It’s no secret that the high-street has been declining over recent years, but the battle is most certainly not over yet. What instead has happened is that the role of the store has changed. With many turning to the internet to do their shopping, the physical stores have reshaped their shops to focus on the in-store experience, making knowledge accessible and finally, the personal touch.
Creating a strong brand voice is vital in beating the digital world alongside creating an environment where customers can have personal experiences that are simply not possible online. If you want to stand out from the crowd be sure to utilise the senses, such as smell and touch and emphasise these and you’ll be well on your way to knocking the digital competition out the park.
To do this, a redesign might be in order and what better time to do that than the New Year. 2020 is fast approaching and if you want your store to have a successful year, then it’s advisable to consider reinventing it.
So, where do you start?
Do your research
Before you make any plans, you need to be sure that you know your target audience. Knowing and understanding your customers is vital in creating a new design that will be successful. It’s important to be aware that reinventing your store can lead to new customers, but if done wrong it can alienate existing customers.
Plan your shelving
Your shop shelving can be one of the most important aspects of your store. Questions such as where to place them, how many to have will all need addressing. Thankfully, you don’t have to make such a big commitment before trying it out as it is now possible to rent shop shelving from Crown Display.
Don’t rush into anything
Don’t feel like you have to reinvent everything all at once. If you’re wary of losing money, approach your store bit by bit. This will also allow you to test your ideas with customers and see how they react. Likewise, once your new store is ready, give it time to measure success. Not everything is instant and it can often take several months for you to see the real effect.
Be creative
Customers will appreciate things that they’ve not seen before. Don’t fall into the trap of just copying what your competition has done, just because it’s worked for them does not mean it will work for you. Be individual, express your brand voice and express your creativity. Creativity will always come out on top over unoriginal ideas.
Protect it
Once you have a design, you’ve tried and tested it and you know it’s going to be a huge success—it can be worthwhile protecting it so others can’t replicate it. Big names such as KFC and McDonald’s have both been known to do this and for good reason. Nothing ruins great ideas more than oversaturation of originality.
