Make Room for the Masses

By Ron D. Maier

Holiday shoppers are piling in, anxious to find what they're looking for in time for the holidays. You may notice the urgency in their questions and demands. Your employees are probably also getting frustrated, being pulled in so many directions at once. It's important to focus on making room for your shoppers to comfortably take care of their business while keeping your employees happy and helpful. Take these retail design tips from our experts and adjust them to meet the needs of your boutique or retail store. We're confident that we can help you make the most of your store's holiday season.

1) First and foremost, let people know that they will have room to comfortably shop in your store by opening up the entryway. If your store has doors opening into a hallway, prop the doors open. Move a couple of garment racks outside of the door like a sidewalk sale. This will help you to make space, but it will also draw people in and show them that you have room for them to shop.

2) Keep the dressing rooms and checkout lines moving. Make sure that you are properly staffed every day of the week. If people see a long line they are very likely to put down whatever they were considering and walk out. People are very pressed for time when holiday shopping. Schedules are busy and there is a lot of shopping to do. Help people make a commitment to buy, even if you're busy. Hold items for them at the register. Have employees put their name on their items and put them behind the counter. Position tags so that they can be easily rung up. Make sure that everything is marked and ready to go.

3) Set up displays around the store that help people to quickly identify sale products, special promotions, or highly sought after merchandise. Use slatwall display panels and slatwall accessories to set up interesting and informative displays on the walls of your store. This will help you to not only communicate with your customers where things are, what items go together, and what all you carry, but also will help to save space on the sales floor. Slatwall for stores is the best way to make the most of small spaces. Take advantage of the vertical wall space in your retail store or boutique so that there is plenty of room for your staff and your customers to maneuver.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail displays, including mannequins, slatwall display panels, and slatwall accessories. S & L Store Fixutres has the highest quality slatwall for retail stores. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com.