Rethinking the flow of a store for more sales and happier customers

We recently finished up a really great store design with Summit City Bicycles out in Fort Wayne, IN. Bob and Sherry were already running a very successful shop with solid merchandising and superb customer service, but over the years as they grew and grew the space took on some less-than-optimal characteristics. We see this kind of thing all the time.

Here’s how stores evolve and lose their flow:

A store starts out small and scrappy, with just about whatever space they can afford to begin with. Of course they have success because they are offering great products, great service and a fun place to shop. Before they know it, they need to expand. The natural expansion would be to take over the space right next door and simply spread out. It feels so nice to be able to spread out a little that they barely even notice the awkwardly placed wall in the middle of the space, or the way that the back wall of the space has a conspicuous building material change, or the flooring that no longer matches. Sound familiar?

For a good shop, this process usually takes place a number of times over the years. It’s like boiling a frog. If the space were offered to them as is, and they didn’t experience the evolution of the space themselves, they would say, “Oh hell no. That store is broken up really strange. That will totally hold us back.”

The Summit Cycles team was doing a great job with what they had, but there were some definite ways that they had been boiled like a frog. To their credit, they knew that something was going to have to change…so they called us in to help out.

The way that the store had evolved, the customer would enter the store and find themselves facing the back side of some strangely placed electrical and storage rooms on the left, and the side of a bathroom on the right. To make things worse, the entry area had the lowest ceiling in the whole space. Technically, the shopper could see into the retail space, but their view was very constrained, unflattering, and they certainly couldn’t visually scan whole store to see where they might like to shop.

To address the problem we sat down with Bob and Sheri, the architect, and the contractor to see what moves were reasonable to make. We ended up suggesting a number of changes that included removing some walls, moving the cash wrap, opening up the service writing area, and relocating a number of categories around the store. What a difference it has made! The store feels SO much bigger and much more inviting. It feels Like the store has more product because it’s actually visible. As soon as one walks in the front door they can easily see everything and where they need to go. Plus, the employees have much better visibility around the store. Add all these factors together and you have a space that is going to sell more, and make customers happier!

Is your store suffering from gradual change that hurts your overall shopping experience?

Step outside your store. Now shake your head and say, “I am now a customer walking in this store for the first time.” As you walk in and around the store, ask yourself these questions. Be brutally honest with yourself.

What catches my eye first when I walk in the store? What is the most interesting feature of the store?
How much of the store can I actually see when I walk in?
Are there areas that don’t look inviting, or that I can’t see at all?
Does the organization of the store encourage me to spend time and walk around?
Are there walls in strange places? Do the materials/floors/features change dramatically as I walk around? Does it all feel like one store?
Are there areas where all the people are? Are the customers and employees in the store spread around the store, or is everyone typically in one small area?