Chapter 17 - Store Layout, Design, and Visual Merchandising

Impulse Merchandise

Near heavily trafficked areas.

Point of Sale

Near merchandise with prices and product information.

Idea-Orientation Presentation

Present merchandise based on specific idea or the image of the store, encourage multiple complementary purchases - women's fashion, furniture combined in room settings and Sony Style mini-living rooms.

Visual Merchandising

Presentation of a store and its merchandise in ways that will attract the attention of potential customers.

Retailer's Strategy

Primary objective of store design is implementing the (meets needs of target market, builds a sustainable competitive advantage and displays store's image.)

Highly Visible Areas

Prime location for merchandise - End aisle and displays.

Highly trafficked Areas

Prime location for merchandise - store entrances and near checkout counter.

Space Planning

Productivity of allocated space sales per square foot, sales per linear foot. Merchandise inventory turnover, impact on store sales, display needs for the merchandise.

Americans with Disabilities Act

Protects people with disabilities from discrimination in employment, transportation, public accommodations, telecommunications and activities of state and local government. Reasonable Access.

Promotional Signage

Relates to specific offers, sometimes in windows.

DIgital Signage

Signage delivered through a centrally managed and controlled network and displayed on a tv monitor or flat panel screen. Superior in attracting attention, enhances store environment, provides appealing atmosphere, overcomes time-to-message hurdle, messages can target demographics, eliminates costs with printing, distribution and installing traditional signage.

Rounder

Smaller than straight rack, holds a maximum amount of merchandise, easy to move around, and customers can't get frontal view of merchandise.

Layouts, Signage & Graphics, Feature Area

Store design elements.

Shopping Experience, Sales, Labor Costs and Inventory Shrinkage

Store design influences

Hedonic Benefits

Store design provides __________ __________ by offering customers an entertaining and enjoyable shopping experience.

Utilitarian Benefits

Store design provides __________ __________ when it enables customers to locate and purchase products in an efficient and timely manner with minimum hassle.

Suggestions for Effectively Using Signage

Suggestions include coordinate signage to store's image, use appropriate type faces on signs, inform customers, use them as props, keep them fresh, limit the text on signs, use appropriate typefaces on signs.

To the Right of National Brands

Supermarkets and drug stores place private-label brands ...... - shoppers read from left to right (higher priced national brands first and see the lower-priced private-label item).

Merchandise Presentation Techniques

Techniques include idea-oriented, by style/item, color, price, vertical, tonnage (large quantities of merch displayed together), frontal presentation (display as much of the product as possible to catch the customer's eye).

Color, Lighting, Scent & Music

The 4 store's atmosphere

Atmospherics

The design of an environment through visual communications, lighting, colors, music, and scent to stimulate customers' perceptual and emotional responses and ultimately to affect their purchase behavior.

Store Design Objectives

The objectives are to implement retailer's strategy, build loyalty, increase sales on visits, control cost, legal considerations - Americans with Disabilities Act, Design trade-offs.

Space Management

The scarce resource. The allocation of store space to merchandise categories and brands. The location of departments or merchandise categories in the store.

Cool Colors

These colors have a peaceful, gentle and calming effect. Culturally bonded.

Warm Colors

These colors produce emotional, vibrant, hot and active responses.

Store Layouts

To encourage customer exploration and help customers move through the stores. Facilitates a specific traffic pattern, provide interesting design elements.

Grid, Racetrack and Free Form

Types of Store Layouts

Gondolas

Versatile, grocery and discount stores, some department stores, hard to view apparel as they are folded.

Planogram

A diagram that shows how and where specific SKUs should be placed on retail selves or displays to increase customer purchases.

Sales Per Square Foot

A measure of space productivity used by most retailers since rent and land purchases are assessed .

Scent

Has a positive impact on impulse buying behavior & customer satisfaction. Scents that are neutral produce better perceptions of the store than no scent. Customers in scented stores think they spent less time in the store than subjects in unscented stores.

Store Design

Has a substantial effect on which products customers buy, how long they stay in the store, and how much they spend during a visit.

Lighting

Highlight merchandise, structure space and capture mood, energy efficient lighting, downplay features, can enhance the overall, ambience of a store, or with the wrong lighting kill any possibility of ambience.

Straight Rack

Holds a lot of apparel, hard to feature specific styles and colors and found often in discount and off-price stores.

Four-Way

Holds large amount of merchandise, allows customers to view entire garment, hard to maintain because of styles and colors, fashion oriented apparel retailers.

Location

Identifies the place of merchandise and guides customers.

Category SIgnage

Identifies types of products and located near the goods.

Control Cost

Implementing the store design and maintain the store's appearance.

Videotaping Customers

Learn customers' movements where they pause or move quickly or where there is congestion. Evaluate the layout, merchandise placement, promotion.

Virtual Store Software

Learn the best place to merchandise and test how customers react to new products.

Special Merchandise

Lightly trafficked areas (glass pieces, women's lingerie).

Racetrack Layout

Loop with a major aisle that has access to departments, draws customers around the store, provide different viewing angles and encourage exploration and impulse buying, used in department stores.

Demand/Destination Merchandise

Back left-hand corner of the store.

Adjancencies

Cluster complimentary merchandise next to each other.

Music

Control the pace of store traffic, create an image, and attract or direct consumers' attention. A mix of classical or soothing encourage shoppers.

Lifestyle Images

Creates moods that encourage customers to shop.

End Caps

Displays located at the end of an aisle in stores using grid layout.

Grid Layout

Easy to locate merchandise, does not encourage customers to explore store, allows more merchandise to be displayed, cost efficient. Used in grocery, discount and drug stores.

Straight Rack, Rounder, Four-Way and Gondolas

Fixtures

Free-Form (Boutique) Layout

Fixtures and aisles arranged asymmetrically, provides an intimate, relaxing environment that facilitates shopping and browsing, pleasant relaxing ambiance doesn't come cheap (small store experience) inefficient use of space. More susceptible to shoplifting b/c salespeople can not view adjacent spaces. Used in specialty stores and upscale department stores.

Butt Brush Effect

A store that is cramped, shoppers touch one another making them uncomfortable and having unintended contact with items on shelves.

Reasonable Access

Affects store design as disabled people need this to merchandise and services built before 1993. after 1993, stores are expected to be fully accessible. 32 in wide pathways on the main aisle and to the bathroom, fitting rooms, elevators and around most fixtures.

Feature Areas

Areas within a store designed to get the customers' attention such as entrances, freestanding displays, cash wraps, end caps, promotional aisles, walls, windows and fitting rooms.