Retail Environments
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The environment has got to feel right because customers must want to enter, stay and purchase. They want to feel a sense of belonging that the store in some way reflects a part of who they are.
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careful. Funky chairs and rugs are nice but a bank still needs to feel professional and serious. You want it to be inviting but you don’t want people to feel like it’s too laid back because their money is important to them. You don’t want to feel like Virgin is not taking it seriously, so they need to keep an eye on getting the right balance.
Message Your marketing messages enable you to speak to your customers. Pitch your message right and people feel happy about entering into a dialogue with you that ends in a purchase. Get it wrong and you turn them away. Caution is necessary here as it’s important to stay in tune with the mindset of the customer. Some UK stores seem to be in danger of becoming increasingly condescending. ‘Value’ products can be an example of
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this. These sometimes feel like they’ve gone from ‘we can help you save during this tough economy’ and morphed into, ‘buy this, it’s really cheap stuff.’ People are recession weary. They don’t want to buy cheap and they certainly don’t want to feel like they’ve been demoted to buying secondrate produce just because they’ve had to tighten their belts a bit. Again, it’s all about creating the right balance.
Experience Members of staff are beginning to have an increasingly important role in creating a feel good factor in store. As technology frees them up from menial tasks, they are starting to have more time to provide a more specialised and advisory experience to customers. Staff should be there to make the customer feel special. Sometimes this will
mean giving recognition that the customer is valued and at other’s it will mean giving them room to shop in peace.
Creating a feel good factor is the ace up
the high street’s sleeve, setting them apart from Internet retailing, and brands that embrace it will create the differentiator that will entice shoppers instore.
Contact
Umbrella Design T: +44 (0)20 7833 4032
www.umbrelladesign.co.uk
www.a1retailmagazine.com
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