For both manufacturers and retailers alike, retail design is of direct relevance to business decision-makers. Over recent years it has become increasingly apparent that investment in the design of a compelling and engaging physical store environment can act as a lever for improving a company’s overall performance.
Above all, investment in retail design can mean that a company is less likely to need to compete on price.
From a functional perspective, retail design can improve overall navigation and selection for the consumer, along with enhancing the service offer and ensuring accessibility for the less mobile, for example.
Retail design can also benefit both the manufacturer and retailer in other less tangible ways. We live in a world where perceived value is often as important to the consumer as the actual quality of the product, and successful retail design can improve overall consumer perceptions of the product quality and the brand.
Retail design is beginning to have a dramatic effect on our inner-city landscape. In some cases retail developments are currently helping to regenerate entire urban areas.
The recent redevelopments of the Bull Ring in Birmingham city centre and the opening of ‘The Shambles’ in Manchester, with the anchor store of Harvey Nichols, are both shining examples of how retail design can transform the appearance of a city centre and bring kudos to the city as a whole. Such developments attract people to spend more leisure time in city centres and encourage people to live there.
Providing it is approached in the right way, retail design can help to increase the overall longevity and sustainability of a store, enabling in-built flexibility which allows the retailer to change the retail environment according to product, season and promotion.
This is of particular relevance today, as the greatest challenge many retailers face is the need to create a sense of constant newness in store – enticing the consumer to enter the retail environment but also ensuring that they will want to return.
Responsible design can bring benefits to business as well as the environment with sustainability being a constant consideration. Choice of sustainable materials and low consumption lighting are obvious specifications, but considerate design, thinking about efficiencies in sheet material sizes, using environmentally sound products, value engineering to ensure practicality in transportation and assembly all save energy. Designing in flexibility, adaptation, and evolution without the need for future wholesale change means that future upgrades to stores will use fewer resources.
In terms of the overall economy, consumerism and shopping are a key means of wealth generation within all developed countries. Therefore retail design must continue to play a vital role in sustaining this source of revenue in the future.