Having a deliberate retail store layout is important for maximizing revenue for brick-and-mortar stores. By creating a layout plan, retailers can strategically direct shoppers to high-priority products, drive impulse sales, manage customer flow, stay organized, and create a positive customer experience.
Continue reading to learn how to create a sales-driving retail store layout in seven steps, or download our e-book to read later:
Download Free Store Layout Checklist
1. Decide on a Retail Store Floor Plan
Large or small, most retail stores use one of six basic types of retail store layouts: grid, loop, free-flow, diagonal, forced-path, and angular. The type of layout you use depends on your space, the shopping experience you are trying to create, and the products you sell.
For example, grocery stores usually use grid layouts because they are predictable and efficient to navigate. On the other hand, boutiques typically use more creative layouts that allow businesses to highlight different products.
Choose a floor plan that works for your business, and helps you maximize your profits and create a positive customer experience.
Types of Retail Store Layouts
Retail Floor Plan | Best For | Example Store Design |
|---|---|---|
Grid Floor Plans Used in grocery, big box, and convenience stores | Shelf-stocked goods such as books, toys, specialty foods, hardware, and homewares |  |
Loop Floor Plans Maximize wall space and lead shoppers along a set pathway | Apparel, accessories, toy, homewares, kitchenware, personal care, and specialty retail stores |  |
Free-Flow Floor Plans Used in specialty and boutique settings | Apparel, accessory, personal care, specialty brand, and mixed-use stores like bakeries that also display packaged goods |  |
Diagonal Floor Plans Maximize employee visibility in retail stores with lots of product testing | Self-serve kiosks, tech, electronic stores, and beauty and cosmetic retailers |  |
Forced-Path Floor Plans Customers are guided through a predetermined path and exposed to every product | Furniture stores, home decor, experiential retail stores, and showrooms |  |
Angular Floor Plans Showcase curated or edited inventories in designer or specialty shops | Designers, artisans, high-end apparel and accessories retailers, and curated or limited collections |  |
Remember, your retail store layout guides product placement, directs customer flow, and defines the overall look and feel of your store, so it deserves plenty of thought. Many factors will affect your floor plan choice, including the size and shape of your sales floor, the types of products you sell, and even the customers you hope to attract. Keep these factors in mind as we explore each floor plan option in detail.
Also, don’t feel confined to one retail floor plan or another. You can always opt for a mixed floor plan that uses a combination of two or more layout types within the same space.
Select a floor plan from the dropdown below for more details:
Grid Floor Plan
Grid floorplans offer a convenient and space-effective way to shop.
(Source: Talk Business)
A grid floor plan, also called a straight layout, is a floor plan that uses a grid-like arrangement to create a series of parallel aisles and displays. Grid layouts are great if you have a lot of merchandise, as they maximize every inch of available floor space, including the corners. Grid layouts are easy for customers to navigate and store owners to categorize. Plus, they offer plenty of endcap and feature wall exposure for promotional items and seasonal products.
Since you find grid layouts in most grocery, big box, and convenience stores, they create a familiar feel among shoppers, and allow for easy navigation. However, due to this familiarity, the grid layout tends to impart a grab-and-go experience.
- Commonly found in: Grocery, big box, and convenience stores, retailers requiring a lot of shelf-stocking space
- Best for: Shelf-stocked goods such as books, toys, specialty foods, hardware, and homewares
- Pros: Easy to navigate, can accommodate high foot traffic, established merchandising techniques, encourages browsing, maximize product space, fosters customer familiarity
- Cons: Unimaginative, moving things around can lead to frustrated customer, difficult to feature new products, can stimulate rushed shopping behaviors
Loop Floor Plans
Loop store floor plans create a circular path for customers to follow. (Source: WordPress)
A loop floor plan, sometimes called a racetrack layout, creates a more guided shopping experience than a grid or free-flow floor plan. A loop store layout features a defined pathway throughout the store, which exposes customers to every item on display.
In a loop floor plan, the perimeter walls are highly visible and can feature all types of wall and shelving displays. Other displays and fixtures are placed throughout the space to guide customers’ shopping paths.
