In the e-commerce world, User Experience (UX) is key to engaging potential customers and converting leads into sales. The design of your website plays a huge role in sales and encouraging customer retention.
The same applies to a land-based store. In-store layout and design are about so much more than just putting your products on shelves for people to buy them.
But what should you consider in designing and refurbishing your physical store?
Here’s how you can design your in-store layout to promote an engaging customer experience.
Why Engagement-Oriented Design Is Important
With the right floor design, you can influence your customers to view and purchase the best-selling products in your store. But engagement is about more than just sales. It’s about creating and delivering a unique, positive, and memorable brand experience for consumers.
Thoughtful design helps your customers see your brand and its goods in the best light possible, promoting a sense of trust and loyalty while driving repeat business.
You might not always think it when you walk into a store, but the order and positioning of each product section have been carefully curated in pursuit of peak customer engagement. And not just any engagement. Engagement that actively drives sales and customer loyalty.
How To Design Your Store Layout For Optimal Engagement
Designing a commercial layout for engagement might sound complicated, but a lot of it really comes down to natural consumer instinct and intuition.
When you walk into a store, what is your eye drawn to first? What signs or products invite you closer, and which ones don’t really capture your interest or attention? Take a look at the following tips for engagement-oriented store design that prompts positive action from consumers.
1) Select The Right Floor Plans
The right floor plan can make a world of difference when it comes to in-store customer engagement. You are taking your customers on a physical journey—where is the destination?
Floor plans dictate customer flow, product visibility, convenience, and brand appeal, and store atmosphere can even be used as a strategy for deterring thieves. You can enlist the assistance of retail professionals, use heat mapping to track hot and cold areas or learn how to create your own ideal floor plan online.
2) Track Customer Behavioral Trends
What trends are your customers most likely to follow? The behavior of your audience as a whole should be used as a tool for understanding more about the people you are trying to engage with and help you make more strategic in-store layout and design decisions.
Trends in general are important to take note of. What current cultural trends or developments can you reflect in your design that draws people in and makes them want to buy your products?
3) Perfect Your Product Placement
There are many ways to influence customer flow and engagement within your store, and one of them is to perfect the art of product placement. Take a look at these tried-and-tested methods for driving engagement and sales in physical businesses:
- Eye level is buy level – The objects you want to sell the most of should always be at eye level, thus guaranteeing easy visibility and cart additions.
- Put the essentials at the back – It might sound inconvenient, but by placing essentials at the back of the store, you encourage customers to walk past all the other products they might be interested in buying before checkout.
- Put complementary items next to each other – Inspire convenience and delight by positioning items that complement each other side by side.
The order and positioning in which you put your products have the potential to completely alter how customers journey through your store. By giving them access to the products they want the most but putting others that are also desirable within easy reach, you can drive higher engagement rates.
4) Create Memorable Displays
Don’t be afraid to get creative about your in-store displays. People love to be visually engaged, which is why video content is so popular. You can tap into that excitement in-store by creating unforgettable displays that enchant and engage customers throughout the day.
5) Add Interactive Digital Elements
It’s no secret that we live in a digital age. Therefore, it’s natural that consumers are hardwired to seek out immersive digital experiences wherever they are, even inside a store.
By adding interactive digital elements to your store such as touch screens and automatic dispensaries, you can stimulate customers’ imaginations regardless of age and entice them to want to return again soon.
6) Develop In-Store Promotions
In-store promotions are a very effective way to reel customers in and get them buzzing about a new product. One of the advantages of managing a physical store as opposed to a digital one is that people get to physically touch, see, and engage with them in real life—so leverage this wherever possible.
For instance, you could offer limited promotions on new products, package deals for complementary products, or holiday-themed discounts and festive deals.
Festive deals don’t only have to relate to the big holidays like Christmas, Easter, or Valentine’s Day. You can celebrate just about anything, especially if there’s a national day dedicated to it and it ties in with your offering.
7) Use Sampling As A Strategy For New Products
Another way to promote products in-store is to experiment with sampling strategies. Give people an opportunity to try out or taste test exciting new products to pique their interest and incentivize them to buy things they’ve never tried before.
But don’t just create a static sample stand; add a little showmanship to the mix. Get a qualified bartender or barista to whip up drinks, ask a well-known chef to serve food samples, hire a model or influencer to show off a new clothing line, or ask a recognized expert to explain your new product.
8) Perform Ongoing Consumer Research
And finally, research. None of the above tips can reach their full potential unless you have a profound understanding of who your target audience is and what they want from you. People from different age groups, cultures, and demographics have different desires and needs, which means you need to keep close tabs on who your target consumers are in order to satiate them.
Make sure to continue collecting and utilizing data on in-store consumer behavior and allow it to inform your decisions regarding floor layout, product placement, and more.
Final Thoughts
Creating an in-store environment that people want to take part in is what will keep your business alive. Commerce is more competitive today than it ever has been before, and that means your brand needs to be fast on its feet and focus on the details when it comes to targeted consumer engagement.
With these strategies, the physical side of your business can remain relevant in today’s marketing economy and build consumer relationships that consistently drive sales and trust.
Lina Becker started her career in education as a remedial teacher. In 2012 she became a freelance editor, working with various media outlets where she covers topics ranging from education to productivity. Lina is fascinated by how people can use their energy to grow into better versions of themselves every day – we all have so much untapped potential within us!
