“A retailer’s primary advertising tool is first and foremost is his own store,” says Eben Human from Assignment 3, a leading shopfitting and signage company in South Africa. He works closely with advertising and branding agencies and directly with business owners to determine the right look and feel for their stores.

What do retailers get wrong and what should they be doing?

People know not to judge a book by its cover, but it is human nature to do so and you can use that to your advantage. Besides making sure your store gives a good impression, you want it to be the right impression. You need to therefore first make sure you know and can define your own brand. Are you hip and cutting edge? Simple and dependable? Or understated and elegant? It’s not enough to just have an attractive layout. It needs to instantly communicate across your brand to your customers.

Your store layout needs flexibility

While it is true that if it’s not broke, don’t fix it, your store still needs to adapt to a change in season or special promotion. In other words, your store needs room for flexibility. Use innovative shopfitting that allow you to change the look and feel of your store relatively easily, without it costing you unnecessary time and money. Such as standardised, multi-functional applicable components that can accommodate your changing sales promotions.

Maximise your visual marketing

The great thing about seeing your store as an advertising tool is that you have all this room and don’t have to pay extra for advertising space. Make the most of it. For instance, there is a rise in the use of photo murals or focal back walls, not just for decoration but also to communicate a message. We’re also seeing more large-sized advertising screens, although this is a more expensive investment and isn’t necessary for every type of retailer.
For example, a small bakery selling homemade baked goods doesn’t need high-tech advertising screens, but it can have a photo mural of a grandmotherly figure baking trays of treats, highlighting the intimate, homemade nature of the brand.

The customer experience has pride of place

At the end of the day, it’s not just about the quality and pricing of your products that determine the impression your store has on your customers. It’s the whole shopping experience. Does your store layout allow for fluid movement, even when it’s busy? Is your customer encouraged to browse around and discover points of interest in different sections of the store? Or are there long queues, jostling elbows, blocked access points and the kind of environment that makes your customer want to just get what’s needed and get out again?

Different types of retailers need to provide different retail environments. This is why having the help of professional shopfitters is beneficial, like Assignment 3 in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

For instance, having the kind of layout that requires a lot of help from shop assistants, like opening locked display cabinets, finding out prices or reaching products from top shelves can work in some instances, but it doesn’t encourage browsing because many shoppers like to do this on their own terms. Additionally, this could cause problems during peak hours when the shop is full and shop assistants are few.

A lot of thought needs to go into the layout and how to facilitate retail traffic flow. At the end of the day you want your customers to come away with a positive response, after having felt encouraged to stay longer and buy more.