The retail store’s exterior is responsible for attracting the passers by both actual and potential customers to induce them to enter the store. The store’s interior is much more important than the exterior as it welcomes the actual consumer. The layout and design of a retail store communicate a significant amount of information about the retailer to the consumer. The retail store’s interior must contribute to the retailer’s fundamental objectives of minimizing operational expenses and maximize sales and consumer satisfaction, therefore, profits. To attain these goals, the store’s interior not only must be inviting, comfortable and convenient for the consumer. It must also permit the retailer to use the interior space efficiency and effectively. Let us try to touch up Continue reading
Retail Management Basics
Interior Design Considerations in Retail Store Design
The interior design of the retail store determines the way the merchandise is stored and offered for sale. The interior design should allow easy access to merchandise for customer. There are several layout patterns that enhance the customer’s access to goods. The interior also projects an image to the shopper that should be consistent with that conveyed by the store’s promotion, price, and merchandise and with the exterior design. The store interior must make the customer comfortable and encourage shopping. The objective of layout management is to obtain the maximum benefits from the space available. There are issues that retail managers should consider when they make layout decision: 1. Value of Space The value of space, depending on the location Continue reading
Exterior Design Considerations in Retail Store Design
The exterior design of any retail store must protect the interior from the outside elements (heat, dust, humidity, light etc.). Just as important, it also serves to convey information to potential customers. The exterior is first part of the store that potential customers see. They will determine from the outside whether or not they wish to enter and shop. It is critical that the outside of the store gain the attention of customers and entice them to enter. If the outside does not reflect an image appropriate to customers, they will not enter into the store. The important exterior design considerations for the retail store design are: 1. New Building versus Existing Facility The decision to build a new facility Continue reading
Retail Store Design
Store design is the architectural character or decorative style of a retail store that conveys to the customer “what the store is all about.” Retail stores vary so much in kind, size, and geographical location that it is difficult to generalize about design. The architecture of the store’s exterior creates an initial impression. For example, if a retailer chooses to remodel an older Victorian home, the customer will get a different impression from that of a store in the mall. Because of continued pressure on costs, newer designs reflect a closer attention to all details including store size. The drive to reduce inventory levels has forced a move to smaller stores, because a large store with less merchandise looks as Continue reading
Concept of Planned Shopping Centers
The expansion of suburbia brought with it planned residential developments. These new sub divisions were connected by many new city streets and through fares along which retail businesses could be established. The notion of the planned shopping center was born. Developers could plan multi store facilities that would serve the needs of these new neighbor hoods with grocery, drug, and apparel goods. With the availability of large tracts of relatively cheap undeveloped land located many miles from the inner city, but close to these new living areas, large centers could be designed that would offer one stop shopping to entire clusters of residential areas. The last thirty years witnessed the widespread development of multiunit retail strip centers and the construction Continue reading
Freestanding Retail Locations
This type of retail store stands alone, physically separate from other retail stores. It does not enjoy the same benefits that shopping centers offer from the stand point that customer of a free standing retail store must have made a special trip to get there. Shoppers are not “just next door” and decide to walk in as they could in a mall or strip center. Freestanding locations constituted about 22 percent of all retail space, and a recent survey of retailers shows that this category leads all others for future importance. Drive in locations are special cases of freestanding sites that are selected for the purpose of satisfying the needs of customers who shop in their automobile. In some situations, Continue reading