Loop floor plans are highly customizable and provide an excellent base for combining layouts too. With a loop plan, the central part of the store can utilize a grid or free-flow layout (which we cover below) or even a mix of the two.
However you design it, a loop floor plan surrounds customers with product displays on outer walls and allows for all types of creative display variations in the center of the store. A loop floor plan works well for most types of small retail stores, such as apparel and accessories, toys, homewares, kitchenware, personal care, and specialty products.
- Commonly found in: Apparel and accessory stores, toy stores, homewares, kitchenware, personal care, specialty stores
- Best for: Maximize wall space and lead shoppers along a set pathway
- Pros: Engaging shopping experience, guided shopping path, high product exposure, customizable
- Cons: Difficult to update displays, can lead to browsing rather than buying, does not maximize floor space, frustrating for customers in search of something specific
Free-Flow Floor Plans
Free-flow Floor plans use many diverse display types to create an open shopping experience. (Source: Vendhq)
A free-flow retail store layout uses different display types throughout the store, and there is no set path, allowing customers to shop freely. This layout is the favorite among specialty retailers because it enables maximum creativity, is easily changed and updated, and fosters an exploratory shopping experience.
A free-flow store design creates open sightlines throughout the store, making your wall space highly visible and poised for display features. The open sightlines also make it easy to funnel customers toward specific merchandise zones using eye-catching accent colors and product groupings.
The open look of a free-flow layout is ideal for all types of boutiques and upscale stores. It also works well for stores with smaller inventories since it highlights product groupings.
- Commonly found in: Gift shops, specialty stores, boutiques, retailers with limited inventory
- Best for: Creating customizable displays and promoting shopper exploration
- Pros: Use different displays for different products, promotes exploration and product discovery, open sightlines, good for wall displays, works well in irregular spaces, easy to update
- Cons: Easily cluttered, can be difficult to navigate, customers won’t see the same things, encourages loitering, can be difficult to maintain
Diagonal Floor Plans
Diagonal store layouts are ideal for letting customers sample products while providing employees maximum visibility.
Diagonal floor plans are a variation of the grid layout, using aisles placed at angles to increase customer sightlines and expose new merchandise. Diagonal floor plans feel more open than grid plans, which improves visibility and promotes more browsing.
A diagonal store design is ideal in electronic or technology stores, beauty and cosmetic retailers, specialty food stores, or any shop that encourages shoppers to test or sample products.
Diagonal floor plans let customers move easily between aisles while also providing store employees with good angles to view shoppers. Like free-flow store plans, diagonal layouts create open sightlines throughout the store, and this visibility is excellent for pointing customers toward a central sampling or demonstration area.
Commonly found in: Self-serve kiosks, tech and electronic stores, and beauty and cosmetic retailers
Best for: Maximizing employee visibility in retail stores with lots of product testing or self-service options
Pros: Easy to navigate, high visibility for both employees and customers, maximizes display space, easy to implement theft protection measure like SimpliSafe
Cons: Prone to narrow aisles, less room for creativity, difficult to change
Forced-Path Floor Plans
Forced floor plans create a set path throughout the entire store.
(Source: Stylish Pharmacist)
Forced-path or guided floor plans are store layouts where there is an open entryway at the front of the store and then one pathway that guides customers throughout the length of the store and drops them off at the checkout area.
These layouts are most often found in large spaces, like warehouses, and operate similarly to a guided tour or museum. Ikea is a great example of a forced path floor plan. The Swedish retailer uses arrows on its pathways to guide customers through all of its expansive showrooms and avoid traffic issues along the way.
Forced-path floor plans are ideal for retailers that want to create a specific, memorable shopping experience and are a good choice for showcasing many different product departments or design displays in large spaces.
These floor plans do, however, require a lot of effort to keep shoppers interested throughout their journey. Demonstrations, different types of displays, and signage are all great tools that retailers can use to keep the forced path engaging.
- Commonly found in: Warehouses, large showrooms, experimental stores
- Best for: Guiding customers through a predetermined path and exposing them to every product
- Pros: Ample opportunity promoting impulse buys, immersive experience, lots of control over customer experience, promotes exposure to every product
- Cons: Can be frustrating when shopping for a specific item, risk of boring customers, difficult to design, can cause traffic jams if not well-regulated
Impulse Buy: A purchase made with no prior planning, made on a whim.
