After all, many businesses spend a significant amount of their budget advertising in order to drive footfall into store, yet don’t close the sale due to poor store layout and lack of promotional materials. In-store marketing is most effective with a strategy, thus you need to evaluate your overall store layout. Here’s where to start:
Start on the outside
Do you have any shop window space? Go outside your store and look at it from the outside in. If you were a passer-by would you be enticed into entering? Your window space is your most valuable piece of in-store advertising, so think of it the same way you do your website homepage.
You want to communicate your brand to the passing trade in a nutshell, so include real products where possible. A simple window cling can be used to add some colour or advertise a special offer; alternatively stacking cubes can do a similar job whilst adding some vibrancy and texture to your space.
Step inside
After evaluating your window space walk into your store, what’s the first thing you see and where are your eyes drawn? Ideally your best sellers should be as near to the entrance as possible, you know these products sell well and they therefore act as the perfect introductory point – they’re a safe bet! Your entrance should have a distinct space to give your customer time to orientate themselves, so position these products close to your entrance but not so close that they’re on top of your customer.
Watch and learn
Have you ever simply observed the way your customers move around your store? This can be insightful. Nine times out of ten first time visitors are likely to pick up the first thing they see, it helps them familiarise themselves with their surroundings and your products. However this can be different dependent upon the store layout and product – take notes!
Identify opportunities
As a rule of thumb your high traffic areas tend to be the till point and fitting rooms (if you have them), so make the most of these areas. For example, if you’re a clothing retailer try merchandising a wall next to the fitting room with jewellery and accessories. It will prompt your customers to ask themselves a question about whether they need something to match the item they plan on purchasing.
At the till point customers have already made the decision to purchase an item and are therefore in a purchasing frame of mind. This is why we tend to advertise lower value items here, such as crisps or chocolate bars. Try placing a brightly coloured Dump Bin near your till point that advertises special low value offers – they allow you to differentiate one product from the others sitting on your shelves, creating a sense of importance.
Create a flow
No matter how small the space, you want to encourage people to move around. If you’re a relatively small store you might be forced to use a free-flow layout. This means that instead of having defined aisles, the angles and corners of fixtures guide customers around your store. If you’re limited for space you may find an FSDU or floor displays helpful, they provide shelf space whilst having a relatively small footprint. You can brand these with your company logo, text and brand colours too. Better still, they’re flexible so you can move them around your store as you wish.
Small retailers often struggle to source in-store marketing materials on a budget. Many companies selling such materials tend to have a minimum order value or sky high prices. Shop4pop.com was launched to combat that challenge, providing high quality in-store marketing solutions available in quantities of one upwards. Customers can upload their own artwork or choose from over 500 customisable designs, to which they can add their own logo, text and brand colours to.
