There is more to retail design than meets the eye. A lot more. Although we often start designing our retail fixtures from a visual standpoint, the way they look is only part of the story. Effective retail fixture design starts with understanding our clients, their needs and their spaces.
Capture Customer Attention
Retail fixtures are the visual merchandising used to highlight services and products. That sounds simple, but it’s more complicated than you might think. Retail fixtures need to capture customer attention, but the way they do that will be different for each space, each client and each product being displayed. Here are a few basic tips for effective retail display design:
- Keep the product at eye-level
- Make it easy for the customer to see the product. The stopping power of an eye-level product can’t be beat.
- Don’t overcrowd
- Sometimes, more is less. Placing things intentionally rather than cramming everything in will make an impact.
- The focus should be the product, not the fixture
- We’re very proud of the fixtures we make, but their purpose is to highlight the product, not stand out on their own.
To properly advise our clients, we have to understand what they need, which means understanding their customers, their budgets and their spaces. This requires important consultations with our clients, because there is no one-size-fits-all retail fixture solution. Our clients benefit from in-depth, individualized attention in order to provide thoughtful strategies and roadmaps to their goals. Each space, each franchise and each client will be different, so stay flexible.
Create a Store Environment
Retail fixture design goes beyond shelves and stands—it defines the entire store environment. Helping our clients create a unique look in their stores and ensuring that same ambiance is replicated across franchise locations is one of KDM’s specialties.
Recently, we worked with a pet industry franchise to rethink their environment design for both shopping center and standalone stores. They wanted a rustic farmhouse feel with modern industrial touches, so this meant we had to start from the ground up in our design. We spent time researching and collaborating with our client to best serve them. In the end, KDM created a concept centered around a classic general store that balanced history and modernity through wood, plastic and metal design elements and retail fixtures.
Creating a holistic store environment concept helps us and our clients highlight areas of interest in strategic, thoughtful ways to capture customer attention and experiences within that environment. To this end, we created custom pieces like a “chew bar” for chewy treats and toys as well as a “filling station” where customers can come and fill bags with local, all natural food for their pets. Additionally, we created relevant signage and fixtures that can all be customized through our INTELLITRAK™ intelligent ordering system. This means that each location, regardless of its size or location, can have perfectly sized, on-brand fixtures.
Know What You Need and Why You Need It
Building and nurturing relationships with our clients goes into everything we do, from printing a simple window cling to complete brand overhauls. Relationships are built on understanding, and understanding our clients and their customers is key when we work on retail fixture design.
We see the retail fixture design process as a collaborative one. At KDM, we build custom designs to meet our clients’ needs, which means we can design pieces that maximize store footprint and really highlight products in the best way possible. It’s all part of our dedication to helping our clients Market Smarter.
Learn more about our comprehensive retail design services:
Environments | Decor | Fixtures | Displays | Signage & Graphics