The Customer Journey: Moving Through Your Store

Despite the meteoric rise in online shopping over the past few years, the high street store remains a powerful presence in the world of retail. From eye-catching window displays to immersive shopping experiences, convenient payment methods to efficient shelving systems, the layout and design of your store plays a huge part in ultimately influencing whether your customer converts to a sale.

So, in today’s post, we’ll be taking you on a customer’s journey through your store, breaking down how to optimise the design and layout of your store to create a shopping experience that keeps customers coming back again and again.

First impressions count

Known in the business as the ‘decompression zone’, the first part of the store that your customer walks into makes all the difference when it comes to sales – as this is your chance to capture the attention of your customer and encourage them to take a trip through your store.

Ensure your aesthetics are on point, with coordinated lighting, eye-catching displays and welcoming colours. Avoid cluttering this area with products and signs, as your customers are likely to be observing the store as a whole, rather than paying particular attention to what’s immediately thrust in front of them.

Guide your customers

When it comes to creating experiences, you’ll want to take your customers on a journey through your store, guiding them via a defined pathway. One of the most efficient ways to create a clear path throughout your store is through the use of shelving. Incorporate facing shelving systems, displaying a variety of your latest and greatest products, to create an aisle your customers will subconsciously navigate.

Remember that consumers tend to subconsciously turn right when entering a store, so it’s well worth considering this when designing your layout – essentially pointing out the anti-clockwise path you’d like your customers to follow.

Keep your customers comfortable

As your customer begins to navigate throughout your store, ensure their comfort to guarantee a satisfactory shopping experience and keep them in store for a longer period of time.

Though a crowded store is the dream of every retail business owner, it’s the nightmare of every retail customer. Make sure your aisles are spacious to avoid a customer feeling squashed or hurried, subsequently increasing the amount of time they spend pondering over products.

While you might be happy for customers to spend as long as they like in the store, if they’re looking for an efficient shopping experience, you should cater for that, too. The quick and instant shopping culture created by the age of online shopping means customers seek out efficiency and ease of navigation in both virtual and physical retail. Shelving that avoids a jumble of products will make browsing that much easier, and you can store different sizes and variations of your product in the back instead of front of house – where they can be stocked on large retail shelving units away from the consumer’s eye.

Check out with a smile

At the end of every customer’s shopping experience should be, of course, the checkout – and if you’ve followed our steps so far, your customer should hopefully have an array of products in their basket or trolley.
At the point of sale (POS), consider incorporating smaller shelving units to mould the shape of the queue and also encourage those last-minute impulse buys. Install a spacious checkout desk and keep up-to-date with the latest payment methods to guarantee a great customer experience right until the very end.

If you’ve been inspired to redesign your retail space, check out our wide range of shelving options here, and begin optimising your store to ensure every customer leaves satisfied and with a new purchase in hand!