Why your business’ appearance matters to customer impression

interior design

It can be the open-to-public-viewing office space or a high-street shop, but if the interior design isn’t in keeping with your business and the impression you want to give, customer expectations are dashed.

The team at Colour Graphics share why interior design is important for your business:

The Opening

This threshold area is the first space that potential customers see when they step into your store or office. It is the space in which people leave behind the ‘real world’ to find out if what you offer is what they expect or need.

It is an important space because this is the space in which people make critical judgements. It needs to have the right lighting, colours and displays.

The right space entices customers to find out more. Once in the ‘main’ store, you can encourage them to buy and this means a buoyant bottom line.

To the Right

It is a well-known fact in the retail community that up to 90 per cent of people who enter your store or business will turn right. It is an unconscious decision, but one worth knowing when it comes to dressing your store or business premises.

Thus, whatever they see to the right needs to be impressive…

Create a Path

The path that you use to entice your customers through your store will vary in layout and size. Without a clear path, your store looks like a mish-mash of rails and clothing. This is too cluttered and too undefined to the eye, confusing your shopper or customer.

Avoid the problem of people turning around and leaving by creating a path that is defined, easy to see and easy to follow.

If nothing else, opt for a circular path that customers turning right can follow. This will lead them around your store and back to the front door again. Remember, where the eyes go, the feet will follow.

Speed Bumps

You have time and energy merchandising your quality products. You have a neat and tidy store that has a stylish, and appropriate interior design. You have invested and designed signage and invested in the latest printing technologies, such as bespoke wallpaper printing.

But, are your customers appreciating all this? It may be that they are not because they are passing through your store too quickly. And this means introducing ‘speed bumps’ to slow them down.

A speed bump means giving customers a visual break. This can be signage or a special display – ‘buy two t-shirts, get one half price’ etc. Some retailers also use these speed bumps to encourage impulsive purchases. They also keep higher demand or higher value products at eye-level, and place lower grossing products lower in the display.

Comfort

But no discussion about interior design would be complete without talking about comfort.

This is not just about providing chairs outside of the fitting rooms but giving people space to enjoy your store.

It is a little-known fact but women customers especially, hate shopping in stores where they cannot move freely. This is especially the case that when they turn around, their body (their bottom!) is brushed by merchandise.

Many of the ‘sell it cheap, pile it high’ retailers don’t bother too much with this butt-brush principle which is possibly one of the reasons why people will admit to not enjoy shopping there but, because they know there are bargains, they will shop. However, their expectations of the merchandise, its quality and the style of the interior is furbelow what they would probably expect for your store.

Checkout at Natural Stopping Point

Consider your own actions when you enter another store – does the pay point sit at a natural stopping point or an obvious point?

Some retailers have experimented with changing the position of their checkout counters but have found that customers seem confused. This means they are not in an obvious place where the customer expects them to be.

Of course, customers need to be able to find your check out and that means creating a display that clearly shows it is the point of pay.

  • Blank wall – creating an interesting display behind the till area with bespoke wallpaper printing. This is a fantastic way of adding personality and character to the interior design of your store too – and relatively inexpensive too.
  • Large enough counter space – if there is one gripe, it is a counter top that is too small. Create a larger enough checkout area for customers to comfortably buy your goods.
  • You and your staff – also part of the interior design is the expectations that customers have of you and your staff. Exceptional customer service walks hand in hand with stylish interior design in creating and meeting a set of expectations.

What do you think the lighting, the colours, the format contribute to the interior design of your business?