Angular Floor Plans
Angular floor plans use several displays to showcase their items in a dynamic way.
(Source: Retail Design Blog)
Angular floor plans use many smaller displays in the center of the store to create a dynamic shopping experience that highlights a smaller number of products. Table displays automatically draw customer attention, which makes this layout highly engaging and promotes interaction with all the products on the floor.
However, this layout creates highly limited display space. As a result, you mostly find angular layout in showrooms, high-end boutiques, and designer stores with highly edited or curated collections. These types of stores also need a substantial inventory space outside of the sales floor for storing restock items and additional sizes.
Tip: Displays with softer or rounded lines create better traffic flow than squared fixtures in open spaces.
- Commonly found in: Stores with small or curated merchandise that also have large inventory storage spaces
- Best for: Showcasing a small number of products that you want customers to engage with
- Pros: Perception of higher value, draws attention to merchandise, promotes engagement, easily updated and changed
- Cons: Limited display space, difficult to manage traffic flows, not suited for a high volume of customers
2. Put Your Retail Store Layout Down on Paper
Once you have considered all the floor layout options at your disposal, it is time to start taking steps toward arranging one in your space. To begin implementing a store layout, it is best first to put your layout down on paper. This will give you a bird’s-eye view of your store once everything is in place, help you understand your space, and guide your installation process.
You will want to begin with a blank blueprint of your store. If you have a copy of your store blueprint, start with that. If not, draw up your own schematic of your sales floor. Grid paper works great for this, or you can use online store design tools, like SmartSheet.
Your blueprint should include everything from the checkout counter and tables to built-in shelves and rack space. Anything that will be a permanent part of your store layout should be drawn into your schematic. You also need to be sure that everything you are drawing is to scale so you have an accurate understanding of how much space you have.
After you have your store sketched out, then you can start playing with how different layouts could work in your space. As we discussed above, you can choose either a single, streamlined store design or opt for a mixed layout. This decision will all depend on your space and how the different floor plans fit and function.
For example, a homewares store might opt to place shelving in a grid layout in one area of its storefront, but due to its irregular shape, it might use a free-flow or loop floor plan in another. Take your space into consideration and play with different floor plans so you can find one that works in your store and creates the experience you want it to.
Put your store layout down on paper to get a birds-eye view of your space. (Source: Pinterest)
Tip: To get a better idea of how the fixtures of your store layout will work in your space, use masking tape to map out all the shelves, tables, and other features of your layout. Then you can see how everything works together physically in your storefront, rather than just on a blueprint.
3. Consider Traffic Flow and Customer Behaviors
One of the biggest things that your store layout will impact is customer flow. Your store layout should work with the natural ways that shoppers flow through your space to avoid creating discomfort and evoke a positive customer experience. A layout that works with your customers’ natural shopping habits will help you create a layout that is both comfortable and natural, as well as one that drives your sales.
Customer Flow: Shoppers’ patterns of behavior and the way that they navigate your store.
The main customer behaviors that you should understand and accommodate in your floor plan include:
Customer Behavior #1: Decompress Upon Entry
When customers enter your store, they need space to acclimate and get a lay of the land. To accommodate this and ensure that your customers are not overwhelmed at entry, you should create a decompression zone in the first five to 15 feet of your entrance. The decompression is vital to any store layout as it allows customers to enter your business with a clear head, ready to shop.
Decompression Zone: The decompression zone is the entrance of your store where your customer makes a mental shift from the outside world to your store environment. Upon entry, they take stock of your store, develop an opinion of your brand, and even make subconscious judgments about the pieces and prices they expect to find.
Avoid overwhelming customers and allow sightlines throughout your space by sparsely decorating your decompression zone. Some merchants will feature small displays with their best-selling product to reel people in, but you should keep your displays at one to two pieces to avoid clutter.
