Post No.05 in the weekly newsletter series:
‘52 Steps to the Perfect Shop!’
You too can have ‘The Perfect Shop’ by this time next year!
When planning shops, and when planning the product to go in them, we need to be analytical. We need to study the data to ensure that our options per sqm are commercially correct.
From this our total option capacity, and total product volumes will also be commercial. With such planning and preparation, what can go wrong?
Well, we must beware the dangers of spread sheet retailing. We must avoid the perils of the excel assortment.
Getting the numbers correct will help us to avoid costly commercial disasters, but it is no guarantee that we will sell to our heart’s content.
This is because the customer does not see or respond to options/sqm. The customer responds to options per linear metre. The customer buys because of what they see before them, in terms of the beauty of the display.
Having the correct options per sqm does not define or control what your assortment will look like in the shop. With the same options/sqm a shop can look like a shopper’s paradise, or it can look like your worst nightmare.
Our next step is to control, create and celebrate, our linear metres. Our linear metres represent our visual playground for the customer.
A linear metre can literally be a linear metre of wall space. It can be a liner metre wide table, or floor fixture. Each display fixture & fitting in your shop will have a linear metre value and together they form your total linear metres in your shop.
Controlling, creating and celebrating our linear metres will deliver an attractive product display for the customer. A display which catches their eye, pulls them to the display, and encourages them to buy.
An attractive linear metre, of wall or floor fixturing, may have a variety of display techniques, it may tell a story of colours, patterns, and shapes, or a story that is functional, easy to understand and shop, it may have category authority, or a sense of intrigue and discovery. It may inform or inspire, or both.
But whilst a linear metre may be a thing of beauty, it must also obey our quantitative rules, because it must also relate to and synchronise with, our options per sqm.
We need options/sqm control to have a chance of a delivering a commercially successful shop. This is the tool of space planners & merchandisers!
We need options/linear metre control to actually deliver a commercially successful shop. This is the tool of visual merchandisers and customers.
And we need the ‘missing parameter’ of shop space planning to complete the calculations for our new shop concept. So that it becomes a thing of beauty, and the source of our profit.
It should all be getting very interesting now. Until next time.
’52 Steps to the Perfect Shop!’
For everyone looking to improve their physical shops, or thinking of opening their first pop-up or permanent shop.
The weekly newsletters, and the 10 content modules they feature, have been created from my experiences of opening hundreds of shops, of all different sizes, situated across the world, selling just about everything there is to sell.
Every week we explore the sequential process of physical shop development to help you deliver your perfect shop.
Missed any of the previous ’52 Steps’ then just click here to catch up…