The way your opticians’ dispensary is designed directly influences your sales. By enhancing the visibility of eyewear on display, improving workflow and creating a seamless shopping experience, a professional optical dispensary design can go a long way. So in today’s blog post, we share our best interior design tips on how to do that.
Optical Dispensary Design Tips
The aesthetics of your optical dispensary directly affects your sales and your bottom line profits. People visiting your optician or optical shop will not only expect a wide variety of frames to choose from but also a high aesthetic appeal. So how can a great dispensary design help you achieve that? And what do you need to do in order to create truly efficient and outstanding designs?
Focus on the Layout
An efficient layout and floor plan are critical to success. A cluttered floor plan, a messy layout, and poor workflow discourage and turn customers away. As a result, if you want to increase sales and create better optical dispensary designs, you should focus on the layout first. You need to ensure that customers can easily navigate your shop and locate the products they are looking for.
But where should you start? Start by evaluating your space and identify possible causes for bottlenecks. Ask yourself if you would know in a second where to go if this was your first time visiting the shop. Learn how customers generally interact with your products and how they move across your shop.
Once you understand these patterns, you can start looking for appropriate solutions. Make sure that there is enough room for customers to walk around and give them a sense of privacy. Eliminate bottlenecks by dividing your space and addressing workflow issues. Install appropriate signage and create clear sightlines. All these will help create a more efficient layout that enhances the customer experience and increases sales.
Use a variety of optical displays
Most practices offer a wide variety of eyewear to potential customers. The problem many owners face is how to display differently priced eyewear without overcrowding the optical dispensary and making customers afraid they won’t be able to afford any. The solution? Using a large variety of optical displays.
Diversifying the range of optical displays in the dispensary builds excitement and helps people find what they are looking for. You can use simple frame bars or rotators to showcase lower-priced frames. Glass shelves, counter displays and display cabinets are perfect for middle-priced frames. Finally, you can use specially designed feature displays to display high-end products. Using this design strategy helps capture the attention of all potential customers and cover all segments of the market.
Know your customers
The secret to offering the highest quality services is understanding your customers’ needs and personalities. This aspect is also vital when it comes to creating an outstanding optical dispensary design.
Understanding your regular customers is critical. Knowing their age, background, lifestyle preferences and income allow you to better identify and tend to their needs. In turn, this will help you choose eyewear and frames that appeal to them and create optical interior designs that captivate and engage them.
Maximise cross-selling opportunities in the optical dispensary
It’s no secret that the way you organise merchandise on display greatly influences your bottom line. Using basic retail merchandising strategies is essential if you want to enhance your optical dispensary area as well as your sales.
Grouping frames, accessories and eye-health products together based on price and use will give you a competitive edge and help your maximise sales. Display products that are often bought together.
Don’t forget about lighting
Lighting is a vital part of your optical shops’ dispensary design. High-quality light fixtures and a professional lighting design will help put your customers in the right mood while also enhancing the visibility of eyewear on display.
Depending on the style and design of your optical shop, you can choose different light sources and fixtures to illuminate the space. Nevertheless, it is crucial to find a balance between different layers of light. Both too little and too much light can be disruptive and turn customers away. As a general rule of thumb, you should ensure that your retail area is just bright enough for people to navigate the space, and retain brighter light sources to draw attention to your frames.
Keep in mind that different colours of light can radically change the aesthetics of your retail space. Try to opt for light sources that are neither too warm nor too cool. In turn, this ensures that your patients are able to see the true colours and details of frames on display.
Need help putting these optical dispensary tips into practice?
Are you struggling to find the best ways to optimise your optical dispensary? In today’s blog post we shared our best tips on what you can do if you feel you need to improve your optical dispensary’s design. Nevertheless, if you need professional help in putting these ideas into practice, you can turn to our team for help.
At Vision Shopfitters, we have more than fifteen years of experience in the interior design and shopfitting sectors. During this time we have the pleasure to work with some of the most reputable optical shops and opticians in London. Our in-house designers, architects and shopfitters have the necessary skills and experience to create aesthetic and practical spaces tailored to success.
Whether you are opening, remodelling or revamping an optical shop you can count on our professional team for help. Offering bespoke interior design and fit-out services in all areas of an optician shop fit, we can create the ultimate optical dispensary design that works for you.
Contact us for a free consultation and discuss your options with us.
