Standing out as a high street store and attracting customers has always been a central part of a successful bricks-and-mortar retail. Not only must retailers ensure that their storefront is drawing new customers into their business but they must also, and importantly, outshine potential competitors too.
The retention of regular customers is also a fundamental consideration, which is why shops must also consider the impact and appeal of their interior designs alongside their high street facades. If a retailer provides a pleasant and memorable shopping experience, they are more likely to see return custom, as well as find their business reaching others through word of mouth.
Window Displays
As customers pass across the high street, a retailer has but a brief moment to capture their attention. This is why the window display remains the most effective part of shopfront design, being able to not only draw the interest of potential customers but also to use their capacity to effectively communicate information about a business quickly.
Retailers can best use their window displays not solely as a platform for advertising products but to imply the quality and brand message behind them too. This is why successful clothing stores will not only showcase their products on mannequins but also use props and aesthetics to communicate their brand associations.
Signage
A retailer’s brand is effectively communicated through signage and is one of the main ways of standing out as a high street store on the high street. In addition to their message, the construction and presentation of signage adds potential value to the branding too, with high-quality sign fittings supporting a more positive and effective representation of the brand.
Exterior signage is also an excellent way of orienting customers on the high street, helping them to find your establishment. Since such a sign would be occupying the same potential eye-line as other business signage, it is important that a retailer makes due effort to install effective signage that captures attention.
Style & Design
There is a developing trend of experience-focused retail and, as the high street is changing to adapt to new technology and demand, retailers have begun seeking to offer more than a simple product. Shops are scrutinising the aesthetics and the style of their store’s interior design, with the intention of providing value to customers not only from their products but their shop spaces too.
This has led to shop design becoming more important than ever, whether as a retailer of luxury products that wishes to offer customers a decadent browsing experience or as a purveyor of health products determined to promote a sense of nature and organic wellness in their store, both of which can be cultivated through interior design.