How to Create Consistency in Commercial Retail Store Design

Have you ever noticed how when you walk into your favourite supermarket in a different town it feels familiar? Often, we go into a store in a different location and we have to remind ourselves that we don’t already know where all our favourite products are.

Why? Because the store looks and feels exactly the same as our go-to store. This is called consistency in commercial retail store design, and the biggest supermarkets on the planet have this down. It’s where you take your branding and bring it into the real world. You create a space across various locations and not only make it look on-brand, but you make it feel on-brand too.

This is most notable in stores like Apple and Mitre 10 Mega – you can feel their values when you’re inside their stores. From their choice of location, to the decoration and store layout, to even the way the store assistants talk to customers – it’s all aligned. When someone walks into Mitre 10 Mega in Auckland, it will look and feel the same as it does in Wellington, Palmerston North, or Christchurch. It gives customers a familiar feeling so they’ll know what they’ll get, no matter where in the world they are.

So, how can you create this same consistency in commercial retail store design for your business?

How to Create Consistency in Commercial Retail Store Design

1. Focus on Your Store Layout: Not every store needs to have the exact same layout. This often simply isn’t physically possible, due to different size constrictions, and you may want to emphasise different products in different locations to align with consumer trends. However, you should have the same general flow, the same shelving units, the same spacing between shelving, and so on. If one Apple store had their classic white layout with products on tables in one store and black shelving units in another, it wouldn’t feel like the same brand. Think about what’s working in your flagship store and how you can transport it to your additional location(s).This goes for the décor, too. Don’t have one store with green walls and another with yellow, even if they’re both your brand colours. Stick to the same in every store to create cohesion.
2. Try to Choose a Familiar Location: If your first store is in a stand-alone location, it’s not always a good idea to choose your next in the centre of town. If you want to create a cohesive experience for customers, try to find a similar space to your current store. If you already have a number of stores, think about making your large or smaller stores a different element of your brand. For example, Countdown have their normal stores in built up areas. Supermarkets do this all over the world, and now other brands are following suit. If you’re going to a much bigger or smaller location, consider if your branding needs to be slightly different to cater for what that store will offer. It won’t always warrant a new approach, but it’s worth considering.
3. Mimic the Customer Journey in Each: We touched on this in our first point, but it’s worth reiterating here. It’s not just the shelving and layout of your displays that matters, it’s the flow of your products, too. If you can keep this as similar from store to store no matter where it is, customers will chose you because you are the easy They know they can walk into your store and get exactly what they need, without wandering around searching for what they came for. While creating a journey that presents more purchasing opportunities is always worth considering, you should also think about the frame of mind your customers are coming to your store in. Are they anxious? Do they just want to buy one thing and get on with a project? Are they coming to browse the whole store?When you create consistency in your commercial retail design, you eliminate the potential tripwire that is being uncertain about whether or not they will find what they expect. An anxious customer will choose a competitor if they know they will find what they’re looking for without added stress.

Consistency in commercial retail store design allows you to focus on what really matters in retail, moving products off the shelves and giving your customers an experience they’re willing to come back to you for again and again, even when they have “easier” options online. When you are consistent across all locations, you will be the familiar and your customers will trust you, and trust sells.

Contact the team today to join clients like Farmlands, Partmaster, Big Barrel, Carters, Thinkwater and Hansen Water Fittings in creating nationwide consistency across their commercial retail stores.