Store Design and Visual Merchandising

Designing Stores that Reach the Minds, Habits and Behaviors of Consumers:

The key takeaway from Kelley’s breakout session is that the in-store retail experience is not about the product; it is about the context and content retailers place around the product. The in-store experience should elicit an emotional response from the consumer, one that capitalizes on their sense of need.

Kelley does caution that the human mind can only absorb so much content. Too much information and context can cause the consumer’s mind to shut down long enough for them to exit the store.

"The store will become the most powerful physical expression of the brand", Ron Johnson, Apple

How important is design, in a retail environment ? Why ?

Elements That Compose the Store Environment

• Visual Communications (Retail identity, graphics, signage)

• Store Planning (space allocation, layout, circulation)

• Store Design (exterior design, ambience, lighting)

• Merchandising (fixture selection, merchandise presentation, visual merchadising)

Objectives of the store environment

• Developing a store image, merchandise, visual and ambience

• Increasing space productivity

Get people in the store, get people to buy, most efficiently.

Store Planning

• Floor plan - A schematic that shows where merchandise and customer service departments are located, how customers circulate through the store, how much space is dedicated to each department, check out process.

• Microretailing - Occurs when a chain store retailer operating over a wide geographic area, usually nationally, tailors its merchandise and services in each store to the needs of the immediate trading area.

• Merchandise adjacencies

• Allocating space (reallocation based on Omnichannel design):
  • Back room
  • Offices and other functional spaces
  • Aisles
  • service areas, and other nonselling areas
  • Floor merchandise space
  • Wall merchandise space

• Shrinkage prevention

• Space allocation planning
  • Improving space productivity in existing stores: Space productivity index - A ratio that compares the percentage of the store’s total gross margin that a particular merchandise category generates to its percentage of total store selling space used. (space allocation versus margin productivity)

    Hotspots within the design, places for high margin goods.

  • Space allocations for a new store, use industry data, prior experience, limited by space constraints

• Planograms - A schematic that illustrates how and where a retailer’s merchandise should be displayed on the shelf in order to increase customer purchases. Location, adjacencies, gross margin numbers.

• Circulation: a customer should be able to come into a store, and with one look around, understand the flow
  • Free-flow layout

  • Grid layout

  • Loop layout

  • Spine layout

Goal, to increase time spent in store, while reducing "dwell time."

Planning Fixtures and Merchandise Presentation

On-shelf merchandising - Display of merchandise on counters, racks, shelves, and fixtures throughout the store.

It must present and display the merchandise attractively so that it is easy to understand and access.

It must be reasonably easy to maintain.

Fixture Types:

• Hardlines fixtures, Gondola

• Softlines fixtures, Four-way Feature Rack, Round Rack

Feature fixture - Display that draws special attention to selected features (e.g., color, shape, or style) of merchandise.

Wall fixtures

Merchandise Presentation Planning

• Shelving
• Hanging
• Pegging
• Folding
• Stacking
• Dumping

Key psychological factors to consider when merchandising stores:

• Value/fashion image
• Angles and sightlines
• Vertical color blocking

Selecting Fixtures and Merchandise-Presentation Methods

• Fixtures should emphasize the key selling attributes of merchandise while not being overpowering.

• Match the fixture to the merchandise, not the merchandise to the fixture.

Visual Merchandising

The artistic display of merchandise and theatrical props used as scene-setting decoration in the store.

Visual displays are located in a focal point, feature area, or other area remote from the on-shelf merchandising and perhaps even out of reach of the customer.

Visuals should incorporate relevant merchandise.

Mannequin: Hottest Mannequin Trends in 2012

Pinterest: Retail Window Displays

Retail Design Blog: Visual Merchandising

Store Design

Retail Design Blog: Store Design

Storefront design:

The storefront must clearly identify the name and general nature of the store and give some hint as to the merchandise inside.

It includes all exterior signage and the architecture of the storefront itself.

Interior design:

The finishes applied to surfaces

The architectural shapes

Lighting design

Lighting greatly enhances store sales.

Contemporary lighting design requires an in-depth knowledge of electrical engineering and the effect of light on color and texture.

Sounds and smells: total sensory marketing

Effective store design appeals to the human senses of sight, hearing, smell, and touch.

Store redesign: Ann Taylor unveils new store design at new Michigan Avenue location:

Indeed, Ann Taylor has been rather substantially transformed over the past two years under Creative Director Lisa Axelson (whose résumé includes stints at Club Monaco and Banana Republic), consciously veering away from boring job-interview suits in favor of sleek, classic-yet-chic pieces, with lots of pencil skirts and drapey silk tops, plus statement accessories.

The new store will resemble what Mr. Taylor describes as a “chic, warm, modern” home with whitewashed maple floors, crystal chandeliers and tufted furniture.

Merchandise will be reorganized into career and casual zones, plus another accessories area. There will also be a private lounge area with a large touchscreen TV that provides access to the brand’s website for additional sizes and styles.

JC Penney Store redesign, Store within a Store concept; reworking the middle.

Visual Communications

Name, logo, and retail identity

Must be catchy, memorable, and reflective of the retailer’s merchandising mission.

Institutional signage

Describes the merchandising mission, customer service policies, and other messages on behalf of the retail institution.

Telling the retailer's brand story, digitally: The alligator goes modern: Lacoste stores deploy digital signage:

Noam Levavi, CEO of YCD Multimedia. “These new generation stores, using digital media, allow customers to enjoy a luxurious ambience and feel like they are in a prestigious fashion show. This enhances both customer experience and brand equity, creating a unique shopping environment."

Directional, departmental, and category signage

Directional and departmental signage are usually large and placed fairly high, so they can be seen throughout the store.

Category signage is usually smaller and is intended to be seen from a shorter distance; they are located on or close to the fixture itself where the merchandise is displayed.

Kate Spade to use iPads as retail signage

Apple has used iPads as in-store signs since early 2011, putting the tablets in front of each and every product -- even its $49 iPod shuffle. The encased iPads display information about nearby products like prices and configurations to let customers compare and customize models. There's also the option to page a retail employee to come over to provide assistance.

Kate Spade Saturday says the company is using the tablets -- which retail at $499 -- for product videos, as well as demos for how products can be used.

"Apple iPads will be strategically positioned throughout the shop, featuring content that is relevant to items in proximity, such as timely marketing messages, style suggestions and video, and user-generated images to encourage engagement with the brand and its products," the company said in a release today. "The iPads will additionally educate customers on multiple ways to wear and use select products."

Point-of-sale signage (POS) - A relatively small signage placed very close to the merchandise, and intended to give details about specific items.

The most important function is to clearly state the price of the merchandise being signed.

Lifestyle graphics

Lifestyle images portray either the merchandise, often as it is being used, or simply images of related items or models that convey an image conducive to buying the product.

Lifestyle photography must be kept very general so as to be attractive to the majority and offensive to none.

Innovations in Store Design and Visual Merchandising

From Selfridges (Windows) to Apple (Apple Store Boston circular staircase)

Selfridges, changed retail from a chore, to a form of entertainment. Display products, big events etc.

"Shopping is entertainment. It's not just about the product, but about the smile, the packaging, the whole ambience." Vittorio Radice, Selfridges

Selfridges' Heritage

Commentary: Sorry, Steve: Here's Why Apple Stores Won't Work

• Impact of Omni-channel Strategy on Store Design

• Evolution in self-checkout, impact on design

• Signage, iPads etc.

• Impact of smartphone in the retail store, to overcome showrooming: The Future of Retail: Reinventing and Preserving the In-Store Experience

  Smart phones change the user experience in the store, how does this impact design opportunities ?

Hointer