Every foot of floor space counts in retail to maximise revenue. Optimising this space to its full potential can be challenging when balancing the desire to showcase your product range with creating an engaging customer experience.
Over the years, e-commerce has rapidly grown in popularity leaving some high-street retailers uncertain about the future of physical stores. Many factors have driven this change including speed of delivery, convenience and variety of product options available with online shopping. While the changing retail landscape can feel quite daunting, the demand for physical stores still stands. An article by Furity revealed high-street shoppers appreciated the tactile experience of handling products, social interaction and customer service. Instead of fearing about the effects e-commerce could have on their business, retailers are encouraged to adapt their stores to meet the changes in buying behaviour.
Our tips discuss how you can enhance your store to increase your capacity and improve your customers’ shopping experience:
Overcrowding Areas
Retailers who are limited in space may tend to overcrowd areas in a bid to show as much product as possible. However, an overcrowded shop floor can make it difficult for customers to find what they’re looking for and potentially drive them away.
Solution: Some simple solutions include displaying fewer items of each variation or prioritising best-selling products to free up your store. A greater remedy is integrating a mezzanine floor for premises with unused vertical space. Mezzanines create a new shop floor area which can also increase sales per square foot. The longer people stay in your location, the higher the chances they’ll make a purchase. Absolute Music integrated a mezzanine floor, creating two separate sales zones in-store and enabling them to better showcase their products.
Product Placement
In retail environments, the presentation of your shop floor is one of the first impressions customers have of your business. Your products may not have the chance to catch the public’s eye if they’re poorly placed. Ensuring you have a strategy in place and keeping an eye on your least and most popular products will avoid wasting precious floor space.
Solution: Being creative with your space is an effective way of keeping customers interested. The first stage is monitoring sales reports to prioritise which products deserve the best placement. Secondly, why not try using a variety of shelving, displays or creating different areas within your store? Keeping your customers captivated at every turn can go a long way. We designed a mezzanine area for Jollyes Pet Food to house a small grooming facility whilst the ground floor was open and spacious to showcase products.
Lack of Storage
Overcrowded areas can often be a result of lack of storage. Whilst the front of house is mainly prioritised, the back of house is equally as important for storage and maintaining stock levels.
Solution: The more stock you can keep in-house, the easier it is to constantly replenish shelves and give customers what they want. We provided DKNY with additional storage space to keep up with their growing demands. Our mezzanine floors can support heavy loads and shelving to ensure you maximise your premises.
How Hi-Level Can Help
We have transformed a variety of retail stores across the UK through the installation of bespoke mezzanine floors. Our designs are all uniquely created to suit the exact needs and requirements of a business, giving them optimal space to maximise sales.
We understand the importance of having both a functional back-of-house and visually appealing aesthetics on the shop floor. Our industrial mezzanines are designed to cope with all heavy-duty equipment or storage. For the front of house, we provide our feature mezzanine range, executed to the highest standard with stainless steel glass handrail. Regardless of your business type, full customisation is available from the steps and handrails to the flooring.
Call our sales team today for how our mezzanine solutions could transform your retail space.
