Design and store layout

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Issues of store layout are relevant for any owner and director of a retail outlet. In many ways, it is the design of the space, the atmosphere of the trading floor that determine how much the client will be interested in the products. By properly furnishing the premises, correctly distributing products, you can achieve an increase in revenue and an increase in the average bill. To do this, you need to take into account the experience of other specialists, because a large volume of observations of consumer activity has been accumulated. Let's take a closer look.

General information

Store layout is key, according to many sales techs. Accordingly, it is extremely important to correctly design the premises in which products and products are presented to the buyer. Only successful design is a guarantee that the premises will justify themselves and be a source of profit. There are several types of approaches to creating a plan. In many ways, the choice of a particular one is determined by the designer's imagination. Experienced people in this matter are aware of a number of criteria that determine the likelihood of a store being successful.

Planning: what?

Correct store layout is not only about arranging pieces of furniture along the walls. This term hides the complex task of promoting a product and presenting it to the buyer in the most favorable light. Linear planning involves the formation of a design project when all key factors are taken into account. The designer analyzes the concept of the store, the positioning of the outlet, the target audience. Based on this, they determine what the design of the space will be. Planning includes thinking through activities that will make it possible to sell products faster.

Mixed planning is practiced quite often. In this case, boxes, a linear plan, a loop, an arbitrary option are combined. You can choose any of the methods and implement it yourself.

Linear variant

This layout of the store involves the placement of products, the distribution of aisles for the client so that they are all parallel to each other. Following this principle, the equipment used for work is placed indoors. Thanks to the linear planning method, a good overview of the signage can be guaranteed. It is easy for the buyer to navigate the location of the racks. At the same time, customers do not have to crowd. Visitors can easily and easily walk between the lines of equipment, visiting the parts of the hall that are most interesting to them. Thanks to the linear layout, you canto form directions, flows of consumer movements. As a result, the conditions for product distribution are quite good. The owner of the premises, at his own discretion, determines how long the lines will be. This allows you to control the saturation of the room with customers.

Mixed type

This layout of the store hall is more often used when it is necessary to decorate the premises of a large retail outlet. This is more useful when working on a self-service hall, in a supermarket environment where the sales areas are very large and wide. The placement method allows you to combine the arrangement of lines across, along. Showcases can be placed in the same way. At the same time, there are zones decorated in the box technique and linear blocks. The main slides are located in lines that are broken by passages. This eliminates the complexity of moving customers. The optimal duration along the wall is four meters, in the center of the room - three, near the cash register - two or less.

Boxes and more

Boxing as an option for planning a store hall is recommended when it becomes necessary to divide a common room into several departments. These blocks are isolated from each other.

Loop design involves placing the equipment necessary for the sale of goods in a rather peculiar, very convenient way. The highest, largest racks are placed along the walls. The center of the hall is reserved for low objects. It is easy and simple for the client to move between objects, you can see all the products at a glance,displayed indoors. This method is traditionally considered universal. It can be used when designing very small shops, it can be used in working on hypermarkets.

Sometimes they resort to an exhibition scheme. This planning option involves the distribution of large-sized products to specialized installations. Mostly they are placed around the perimeter. The room is decorated as if it were an exhibition.

Finally, free is a layout in which there is no specific system. The designer, thinking over the distribution of objects, proceeds from the features of the shape of a particular object.

How to sell effectively?

The layout of the sales floor of the store is one of the options for increasing revenue. Some time ago, studies were carried out to determine how important the area of \u200b\u200ba retail space is for revenue. We came to the conclusion that this indicator largely determines the profit of the seller. It was also determined whether all parts of the trading floor, designed according to any scheme, are equally important. It has been established that the deeper a person goes inside the store, the less attention he pays to the goods around him, and the efficiency of each subsequent zone is lower and lower.

The initial block of the premises provides up to half of the store's total revenue. The middle zone gives about 20% of sales. The far share accounts for no more than one tenth of what the store receives. Therefore, in order to maximize profit, you need to place the objects that are most attractive toclient, in the area where the trade is most intense. To some extent, the heavy trading block is a customer guide.

Distribution nuances

The main requirement for the layout of the store is to make the premises so that it is easy and simple for the buyer to navigate in it. The more comfortable the area for the customer, the higher the likelihood of them making a purchase. In addition, it is believed that the probability of purchasing products is higher, the longer a person stays in a particular store. Therefore, it is necessary to make it so that the potential client would be pleased to be inside the premises. Traditionally, the best option for decorating a store is a square or rectangular room. Overly elongated rectangles can be called unsuccessful. A good aspect ratio is one to two or two to three. The height of the strip suitable for the point of sale is 3.3 meters. The simpler the form, the higher the functionality of the outlet, the greater the efficiency of the store. The task of the designer is to make sure that the client's attention is not scattered on the details, but is completely riveted to the product.

