The way your store is laid out can have a big impact on driving sales, as customers find the experience more positive. Here are our top three tips for increasing sales in retail with better store design.
If you’re in the retail industry, everything you do ultimately has the same end goal: to sell your products. Whether you’re talking about improving customer service or adjusting your pricing, the aim is always to increase sales, which in turn will lead to you making more of a profit. Learning how to sell more is therefore a key part of working in this sector.
There are several different options when it comes to increasing sales in retail. If you lower your prices, for example, you’ll sell more products in the short term. However, it’s hard to strike the right balance without losing money in the long term.
Another option is optimising your store design. Improving shop layout can have a huge impact on how customers experience your brand and your products. A few simple changes can make your store more attractive to shop in and make consumers more likely to make a purchase.
So, what can you do to make your store a better environment for customers in order to increase sales?
Here are our top three tips for increasing sales in retail with a better store design:
1. First impressions
The first things your customers see, hear and feel when you enter your store can have a major impact on their overall experience. If they’re immediately assaulted by noise and clutter, they will be more likely to find the whole thing stressful and therefore will be less likely to make a purchase.
Make sure to leave a good amount of space around your entrance for customers to enter easily. You don’t want bottlenecks or messy displays. You should also consider things like colours and sound; blue colours and light music are able to make customers feel relaxed and give them a positive first impression of your store.
2. Think about the path people take
One option to determine the path people take around your store is to invest in analytics software to determine the routes people take through your store.
However, you can learn a lot by observing one simple thing: which direction do people go when they enter your store? Did you know that, in the UK, people are most likely to turn left and travel around a store anticlockwise, take this knowledge into consideration when designing your store layout.
This is important, because it determines where you should put the most appealing products in your store. They should be the first thing your customers see, so you should position them on the route most people take. In a supermarket, for example, this is typically where the fresh fruit and vegetables are, as they are more appealing than canned, bottled and packaged food.
3. Display your products properly
It’s hard to increase sales in retail if your customers can’t see what you’re selling. A cluttered shelving unit is a barrier to making a sale, as it will be hard for consumers to understand what’s on offer and make an informed decision. People also associate clutter with uncleanliness, which is not something you want them to think about your business.
Think about how best to display your goods. If you have featured products, highlight them, but make sure doing so doesn’t obscure other items or make your store harder to navigate. Try to provide as visual an experience as possible, so users can see your products in a pleasing way that will make them more appealing.
Summary: Increasing sales in retail with an optimal store design
- First impressions matter ask yourself what you want customers to think when they first walk in. What needs to change to make that happen?
- Predict customers’ movement – shoppers move in the UK usually move anti-clockwise. Research how customers flow through your store currently
- Review how you display your products. Experience and move things around, even in ways you think it might not work. You never know until you see it.
Increasing sales in retail takes time and can be a long process. It doesn’t need to be painful process especially with guidance from the KSF Global team. Download our case study below for even more practical help to increase sales in retail.