A decompression zone gives customers space to acclimate when they enter your store. (Source: MRGCM)
Customer Behavior #2: Right Turn
Some 90% of customers turn right when entering a store. To avoid disrupting this pattern of movement, you should:
- Highlight the right-hand side of your store: The right side of your store, especially the area just beyond the decompression zone, is best for promotional displays since this is where customers will look and shop first.
- Direct traffic counterclockwise: As customers will naturally drift to the right upon entry, you should arrange your store so that traffic flows based on this right-to-left pattern.
- Place checkouts at the end of the path: Checkouts and registers should be located to the left of the entrance so you can maximize the right side of your store for product exposure. The leftward placement will also make the counter fall on shoppers’ natural exit path.
Customers typically turn right when they enter a store, so maximize their natural shopping path. (Source: Pinterest)
Customer Behavior #3: Personal Space
Customers do not like to feel cramped when shopping, so you should be sure to allow for ample space for movement. Aisles must be wide enough to invite customers to browse, not bump into other shoppers, and—most importantly—pick up and carry items for purchase.
Spacious pathways are a key aspect of good store planning. I recommend aisle widths of three and a half feet or more to ensure that strollers and wheelchairs can fit comfortably and customers can browse without feeling cramped. You should also consider whether your customers will be using a cart or shopping baskets, so you can make extra space for traffic to pass both ways.
Create aisles that are wide enough to accommodate everyone’s personal space. (Source: Kitchn)
Wide aisles also prevent the dreaded butt brush effect.
Butt Brush Effect: Customers do not like to be touched from behind, and will leave or avoid areas and products where they think they might experience a “butt brush” from another customer.
In addition, if your aisles aren’t wide enough, you could be subject to complaints or lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA requires you to have aisles that are a minimum of three feet wide. If someone reports you as non-compliant, you could be fined if you don’t widen your aisles and remove obstructions.
To test your store’s pathways, I suggest rolling a large baby stroller or shopping cart through your store. If you can easily navigate all traffic pathways, your customers should enjoy a comfortable browsing experience.
Customer Behavior #4: Click and Collect Ordering
When mapping out your layout, also consider any space you may need for fulfilling click and collect orders. According to Insider Intelligence, US shoppers spent $72.46 billion via click and collect last year, a 106.9% growth rate over 2019. In 2021, sales will increase to $83.47 billion.
Click and collect: When shoppers place an order online to pickup in-store. Also known as buy online, pickup in-store (BOPIS).
Though the popularity of click and collect shopping skyrocketed during the pandemic because of safety concerns, shoppers will continue to purchase this way out of convenience. So, it’s important to factor this customer behavior into your store layout so you have a designated area for order pickups that does not disrupt the rest of your traffic flow.
Designate space for online orders that allows shoppers to easily pickup purchases without impeding the experience of in-store shoppers or clutter up the checkout counter.
Learn more about setting up click and collect orders in your store.
Control Customer Flow With Speed Bumps
While your store layout should accommodate shoppers’ natural behaviors, you can also use your layout to control customer flow and create certain behaviors. Speed bumps are a great way to slow your shoppers down, get them to engage with your products, and drive your sales.
Speed bumps: Displays or fixtures designed to make your customers pause, so they engage with your products and slow down their shopping.
Speed bumps help to draw attention to surrounding products and create more customer interest. For example, at clothing stores, a cluster of mannequins by a table display will make customers more inclined to stop and look at the mannequins and subsequently explore the offerings on the table. Or, a paper store might place a table of cards in the middle of the store, where customers will stop and look at all the options.
Speed bumps can look like anything from table displays to focal points to temporary point-of-purchase (POP) displays. The thing that makes a design feature a speed bump is whether it causes people to slow down and engage.
This mannequin creates a speed bump where customers will stop and explore. (Source: Business Insider)
Your speed bumps should go in areas where there are not a lot of other displays and thus, there is low engagement. Speed bumps are not typically fixed and can move when you better understand your customer flow and where those low engagement points are in your space. Play with different positioning and use an integrated point-of-sale (POS) system to track the effectiveness of your speedbumps.
Tip: You can learn more about merchandising techniques that promote customer interaction and drive sales with our comprehensive merchandising guide.