The shape of the premises is not the only thing that is important in the arrangement and technological layout of the store. An equally significant aspect is the distribution of equipment. When determining a suitable option, it is worth taking a closer look at the features of the profile of the outlet. Choose the appropriate option, starting from the price segment of the presented products. It is important to consider the expectations of a potential client.

Grid: technical points

In this version, the arrangement and layout of the store's sales area looks like a lattice from above. Racks, counters are placed along the lines. Between them there are passages that allow customers to move to the point of interest. Most often, food stores are organized in this way, and the main percentage of such outlets is designed in the form of a lattice. The obvious advantage is the ability to maximize the use of retail space. For everyone inside, the quality of the view of the area is at an acceptable level. True, the counters and racks that form a single line are relatively monotonous, so the client soon gets tired of contemplating such endless shelves. To revive the space, you can use a variety of equipment. Products may vary in height, may have a different shape.

If it is the lattice layout of the retail space of the store that is chosen, you need to think very carefully about how the aisles will be organized, how large such gaps need to be made. Much is determined by the behavior of customers, which depends on the area of the store. It is important to consider the height of the rack. The larger the settings, the wider it is necessary to make passages between them. Normally, a person holding a basket in his hands needs 80 cm. In order for customers to disperse, the passage should be from one and a half to two meters. Two meters are needed so that two people with carts can disperse. In order to be able to easily bend to the bottom of the rack, the passage must be at least a meter wide. If you make spaces between the linestoo wide, the store area will be used inefficiently. On the one hand, too much space will be wasted, on the other hand, the goods will lose the attention of the client. It has been proven that a person only examines a product that is on a shelf located near him.

About the nuances of options

Among other types of layouts of the trading floor of the store, the loop option attracts. The classic and most striking example of the design of a trading platform in this form is the showrooms of IKEA stores. Such a layout in separate blocks allows you to divide the total area into several sections. The equipment is arranged so as to create a loop. At the same time, the designer thinks over the route of movement of clients inside the premises in advance, and then puts into practice the construction of details so that this route is the most logical for the buyer. Many furniture centers are decorated in this style. This planning method is suitable for large shopping malls. The main advantage of the approach is the maintenance of a high level of customer interest, which is associated with an increased likelihood of impulsive purchases that are not planned in advance. Among the obvious disadvantages is the problem of moving in the opposite direction.

If a point of sale selling lamps, interior decorations and other similar categories of goods is being formed, then the appropriate type of layout of a trading store is an exhibition one. Counters are placed around the perimeter of the room. In order for the area to be spent efficiently, islands are arranged, the territory is supplemented with other equipment. Use mannequins, furniture. Asadditional equipment may be sold goods. This format of trade area design is suitable if you need to sell shoes, sporting goods. Among the advantages is the fact that the client can easily see the whole variety of products, inspect the interested one, since it has access to it from different points.

Regular and not-so

If the classic layout of a grocery store is a lattice, then for outlets selling unusual, unusual, exclusive products, this option is not very suitable. For such halls, an arbitrary design option for the interior is applicable. It is more often used if you need to think over the design of a relatively small store. No consistency is observed, the equipment is laid out at the discretion of the designer, and the movement of buyers will be spontaneous. The atmosphere is relaxed. It is noted that it is she who impresses the majority of clients the most. True, along with the pluses, it was not without its minuses. For example, it will not be possible to use standard equipment, which means that the cost of decorating a store will be considerable.

When developing the technological layout of the store using unique designs, they take into account the likelihood of deterioration in the visibility of the hall. It is more difficult for employees to control customer behavior. Some areas may be completely out of sight of personnel and security cameras.

Golden trio

All of these types of store layouts require the designer to account for the so-called goldentriangle. Its vertices form key points: the entrance, the cash desk, the location of the most popular product among customers. The larger the zone inside the triangle, the greater the volume of transactions will be. When drawing up a plan for a future retail space, it is very important to take into account the location of these three points and it is from this that we proceed, what is the optimal format for the distribution of equipment and goods.

Planning with a given triangle in mind is based on the following idea. The client enters the room through the door, goes to the counter with the goods he needs. For example, if this is a grocery store, then the greatest demand is traditionally for bread. In order to maximize the profit from the available territory, it is necessary to place the bread rack as far as possible from the entrance, so that the person passes through the hall completely, along the way, perhaps taking something else. The client takes the bread he needs and heads towards the cash register. If his route does not follow the same trajectory, it is likely that the person will take another additional acquisition. As a result, the total amount of visitor's purchases will be more than they planned at first.

Effective or not?

