Managing a retail store isn’t the easiest thing in the world. If you aren’t able to keep consumers in your store long enough for them to make considerable purchases, you will ultimately go out of business. Accomplishing this is part science and part art. You really need to get into the heads of consumers so you can work to make them feel welcomed and comfortable inside your store. Below are four tips you can use to do just that and keep customers in your store for longer.
Appropriate Interior Design
Once you coax consumers to enter your store, you need to avoid scaring them away. Inappropriate interior design can certainly do that. If a space feels dark and foreboding, the natural psychological response will be to leave for somewhere else that seems safer. Make the insides of your store look and feel warm, pleasant and relaxing. Match your interior design with your product category. If you are a grocery store, creating the illusion of an old world market may do the trick.
The Right Music
Audio is also another important component of how a store feels. Having no music at all is usually a poor choice. Put some thought into the kind of music you choose to play at a moderate volume. While generic background music may sometimes seem appropriate, popular music from an era that the age groups that shop in your store will remember is often an excellent choice.
The Right Temperature
A store also needs to be the right temperature to attract customers for long periods. During the cold months of winter, the interior should be moderately warm. During the blistering summer, it should feel cool inside. How you design your store’s structure also helps determine whether or not the temperature is comfortable inside. Roofing cladding, for example, can reflect solar energy and keep your store cooler during the summer.
Strategic Layout
Many store owners are very strategic about how they design the layout of their stores and where they place certain kinds of products. The most popular products should not be placed right near the entrance. Instead, they should be placed in the back somewhere. This way, shoppers spend more time inside and see more products they may be enticed to purchase.
Overall, shoppers are picky. If you don’t design your store correctly, you may not be able to retain them in your store for long. That can devastate your bottom line. Instead, put a lot of research and design into the interior of your store to keep customers inside for as long as possible.
