How to set up your concept store for success: advice for retailers

It’s as simple as that. Remind yourself that the purpose of your concept store is to sell your products, and every element of your shop’s layout needs to be designed to support this. 

Let’s break our sales objectives down into three parts: attracting customers (we’ll talk about the importance of the shop window below), making it easier to buy products (in concept stores, we’re more often talking about self-service, where customers select products and take them to the checkout themselves), and finally encouraging customer feedback. 

The entire shopping experience must, therefore, be designed with these objectives in mind, including the layout of the concept store.

Selling is good; selling again is better. After a purchase in your shop, it’s important to remind your customers why they bought and, more importantly, why they should buy again. 

Newsletters, loyalty reward programmes and social networks are excellent ways to do this and keep engaged over the long term. What does this have to do with the design of your concept store? Aesthetics, of course! Your communications and online profiles must align with your overall image. So remember to keep the online and offline aspects consistent.

The customer experience is central to the buying decision — this rings true for many store types but more so for concept stores. If customers come to you, they expect a special atmosphere, a careful selection and personal attention or advice from experts.

Our top tip in this regard is to fit out and decorate your shop according to the ideal customer you want to attract to your concept store. This is where the importance of the marketing concept of persona comes into play, along with your experience to date.

This might seem obvious, but an exceptional shopping experience encourages customer impulse buying. The layout of your concept store is key for taking advantage of this. Here are practical steps to take:

• Display your promotions at the entrance to the shop or next to the checkouts.
• Offer testers for beauty products or a tasting station for grocery products. Sensoriality plays a vital role in the buying decision, so get creative! 
• Take care with your products’ “situational” aspect: do you sell perfumes? Add elements reminiscent of their notes to the display, such as flowers, citrus fruits or leather.
• Encourage cross-merchandising displays: take advantage of the fact that you sell different product categories in your concept store to create themed collections and encourage complementary sales. For example, you could offer collections such as “Self-care essentials for this winter, ” including skin care products, fluffy blankets, and spiced teas.

Don’t hesitate to use all the tools at your disposal to find inspiration for the decoration and layout of your concept store. Before you embark on a renovation project, use platforms like Pinterest to create mood boards and wish lists and soak up the inspiration!

Instagram is also an excellent tool for finding inspiration. Don’t just like, but save posts of good ideas for future reference.

Indeed, inspiration sometimes comes from unlikely places, but sometimes it can be found right under your nose! By wandering around and visiting other boutiques in your neighbourhood or region, or even when you’re travelling, you’ll most likely stumble upon something you find inspiring. You are part of a community of retailers and shops; don’t hesitate to reach out or take a note from their pages!

Draw inspiration from others, of course, but remember that it’s your concept, your values and your philosophy that make your store unique and your customers’ favourite meeting place. So always keep the story you’re telling in mind.

The window display of your concept store plays an essential role in your sales strategy. It should make people want to cross the street, unable to resist your entrance. You need to make your values and history clear at a glance and present your flagship products as well as your new releases.

When it comes to technical points, follow the basic principles: Ensure that good lighting highlights your products, introduce a focal point in the centre of your window to draw attention to the product of your choice, use colours that match your aesthetic and the pyramid principle for positioning your elements, etc. For more on this, read our article, 10 Key Principles of Visual Merchandising for a Retail Store by Sarah Manning, here. 

Remember to update your concept store’s window display on a regular basis to align with seasons, commercial events or product launches. You must make passers-by want to come in for the first time and entice repeat customers with a new layout.

Make time to plan your customer journey carefully. In this case, the customer journey is literally the path your customers take through your shop before making a purchase. 

To optimise it, don’t hesitate to test different layouts and, most importantly, take your cue from your customers’ behaviour. Here, old school world best: choose a sample size and record their route. Note which way they started, in front of which display they stopped, tested/touched products, and added products to their baskets. The aim is to find the optimal pattern for your customers and use it to your advantage!

This path should be fluid, subtly guided according to your preferences, with your products placed in exactly the right place (ideally at eye level and hand level) to maximise the chances of a purchase.

Your unique concept and the experiences you want to create in your shop should guide your layout. Do you offer hot drinks? Set up a cosy corner and showcase complementary products around it. Are you organising a pottery workshop? This is the perfect opportunity to highlight your favourite DIY brands!

Here are the most important things to remember:

• Your unique concept must be at the heart of all your design decisions.
• The furniture, lighting, and decoration must be aligned with your values.
• Clever design of your concept store will increase impulse buying.
• Look online and at your competitors for inspiration.
• Your shop window is your customers’ first point of contact: organise it carefully and change it often.
• Test the layout that optimises your customers’ shopping experience.
• The checkout counter should be an integral part of your design strategy, and its look and feel should align with the rest of your shop.

Top tip

As an independent retailer, everything you do daily is an opportunity to create content! So don’t hesitate to share your updates on social networks, whether it’s photos, stories or reels.