Because the problems of the device and layout of the store occupy the minds of specialists in the field of trade for more than a year, they invented ways to display the efficiency of using the area that a particular point has. The layout is considered successful if the comfort of the client is balanced with the efficiency of the site. To evaluate the return, the installation area is determined. Toto calculate this parameter, you need to evaluate the ratio of the area occupied by the equipment to the total area available to the owner. If there are counters in the store, both the place directly occupied by the installation and all those areas that are closed to customers must be taken into account as the area of \u200b\u200bthe equipment. For example, if there is a walkway between the counter and the wall, it is also included in the total area of the equipment.

Normal indicator is ranging from a quarter to a third. The grocery store layout is effective and successful when the installation area is 0.3. For a shoe point, the optimal value is 0.33, and for a clothing point, 0.28. deserted. In such a store, the client is uncomfortable. If the parameter is higher than 0.35, it is safe to say that the zone is congested. Probably, it is difficult for people to move inside, which means that choosing a product is uncomfortable and problematic, which also negatively affects the final revenue of the outlet.

Curious to know

The trading floor is the territory where the seller serves the buyer, which means that the trading floor is one of the main tools for ensuring good revenue. The task of the designer is to decorate the premises in such a way that the client wants to go deeper, inspect the maximum of products, buy something from the presented assortment. At the same time, the layout of the grocery store (and any other product) should be thought out taking into account the compatibility of the presented. For example, fish are not displayed next tofruits.

The significance of store layout (clothes, food and other goods) is due to the presence of a number of specific behavioral characteristics that are common to most buyers. For example, surveys were conducted to determine how people behave in a store. Based on the results of the research, it was determined that about 70% of all customers, entering the store (and this is a closed space), begin to purposefully bypass the entire premises, moving from right to left, that is, in the direction opposite to the movement of the arrow on the clock. Accordingly, in order to increase the efficiency of the store, you need to consider where the door is located, place the entrance on the right and the exit on the left, and also consider the location and filling of shelves with products. About 90% of customers walk around the perimeter of the racks, while only about half of all customers, or even less, systematically inspect the indoor units of the retail space.

What does that mean?

For a store layout (clothes, groceries, etc.) to be cost-effective, high-value products should be on the right side. It is also necessary to exhibit products for which customer demand is above average. As many believe, the position is first of all important for the success of the sale of goods. To determine the optimal one, it is necessary to proceed from the peculiarities of the movement of the client flow.

The layout of the self-service store is thought out so that the customer can choose the product he is interested in as quickly as possible, without encountering any obstacles on the way to this. On average, howstudies have shown that thanks to free access, turnover grows by a third, sometimes more - even by 70%. The task of the shopping area designer is to think over the design so that customers do not interfere with each other. It is important to evaluate all angles in order to exclude the phenomenon of negative interaction of buyers. If one person is busy choosing a product of interest to her, she should have enough time to decide. If someone moves along the aisles, he should not encounter obstacles in his path.

Research on the nuances of self-service store layouts is organized in several ways. One option is photo-modeling of flows, taking into account time distribution. Such a research event involves studying the movement of customers within the outlet, taking into account the day, week, with reference to the month and season. It also takes into account the time that a person spends inside the store. Analysis of the received information allows you to identify in which areas the density of the client flow is higher. The task of the store owner is to regularly conduct such studies at his point of sale in order to assess in time how high the density of the client flow corresponds to the areas of the highest turnover of goods.

Efficiency aspects

When designing a shopping area, a designer has to work with an abundance of conflicting factors. On the one hand, it is necessary to provide customers with the opportunity to move, to buy as much as possible, at the same time it is important to use the territory optimally, to arrange product groups efficiently. It is important to consider wherethere will be key, auxiliary implementation points on how to slow down the client thread, if necessary.

An important aspect of the design of the premises is the distribution of product groups on its territory. At the same time, the priority of zones and the division of groups into classes are taken into account, based on their popularity among regular clients. Priority points of the premises are identified individually, based on the client flow. The highest quality, heavily advertised, popular product sells well only if it is located in the right place. The natural movement of the client is from the entrance to the equipment and cash desks. The task of the designer is to think over the interior design so that the client sees as many attractive products as possible along the way. The hottest zone is located near the cash register. Here the client stays for a long time, but is not busy with anything. It is wise to lay out at the checkouts goods purchased impulsively, as well as printed publications that a person takes to look at and purchases.

An important aspect is product groups. It is customary to distinguish three: daily, periodic, impulse demand. The former are the most in demand, so racks with such products attract maximum clientele. These groups are located around the perimeter, so that customers are comfortable. If a person feels discomfort, he will quickly leave the store, which means he will not make an impulse purchase. Moreover, the wrong design of the premises may cause the client not to return here.