4. Position Your Store Checkout Area
A cash wrap, also known as a cash well or checkout counter, is the area that houses your POS system or cash register and where customers pay for their merchandise.
Your cash wrap is where customers pay, and should be located on their natural exit path.
(Source: Pinterest)
In general, the front left of a retail store is a good location for the checkout counter. Shoppers naturally drift to the right when they enter a store, loop around, and then leave on the left side. A checkout counter at the front left of your store puts the last step of the shopping experience on your customers’ natural exit path. Plus, this placement doesn’t distract people from shopping or take up prime product display space.
While the front left placement is best for most businesses, for some stores, it makes sense to place your cash wrap at the rear of the store. This is great for larger retailers that have many in-store associates at a time as it frees up product space in the front of your store. However, placement in the back is not practical for small retailers with limited staff since this positioning can leave the front of the store unattended.
Tip: You can learn more about cash wraps, the different types out there, and how to set one up for your business with our cash wraps guide.
You also want to be sure you give enough space for your cash wrap. For smaller stores that don’t use carts, use a checkout counter large enough to hold products as customers continue shopping. Empty hands pick up more products, which leads to more sales. Also, make sure checkout counters are large enough to handle the checkout process efficiently and allow space for customers to put down a handbag.
Carve out enough space for your cash wrap and position it well. (Source: Pinterest)
5. Position Products for Maximum Exposure
Once you have sketched out your floor plan, it is time to begin product mapping. When placing your products, you should be sure you are doing so in a way that promotes customer engagement, creates a positive experience, and drives your sales.
Product mapping: The process of determining where your products will go in your store.
There are several things that you should consider when mapping out where your products should go:
- Choose fixtures that are versatile and can display a range of products: Your business’s merchandise is constantly changing, and you want to be sure you don’t have to constantly buy new fixtures to display them.
- Carve out a section for displaying sale merchandise: You want to be sure you have a designated area for sale merchandise. I recommend placing your sale section toward the back of the store and keeping it relatively small to draw people through your space and avoid taking attention from full-priced displays.
- Create a space for seasonal and limited availability products: You want to highlight new, limited, or seasonal items so be sure you have a good space for these products that will draw the eye and promote engagement.
To create your product map as effective as possible, use the following principles to guide your process:
Retailers use product mapping to strategically place product categories in designated store areas. (Source: Gift Shop Magazine)
Use Zone Design and Merchandising Strategies
In zone design, you categorize products into “zones,” such as kitchen and cooking, home decor, or skirts and pants. The quantities of products determine the size of each zone.
Zoning design makes it easy for shoppers to find what they are looking for, which will lead to more transactions and greater sales. Not only that, but your customers will also have a better experience shopping in your store.
Place Bestsellers in Primary Zones
Primary Zones are located in the back of the store and are where you display bestselling or essential products. For example, you will often find bread, milk, and cheese in the back of grocery stores.
This arrangement will force customers to walk through your entire store, and according to Dan Jablons, a consultant with Retail Smart Guys, this exposure to new products will motivate them to make impulse purchases.
Necessities like milk and dairy are often zoned to the back of the store. (Source: Crafty Coin)
Place Low-Cost Impulse Buys at Your Checkout
Place impulse items like small toys, candy bars, lip gloss, or other small, low-cost items near your register. When customers approach the register to pay and leave, you don’t want them to stop shopping. Placing low-cost impulse buy items near registers, as shown in the image below, encourages shoppers to add an item or two as they check out, which will drive your sales.
Zoning impulse buys at checkout will help boost your sales. (Source: Vendhq)
Highlight Power Walls With Flexible Display Options
A power wall is a wall in a high-traffic or key area of your store that you merchandise with items that attract attention and promote engagement. Typically, you place a power wall on the right of your store, just beyond the entrance, so that it is one of the first things customers see when they enter your store and so it can draw people into your space.
Tip: Power walls can be anywhere throughout your store—just be sure that they are in a high traffic area to get maximum visibility.
