Pretty much everyone agrees that strong graphics contribute to a great sales atmosphere. And most people also agree that noisy retail environments can ruin the shopping experience.
Effective retail stores invite customers in and keep them shopping. We’ve all visited stores with sound so deafening and annoying that we can’t wait to leave. Well, we have a super genius trick for you! Here’s how to add visual excitement to your store while subtracting acoustic distractions. The video below walks you through how we applied this technique to a bike shop.
Start by using the right kind of graphics: Silicone Edge Graphics (SEG).
SEG frame mounted to the wall
SEGs have about a million advantages over old-fashioned rigid graphics or vinyl graphics. They are great looking, inexpensive, easy to ship, easy to change, and you can make them in just about any size. However, there’s another advantage hidden in the little gap between the fabric graphic and the wall. If you’re really smart (like us, of course), you can use that sliver of space to tackle the sound problem in your store!
Install the sound-sucking material
There are a number of products on the market that do a great job of absorbing sound. Sound-absorption materials are really popular these days because of their usefulness for eliminating echo in online meetings and podcasts. Every sound recording studio in the world uses some sort of sound baffle system, and we think more retail stores should too. The product shown here is a ½” thick, semi-rigid, felt-like material. The tiles come in 12×12” squares, so installing them is easier than losing your car keys.
Once you have the SEG frame up on the wall, just fill it with as many sound tiles as possible. In the example above, we used silicone glue to stick the tiles to the wall and made sure they wouldn’t move by tacking them in place with a couple of tiny nails (from a handy nail gun). This process goes extremely fast. Remember that the sound tiles won’t be visible, so they don’t have to be flawlessly cut or perfectly positioned inside the frame. The more tiles you fit, the more echoes you’ll eliminate.
Install the graphic over the tiles
After the acoustic tiles are in place, you can simply install the fabric graphics as you normally would. Just like that, you’ve accomplished two major improvements at once: amplifying your visuals and dampening your sound. Right about the time you finish this project, your customers will be clamoring to buy stuff from the store – so be ready. They’ll probably say things like, “wow, that’s such a nice image. And darn it, I don’t know what it is, but I feel completely comfortable in your store. Here’s my credit card.”
If you are interested in tackling this project, let us know. Fixture Lab can help you with all the nitty-gritty details.
The importance of the right music in a retail store
We all know how much the right music can add to an experience. Your favorite movie would hardly be recognizable without the right soundtrack. Your dinner party would probably end about 7:15 if you didn’t have the right tunes setting the mood. And your retail store needs the right ambiance if you are going to help your customers emotionally connect with your brand and your products. Music is one of the easiest and most effective ways to set the scene perfectly for buying.
In this two-part blog post, we are going to discuss…
1. Equipment for playing music in the store
2. Music sources and tools for creating the perfect vibe in the store
This topic is vast. One could make a career out of figuring out the right tools and the science behind everything, but if you are like I am…and I know I am… you would like us to cut to the chase and jump straight to some proven solutions. We aren’t going to cover every conceivable option, but we are going to share some simple, inexpensive, proven solutions that you could literally have up and running by tomorrow. So, in the paraphrased words of good old Zig Ziglar, the famous sales coach, “Mr. or Mrs. store owner, if I could show you a very very simple way to make your store dramatically better for your customers and for your sales, when would you say the best time to implement the solution?” Today right? Let’s get going.
Attributes of a great in-store sound system
Plays music from a number of locations, so that the sound isn’t loud in one spot and quiet in others
Is easily customizable and variable, so that the mood can very easily adapt to seasons, day parts, event, or moods
The speakers reproduce sound in a high-quality, wide frequency range, making the music easy to talk over in sales conversations
Utilizes a multitude of music and audio sources, so no matter what is happening at the store, the sound will support it
Easy to set up, configure, adjust and control – preferably with simple control from your smartphone or other handy remote
Easy to move and grow the system, so as your business takes off your sound system isn’t a tiny ball and chain.
While low price doesn’t have to be an attribute of a great in-store system, we have yet to meet an independent retailer who has too much money.
The right music mix is vital. We’ll get into that in the next part of this blog series.
Common music equipment solutions for retail stores
Our favorite in-store sound solution: Sonos
There are a lot of competitive wireless systems out there now, so look around and see what features suit your needs best. We can tell you though, if you want a slam dunk solution it’s Sonos. We have used their solutions at home and in a number of stores around the country, and every single time we implement it, the team at the store has loved it.
Key features that make Sonos great:
Extremely easy to set up. It’s about as hard as falling off a log.
They make a wide variety of speakers and other products that all work together seamlessly. You can even integrate your old traditional stereo equipment and music sources. The Sonos products are also very handsome and they look professional in any environment.
The sound is frickin awesome. The more you spend, the better the sound is going to get, but even if you just start with the basics, the sound is great for a store.
Expanding your system, or reconfiguring is crazy easy. It’s very open-ended, and Sonos is constantly adding services and expanding capabilities.
Sonos integrates about a million music sources into one slick app that you can control on your phone, tablet or computer. This is spectacular because you can change up your music strategy whenever you want and you can try different music services in seconds. Have accounts with Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, Google, and Amazon Prime? No problem. They all play well with Sonos.
You can play different music from different sources to different speakers very easily. That means that you can create music zones if you want and areas like the service department can play an entirely different thing than the women’s apparel area. It’s very easy to switch back and forth too.
While you can control it with your phone, when you leave, the music keeps playing, because it’s not playing from the phone. Anyone with a smartphone can control the system if you want them to.
You can integrate external sources like your TV. So when it’s time for the Tour to play, BAM, it’s one the system!
The cost of a Sonos system varies widely depending on the features you would like and the size of the store. A basic small system might only cost $375, and if you want a more elaborate system for a larger store the total cost might be $2000 +/-.
Configuring the perfect system for your store is really easy. There are just a few basic questions that need to be addressed. Sonos can certainly help you, or if you’d like the help of some experts that know bike shops and bike shop employees like the back of their hand, then please call us. We are affiliates, so you can order directly through us, or you can order direct after we help you select your solution.
A small disclaimer: You’ll notice when you research Sonos that they are very “home” oriented. Don’t expect to see the term “store” in their information. Their primary market is simply a home environment. However, our experience with their solutions in the typical bike, running, fly fishing store is 100% success.
After the acoustic tiles are in place, you can simply install the fabric graphics as you normally would. Just like that, you’ve accomplished two major improvements at once: amplifying your visuals and dampening your sound. Right about the time you finish this project, your customers will be clamoring to buy stuff from the store – so be ready. They’ll probably say things like, “wow, that’s such a nice image. And darn it, I don’t know what it is, but I feel completely comfortable in your store. Here’s my credit card.”
