If you're not a particularly creative person then organising your retail shop can be daunting. It involves good observation, testing and it involves a heck of a lot of creativity to ensure that people want to come by your shop and shop inside. Arranging your store will have a big effect on the behaviour of your customers, and everything from the queue barrier that you use outside, to the payment options that you give people in the store can determine whether your business will be popular or not. If you need some help organising your retail shop, you are in the right place because we've got several tips to help you below.
Use a floor plan
The floor plan of your shop can play a huge role in dealing with the traffic flow of the shop. If you've got queue barriers outside, you know that your shop is only going to have a limited number of patrons at one time. If it's a free for all and everybody is allowed in whenever they like, you might find it gets a little overcrowded, or you don't have enough floor space to ensure that your shelving will be tidy. The last thing you want is half your inventory on the floor.
Plan for the senses
When people walk into a store, they want to feel like buying with you is a great idea. You have to appeal to your target market's senses and the best way to do that is to make your store attractive. Your playlist should be chosen wisely, if you are situated near cafes or bakeries, then this will be an advantage for you because the smell of their goods will bring people in. If you were selling food, then taste testing stations are a great idea. You should also ensure that you have a number of touch tests on the floor. For example, allowing people to touch the items before they buy them is a great idea.
With your inventory
There's nothing worse than walking into a store that has bare shelves. How does that encourage anybody that you are popular enough to buy from? There's never a definite answer on how much merchandise she should have at one time, but empty store shelves do not inspire anybody. It's always better to have a little too much stock in the back and be prepared than to have an almost empty or empty shelf display.
Where you can, upsell with cross merchandising. Identify the items that can go well together and place them in one display. A bunch of neckties for example or belts can be situated in the same area as suits and shirts. If you're in the women's section, having purses and gloves situated near the handbags is a smart idea. In a food store, keeping all of the dairy items in one place is a great idea, but if you have a row of feminine products, then keeping those near the condoms and pregnancy tests is also a good idea. You can upsell with cross merchandising, so just make sure that you make the right pairings.
