As you begin to contemplate making changes to your retail store design, there are a few store design basics to keep in mind. If a store is going to be remodeled, I like to start by doing enough research to know what works well with the current layout and what doesn’t. How do people move around the store? What are the elements of the current design that need to be saved or replicated in the new retail store design?
Here are some basics of retail store design to keep in mind: There has been research done, much of it by Paco Underhill and his company Envirosell, that gives us some very basic principles that we need to adhere to. For example, there should be an area inside the front door that has no product display. This area of perhaps 12 or 14 square feet has been called the “decompression zone.” The decompression zone allows customers to enter your store and adapt to their surroundings. The decompression zone, when done correctly, communicates a “welcome” to your customers and allows them to make their first judgments about your retail world. Your first trials are usually the ones that stick so this adjustment zone is very important.
Another phenomenon that Underhill has observed is what he has called the “invariant right.” This refers to the fact that, when given the opportunity, people prefer, and most often do, to move to the right after entering a store. When I’m designing a store, I always try to encourage people to move in the direction they feel most comfortable. By adhering to this principle whenever possible, I find that the store “feels” better. When a store “feels” better, it operates at a higher level and produces better sales and additional profits.
When I’m designing a floor plan, a couple of additional store design basics that I consider are balance and symmetry. Most people react positively to both balance and symmetry. I have tried experiments where I presented different layouts for the same store, some were balanced, some were not, some were symmetrical and some were not. As retailers studied the various plans, I was surprised at how often they preferred balance and symmetry, even though we hadn’t discussed those issues at all. I think the preference moves to the shopping experience. I also know that most shoppers would not notice the subtle differences and would probably say that the store “felt” better. After all is said and done, the shopping war is one of the stores that “feel the best” for their customers. Never forget how important retail store layouts are to the feel of a store.