How to Design a Retail Space for your Day Spa – Part I

Product Sales and Optimal Retail Sales Arrangements – Part I

Designing your spa’s retail space is both an art and a science.  In order to effectively move merchandise by displaying it in an attractive, yet well thought out manner, you need to have both an eye for design and an understanding of how merchandising can affect potential buyers both positively and negatively.  A lot of science, study, and psychology have gone into developing the theories that go into creating retail displays that effectively sell products.

Merchandising is a fancy word for the practice of displaying products in a way that will attract a customer into a store and encourage them to buy a particular product.  Every store on the planet does it to some extent, but the trick is to be able to do it effectively, affordably, and consistently.  While not every display can be a winner, the great thing about merchandising is that it is a fluid concept, meaning that if one display isn’t working it can easily be changed into one that does.

In order to understand the basic concepts of merchandising, all you need to do is go to the local mall and take a look at what different retailers are doing in order to attract your eye and entice you to go into their stores.  Take a stroll past the storefronts and look closely at what types of displays are in their windows.  Try to understand what sort of message they are trying to communicate to you and what kinds of emotions you are feeling.  As you walk by, notice how you are making an instant, subconscious decision about whether or not you are going to enter a particular store based on their storefront displays.

Go inside several stores and see how their products are presented.  You can get all sorts of great merchandising ideas by visiting other stores, spas, salons, or even looking at the cosmetics counters at larger department stores.  Take a good look at how the stores are arranged and how their displays are organized.  Think about what area of the store you are drawn to, where your eye travels to, and what really jumps out at you (in both a good way and a bad way).

Now that you’ve done some research into the art of designing retail space, you’ll need to understand some of the science that goes into effectively merchandising that space.  We are a visual society and instantaneous opinions are formed subconsciously in the brain the first second we see something.  This is why the old adage, “it only takes a second to create a good first impression,” is so important to keep in mind when designing your spa’s retail space.  Developing well thought out focal points and creating eye-catching displays can lead to more customer traffic, repeat business, and higher individual sales.  Studies have shown that attractive retail displays rank higher than the range of products or sales promotions and are equally as important as a product’s perceived value when it comes to a customer’s overall shopping satisfaction.

Did you know that most people tend to turn right into a store rather than left when they first enter?  Most retailers know this, so they will display their most important or featured items on the right side of the store.  However, people from western cultures will scan individual displays from left to right because they have the natural tendency to “read” the displays as if they were reading a book.  This is why displays are often referred to as “stories” because people are literally reading or looking for the overall product message.  Therefore, your displays should feature smaller items to the left and work their way up to larger items on the right, just as a story would build to its climax.  You should also line up your products that represent the least amount of value on the left and work your way up to those that represent the best amount of value to the right.  This is done in just about every type of retail store, from milk to big screen TVs, so the next time you’re out shopping you might want to take a closer look.

The most important things to remember when it comes to setting up your retail space are planning, focus, simplicity, and balance.  Think about what story you want to tell and make sure you have a singular focus before you start laying out your displays.  For instance, you might want to focus on facial products, massage oils, relaxation techniques, or winter related products.  No matter what you decide to do, just make sure these displays are well planned out and truly focus on or highlight a specific product, message, or theme.

Product displays need to stay simple, but that doesn’t mean they need to be boring.  What this really means is that they need to not overwhelm the buyer with too many products or too many ideas.  The human eye is naturally attracted to things that are not symmetrical.  Therefore, you should arrange displays asymmetrically because it is human nature to notice flaws.  If you try arranging products in perfectly straight lines the focus will actually be placed upon the imperfect lines or spaces and will be perceived negatively.  Instead, arrange your products in a seemingly random, yet well thought out pattern.  Also, always arrange products in uneven amounts of threes, fives, and sevens which appeals to the eye’s desire for asymmetry.

On the other hand, shelving displays do need to be organized more evenly, both horizontally and vertically, in order to create a sense of organization.  In order to make it more eye appealing, however, you’ll want to play with color and design to keep it from looking too boring.  For instance, similar brands or products should be organized vertically in shelving units.  It should work like a book, each shelf should tell a story from left to right, and then the next shelf down should continue the story just as if you were starting a new paragraph.  People also tend to look at things that are placed at eye level and touch things that are at hand level.  Merchandising experts recommend placing featured products at five feet, three inches high because studies have shown that products placed at this height are more likely to be seen, picked up, and then purchased.