Shopfitting is an integral part of owning a commercial outlet. Be it a pharmacy, retail store, optical shop or restaurant, sooner or later you will have to invest in a refit. Refitting your commercial space from time to time is critical not only for staying relevant in the business but also for enhancing the customer experience, increasing sales and building a strong brand presence. Nevertheless, ensuring the success of a shop fit can be tricky, with many pitfalls to avoid. Today, we focus on these. We talk about the most common shopfitting mistakes and teach you how to avoid them.
What are the most common shopfitting mistakes?
Displaying your products efficiently and promoting your services is essential for business. Nevertheless, focusing too much on the retail part can negatively affect the shopping experience, and lead to costly shopfitting mistakes. Avoiding these traps when investing in a refit is, therefore, critical for success.
At Vision Shopfitters, we have been active in the shopfitting sector for more than a decade. During this time, we have learned to identify some of the most common shopfitting mistakes that negatively affect businesses and learned to avoid them. Today, we share these insights with you as well.
So what are the most common shopfitting mistakes? And what should you pay attention to when you invest in a commercial refit?
Mistake No. 1 – Poor Lighting
Shopfitting is about much more than attractive display shelves, functional counters and an efficient floor plan. The way your commercial space is illuminated plays a crucial role in creating a pleasant ambience and enhancing the shopping experience. Despite this, lighting design often remains an afterthought in the shopfitting process, with many underestimating its importance. As a result, poor lighting remains one of the most common shopfitting mistakes people make.
Poor lighting can negatively affect your business on various levels. It not only decreases the aesthetic value of the space but also limits the visibility of your products and the productivity of your staff. Ultimately, insufficient lighting and poor choice of light fittings can decrease the shopping experience and turn customers away. So what should you do?
To avoid this shopfitting mistake, focusing on creating an efficient lighting design from the earliest stages of the project is vital. All elements of the lighting design, from the placement of light fittings to light temperature, will influence how customers perceive your space. For this reason, you should invest in a professional lighting design and think about your store’s lighting from the concept design stage. Doing so will not only help create stunning interior designs but also enhance the visibility of your merchandise and lead to better customer retention and sales.
Mistake No. 2 – Irrelevant shopfitting shelving
Most retailers know that to display products efficiently, the right shelving and display systems are vital. After all, your shop’s shelves and displays form the basis of an efficient merchandising strategy and play a key role in enhancing sales. But apart from these, they are also critical for customer satisfaction and enhancing the shopping experience. Forgetting about these aspects and your customers’ needs is another common shopfitting mistake.
To avoid this problem, you must pay close attention to your retail space. Depending on your products and merchandising strategy, you need to choose shelves and display tables that will allow you to showcase your products in a captivating and enticing way. But don’t forget about your customers’ needs. Make sure that they find it easy to locate products and give them enough space to move around.
Mistake No. 3- Inappropriate Counter and Desk Design
Checkout counters and reception desks are of critical importance in any shopfitting project. They can significantly influence how customers perceive your services and play a key role in enhancing the shopping experience. Despite this, shop counters and reception desks often remain neglected in the shopfitting process. So what are the key aspects you should consider when choosing counters and desks?
First of all, evaluate the space where purchasing will happen. Your counter and reception desks should be spacious and conveniently located. They should provide enough room for customers to queue and wait for their purchase to be processed. Limiting movement and disturbance by other shoppers is also critical.
Second, finding a balance between functionality and form is essential. Thus, retail counters and reception desks should be ergonomically designed and spacious enough to handle cash and store supplies without becoming messy.
Mistake No. 4 – Mismatch between design, products and brand
Misalignment between your store’s concept, your products and brand image is another common shopfitting mistake. Consistency between your interior design, merchandise and brand image is essential for success. But how can you ensure consistency? And why should it matter?
The way you present your brand, your products and services greatly influence your retail success. As a result, when you invest in a refit, you need to evaluate your products, services and brand image with care. Think about what message you want to convey and which design concept suits your products and brand best. Let this insight guide the design process and develop your shop’s style, theme and identity around that.
Mistake No. 5 – Lack of flexibility in design
Interior design trends and your retail needs are constantly changing. Keeping up with these changes and marketing your products and services can be challenging. Lack of flexibility in design can make adapting to these trends even more difficult.
Being able to reconfigure and optimise your space from time to time is critical for staying relevant in the business. For this reason, fitting out your retail space with flexibility in mind and future-proofing the design is indispensable for long-term success. Custom-build and modular retail shop furniture, counters and bespoke fittings are essential in this regard. They allow you to easily reconfigure your space and adapt your strategies to changing retail needs.
Mistake No. 6 – Forgetting about the exterior design
Forgetting about or neglecting the exterior design of your shop is another major shopfitting mistake. Nevertheless, the way your shop looks from the exterior, the state of your shop front and window displays are critical in enticing customers and building a strong brand image. The exterior design of your commercial space is customers’ first contact with your brand and business. And it is critical to ensure it makes a positive first impression. So what should you pay attention to when creating the exterior design of your business?
First of all, a careful evaluation of the current state of your exterior design and the surrounding area is critical. The exterior design of your commercial space should complement the streetscape, but it should also be visually attractive. Your logo and brand should be easy to spot and in harmony with the existing design. Using high-quality and hard-wearing materials that exude a sense of quality.
Mistake No. 7: Poor layout and floor plan
A poor layout and floor plan can negatively influence the shopping experience as well as your sales. For this reason, establishing an appropriate shop layout and putting in place a floor plan that tends to customer needs is vital in any shopfitting project. While there are no one-size-fits-all solutions when it comes to floor plans and store layouts, there are a few key aspects you should keep in mind.
Thus, if you want to create an efficient floor plan, you first need to evaluate the retail space. Try to evaluate your space from a customers’ perspective, and keep in mind your merchandising strategy. Opt for design and display solutions that maximise the available space and optimise customer flow. Think about how customers should move around the shop, and start the design from there. Doing so will improve both the customer experience and your sales.
Ask for professional help to avoid costly shopfitting mistakes
Today we talked about some of the most common shopfitting mistakes we see retailers make during their refit, and shared some key tips and ideas on how to overcome them. We hope that this article will help you prepare for your next shop fit, and avoid some of these mistakes. And if you need professional help during the process, you can count on our team at Vision Shopfitters for help.
We offer a wide range of shopfitting services for commercial outlets. From concept design through manufacturing, down to installation, we can offer assistance at any part of the shopfitting process. Be it a pharmacy, restaurant, optical or retail shop, we can take care of your commercial shopfitting project from beginning to end.
Get in touch with us today for a free consultation.
