This week we continue with strategies that go beyond the retail store layout. Using the right layout for your store is not only about what type of merchandise you sell but also how customers interact with the space.

In part 6 of this series we covered the overall journey of a customer through a retail space. Now we’ll refine it even further to specific tactics you can use to maximize sales.

Be Strategic With Staples

Everyone knows that grocery stores sell milk, eggs, and bread at razor thin margins— sometimes even at a loss. These are the staples of a grocery store which are what a majority of people go in to buy. They also tend to be the least profitable but get customers in the door. At a clothing retail store, for example, these products typically tend to be things like t-shirts. Walking through a store you will find that these staples are generally placed as far away from the entrance as possible encouraging customers to walk through the entire space in order to reach them. On their journey to buy those products, they will have to walk by other products and are then more likely to buy other products they had not intended on purchasing when they walked in.

Eye Level

It’s not just where in your space you should place your merchandise, but where to place products in relation to your customers. Anything placed at eye level is prime real estate, gaining more attention than something placed in either stoop or stretch levels where a customer would have to bend down or reach up. Your high-profit items should be placed at eye level while lower profit items should either be placed above or below. But be warned to take health and safety into account as heavy or breakable objects should not be placed above which could injure your customers.

Speed Bumps

In an age of faster and faster, you want to slow your customers down. Studies have shown that the longer customers remain in a store, the more money they spend. Eye catching displays can create retail speed bumps which help slow customers down and encourage more interaction. These could be anything from seasonal displays to interactive touch screens. Some large retail stores partner with coffee shops to create sit down cafes in their retail space to keep customers there longer.

In the next part we’ll introduce a few more key ideas and strategies to encourage sales.

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