will be able to obtain the approval for the design within first or at most on the second instances.
” Wah, that is fast. No wonder my friend had recommended you” they said. Their friend told them that our design fees were reasonable and we were able to present the design drawings fast. More importantly, we were able to obtain the approval from the management fast. “Looks like you have the substance!” they said. “Of course, this is our profession!” we replied.
We accepted the project and became their design consultant. After a week, the design concepts were ready for submission to the building management. As the management approved the retail design swiftly, our customers were very happy.
In addition, they wanted us to provide them with a one-stop services that include the renovation and project management. They felt that we drew the retail design and they will be more comfortable if we handle the whole project.
We had another customer who owns a few boutique retail outlets. He would award us with the project whenever he opens a new outlet. As we were very familiar with his retail design concepts, we were able to obtain fast approval from the building management for his boutique design.
I personally love to shop and usually, what attracts me to the shop is mostly due to the feeling of the retail design. Although there are some shops which renovated, but they failed to attract people. Either the lightings were too dark, or they were too contrasting. Colors of the furniture and wall were not blended well.
The location of the retail display shelves is also very important.
All this things might seem trivial, but when used correctly, it can change the overall ambiance of the retail shop. All these elements are very important part of the retail design.
Usually, for the design to be approved, the building management looks at the entrance, counter area, and the planning for shop layout. Some management even requires the work schedule. We are very familiar on the application procedure.
We hope that more retail shop will be able to use interior design to help them raise their product value and as well as attracting more customers. This way, their business can be taken to a new level.
12 . 11 . 09
This is a case study, whereby the retail shop owner sees the potential of the trade. He then approached us for his retail design consultancy.
Customers were few in the past;
We have just completed a retail shop design and renovation. In the past, the owner only bought a few metal display shelves for his shop. He had only some basic renovation. In the beginning, customers were not many.
Owner decided to have a total makeover for his retail shop;
The owner approached us for his retail design. He saw huge potentials for the health products in the near future. He has been doing market surveys, and he wanted to expand his business globally. We told him that there would be some design fees involved, he agreed.
In addition, he wanted a retail design theme that is full of natural ambiance.
To improve the retail design further, we purposed to the owner to have his exterior landscape designed with the tropical theme. He was in favor with our proposal.
After a week, we have presented him with the design concepts. As the owner brought up some points about the retail design, our designers had further improved on it. He accepted the revised drawings happily.
We begin the design and renovation for the retail shop;
Next, we are going transform this shop into reality. We always felt very excited at this moment. After few weeks, the shop renovation has completed and we had handed over the shop to the owner.
The before and after differences were great;
A week has passed; I specifically pay a visit at the shop. I seat at the exterior mini garden enjoying the new retail design. The ambiance was great.
I was so happy to see the owner busing with his customers. At this moment, some passerby has stopped and curiously looking into the shop. Some of them had even entered the shop.
Finally, the owner saw me. He was very excited about his new retail design and he told us that customers kept flowing in. In addition, he is planning his second outlet and he wanted us to be his design consultant again.
