How do you design and test retail store layouts?

1 Know your objectives

Before you start designing your retail store layout, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve. Your objectives should align with your overall retail strategy, target market, and brand identity. For example, do you want to maximize traffic, sales, or profit? Do you want to create a memorable, distinctive, or convenient shopping experience? Do you want to showcase your products, services, or values? Write down your objectives and use them as a guide for your design choices.

2 Choose a layout type

When choosing a store layout, it is important to consider the type of products you are selling and the objectives of your business. Grid layouts are ideal for stores with a large variety of products, such as supermarkets or pharmacies. Loop layouts use paths that loop around the store and are suitable for stores that want to create a guided shopping journey. Free-flow layouts use no fixed aisles or paths, allowing customers to explore the store freely and are ideal for boutiques or art galleries. You can also combine different layout types to create a hybrid layout that fits your needs.

3 Apply design principles

Once you have chosen a layout type, you need to apply some design principles to optimize your retail store layout. Balance, emphasis, rhythm, and unity are some of the most important ones that you should consider. Balance refers to creating a sense of harmony and proportion in your store by distributing products, fixtures, and displays evenly and symmetrically. Emphasis is about creating focal points that attract and retain customers' attention through contrast, color, lighting, signage, or props. Rhythm creates a sense of movement and flow in your store with repetition, variation, or progression to create patterns, sequences, or transitions. Unity is about creating cohesion and consistency in your store by using a common theme, style, or tone to connect products, fixtures, and displays. Apply these design principles to create a retail store layout that is visually appealing, functional, and effective.

4 Test your layout

Testing your retail store layout is essential to ensure it performs well in reality. Observation, feedback, and experiment are all methods you can use to test your layout. For observation, you can use cameras, sensors, or eye-tracking devices to collect data or hire observers to take notes. To collect feedback, you can use surveys, interviews, or focus groups or monitor online platforms and social media. Experimenting with your layout involves changing one or more elements and measuring the impact on performance. A/B testing compares two versions of your layout while multivariate testing compares multiple versions. Analyzing the results of these tests can help you improve your layout and achieve your objectives.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?