Use a power wall to showcase important departments and new and seasonal items, create vignettes, tell product stories, and feature high-demand, high-profit products. However, you should remember that your power wall will need to change frequently, so plan for that. Outfit your power walls with hooks, shelving, or other fixtures that you can easily change to showcase various product groupings.
Create power walls at high visibility points in your store. (Source: Pinterest)
Cross Merchandise Complementary Items
You can also use cross merchandising, or the practice of displaying items from different product categories together to incentivize multiple item purchases. Cross merchandising provides value to customers by reminding them of a need, sparking an idea, or saving them time from having to search the rest of the store.
For example, say you cross merchandise pasta and red sauce in the same aisle. Placing these items together makes it easy for customers to find everything they need for a pasta dinner and will help you sell through your items faster.
As you are laying out your store, consider what products work well together, and how you can feature them together in a cross merchandising strategy. Zone your products so customers can find things easily and complementary items are together, even if that means placing categorically different items in the same area.
This grocer cross merchandised everything you could need for strawberry shortcake to make shopping easy and incentive sales. (Source: Fairway)
6. Place Fixtures and Displays in Your Store Layout
Once you have an idea of your general store design and product mapping plan, it’s time to consider your store fixtures and displays.
Fixtures: Permanent—fixed—parts of your store such as lighting, counters, fixed shelving units, and dressing rooms
Displays: Pieces that hold product and tend to be movable, versatile, and customizable. Think: modular units, gondolas, tables, slatwall, and clothing racks.
When it comes to outfitting your store with fixtures and displays, start by investing in quality fixtures, then add flexible displays that can be repurposed, then seek out affordable temporary displays from your product suppliers.
Invest in Fixtures That Define Your Brand
Your store’s walls, floors, fixtures, and displays should create a coordinated backdrop that defines your brand but lets your products pop.
The ultimate purpose of fixtures and display units is to put your products front and center. At the same time, however, the overall look, styling, and finish of your fixtures and displays is your biggest branding opportunity. Choose cohesive fixtures and display pieces that coordinate with your product collections but don’t overpower them, like the successful looks below:
Invest in fixtures and display pieces that are in line with your brand and aesthetic.
(Source: Pinterest)
Your displays and fixtures play a large role in crafting your store’s entire look.
(Source: Decoist)
Your displays should be versatile and speak to your brand. (Source: Sonoma Magazine)
Use Displays That Enhance Your Unique Products
In addition to choosing displays and fixtures that enhance your brand, you should also choose ones that enhance your products. Different products are better suited for different kinds of display strategies. For example, a clothing store will likely want to have hanging space, whereas a pottery store will likely want to stick with shelving and tables.
TIP: Use adjustable display options such as slatwall, gridwall, apparel racks, and shelving, and table so you can use them for many different products.
Additionally, your fixtures and displays must be able to handle products’ weight and size. Harder and heavier items should have sturdy and tough shelves, whereas lighter products can use floating shelves or furniture pieces.
(Sources from left to right: Pinterest, Cherry Creek North, Blue Prop)
(Sources from left to right: Pinterest, Cherry Creek North, Blue Prop)
(Sources from left to right: Pinterest, Cherry Creek North, Blue Prop)
Save Money on Specialty Displays
Many manufacturers offer retailers low-cost or free specialty display fixtures designed to highlight their branded lines, like the one pictured below. These make great speed bump or outpost display units on a tight budget. Your product line reps can tell you if they’re available, plus provide merchandising and display advice.
While you’ll likely want to splurge on your permanent fixtures and displays, you can opt for these free or low-cost displays for seasonal, temporary, and new products as well as point-of-purchase (POP) impulse displays.
Talk to your suppliers to see if they offer free POP displays. (Source: THIMM)
7. Create Comfort Zones and Other Amenities
In addition to controlling customer flow, creating effective displays, and driving your sales, your retail floor plan is about welcoming your customers in, making them feel at home, and providing an experience that makes them want to return.
Thoughtful amenities like seating, dressing rooms, and customer service areas make the shopping experience memorable for customers and encourage them to continue engaging with your business. Incorporate elements that provide customer comfort as you are creating your store layout.
