‘In the convenience store market, the average sales uplift after re-designing and refitting a store is 22 per cent.'
Small shops have undergone a quiet revolution since the turn of the millennium. Walk into a small store and the chances are pretty good that you’ll find modern shelving, new flooring and better lighting.
But investing in new fittings for your store will have limited effect if you haven’t thought about what goes where and how to make the most of what you’ve got.
Designing a small store is simple: it’s about placing yourself in the shoes of one of your shoppers and understanding their needs and desires. In some circles this is referred to as customer research, but more often than not, the store owner has a very good understanding of the shoppers that come through their doors – it’s just a matter of translating that into the way the space works
Yaron Meshoulam, director at London design consultancy 20/20, explains that convenience store owners, for example, should consider the ‘mission’ that a shopper is engaged in when visiting their store. ‘Generally, there are those looking for ‘something for now’, typically a lunch-time visitor, the ‘top-up shoppers’ seeking to augment a weekly supermarket shop, and those seeking the wherewithal for an evening meal.’
If you don’t include design as part of your store blueprint, there are others who will. ‘In the convenience store market, the average sales uplift after re-designing and refitting a store is 22 per cent, which demonstrates the importance of design,’ says Dominic Perks, managing director of Stoke-on-Trent-based design and shopfitting company UNO.
He adds that the march of Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer into the c-store market has stimulated development throughout the sector. ‘The development cycle for c-stores has reduced from every 5 years to more like every 3 years now and the trend is continuing.’
It’s worth noting at this stage, that the big retailers entrée into c-store retailing has been very effective – for them. They have had decades of working on a larger scale, processing large numbers of shoppers effectively and efficiently as well as knowing which stock works in which position. It was therefore a relatively simple matter to take that knowledge and shrink it, with adaptations, to c-store size. In the meantime, it is an equally well-known fact that the absolute number of c-store owners has been declining rapidly.
‘Many small shops have a long way to go, but store layout is increasingly at the top of the list of their priorities. The smaller the space, arguably the more vital the design becomes,’ he comments. ‘In an increasingly competitive retail (and e-tail) market, making your bricks-and-mortar space attractive to shop is becoming essential – and that means thoughtful design and store layout. Just ‘getting on with it’ is no longer sustainable.’