Be sure to provide some type of seating for both customers and anyone who is accompanying them. There were countless times in my own experience when boyfriends, tired friends, or relatives would spend their entire time in my shop seated in our chairs. Our seating options not only encouraged the shopper to stay longer since her party was comfortable, but it also gave everyone a positive experience.
Seating can be as simple as stools near the checkout, a lounge area near the dressing rooms, or an entry bench. The comfier the better, though, as this is about customer comfort, after all.
Create seating to give customers and friends somewhere comfortable to lounge. (Source: Decorist)
Fitting rooms are an increasingly important way for brick-and-mortar stores to compete with their ecommerce rivals. They offer a private place for customers to try on clothing and get up close and personal with your merchandise.
Be sure you are carving out enough space for your fitting rooms so customers don’t feel cramped and uncomfortable. You should also outfit your fitting rooms with storage, seating, and hanging areas so customers can change easily and have a place for their personal items. Providing these features will ensure that your customers can use your fitting rooms with ease and enjoy their experience in your store.
Your customer service area is where customers can conduct returns, ask questions, and get assistance from store associates. In smaller stores with fewer customers, your customer service area is typically your checkout counter; in larger stores with heavier traffic, there tends to be a completely separate counter where customers can get assistance without clogging up the checkout lines.
Smaller stores integrate their customer service desk into their cash wrap. (Source: Pinterest)
Larger stores with heavier customer flow create separate customer service desks.
(Source: Cousins Market)
Store Planning Resources
Whether you plan to go it alone or hire a professional, there are many resources available to help you plan and execute your retail store layout. If you don’t feel comfortable tackling the project yourself, a professional retail store planner, interior designer, or display designer can turn your dreams into reality. If you want to handle it all yourself, store planning software and other online idea resources can make the job easier.
Here are some store layout and planning resources to help you get started:
Independent Retail Store Designers
If you feel overwhelmed at the idea of planning your retail store layout yourself, professional designers can help. They will be able to guide you through every step of the process and provide experience and access to contractors and material services.
There is a cost, however. Expect to spend $150 per hour or more on a qualified designer.
Here are some places to start your store designer search:
- The Retail Design Institute: The leading professional association for retail design experts. You can review and contact member design professionals by region.
- The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID): The leading professional association for interior designers. You’ll want a designer who has retail store experience since residential and retail design needs differ greatly.
- Kizer & Bender: They are the top national retail consultant, store designer, and merchandising experts. They also have a Top Performers Retail Club, publish many bestselling e-books, and run the award-winning Retail Adventures Blog.
Display Company Design Services
Many retail fixtures and display companies provide store planning and design services to their customers. Though typically not free, these in-house design services can be far less expensive than hiring an independent designer. Plus, they can help streamline the process of retail store layout and planning as well as the purchasing and installation of displays and fixtures.
Store Planning Software
Store planning software allows you to create virtual plans for how you are going to lay out your store and display your products. Though store planning software isn’t a necessary tool for the average small retailer, it can certainly come in handy if you are looking to develop specific planograms, such as for the holiday season or a special event.
Planogram: A visual representation of a store’s products or services displays.
Store design software is more common for multi-location retailers that want to deploy the same planogram in multiple places. Either way, if you are looking to build planograms, DotActiv offers a handy free tool.
Product Vendors
Another great source of retail store design inspiration is your product vendors and their line reps. After all, your success is their success, so they’re usually happy to share retail store layout and merchandising ideas. Many provide retailers with free or low-cost branded display units too. Some line reps will even assist you in product mapping your store, display setup, and replenishment—it never hurts to ask.
Pinterest and Other Idea Sources
Sometimes you just know it when you see it. So always be prepared to capture pictures and take notes when you see store features that you’d like to try out yourself. Take a walk and see what other stores are doing. Or, settle down with a cup of coffee and scroll through Pinterest for a treasure trove of retail store layout ideas.
Bottom Line
Planning your retail store layout is no small task, but many small retail store owners do it all themselves with great success. Take it slow, follow our seven steps, and remember to put the customer first. With the ideas in this guide and a little elbow grease, you’ll soon be on your way to mapping out a retail store that’s easy to navigate, welcoming to customers, and best of all—profitable.
