Storing Cigarettes

When it comes to storing cigarettes, the new rules make it very clear that you need to keep all cigarettes need sliding doors or screens fitted, otherwise the store owner can face hefty fines. To avoid this, make sure your cigarette gantry complies with the rules when it comes to storing tobacco products.

Shelving4Shops offers a cost-effective, high quality cigarette gantry, which features sliding doors as standard - these are easily fitted to make sure you adhere to the law and don’t find yourself getting fined! Each cigarette gantry from Shelving4Shops comes with cigarette pushers and dividers to help you keep stock of your tobacco products. This also enables you to store at least 112 different types of cigarettes with 7 separate, adjustable shelves. The gantry is a compact size and can be wall mounted or put on a shelf meaning it takes up little space behind the counter. Epos strips are fitted to the front of the shelves, allowing you to clearly display the prices of your tobacco products.  

Make sure you choose the right storage products for your store to give your customers the best shopping experience and help your business boom!  

Make The Most Of What You’ve Got

The best floor plans will make the most of your store’s square footage, while creating displays that offer your customers the best shopping experience and give a good impression of your company. It’s worth researching the best floor plan for your type of business, as what is best for a convenience store, for example, may not be the best for a specialist shop.

A diagonal floor plan gives great visibility for both cashiers and customers, and encourages positive traffic flow for a self serve type of shop. Your wall spaces are very much useable, maximising on the space available for both displaying and using signage to help your customers shop and encourage impulse buys.

If you have a more specialist store, then it’s worth putting the effort into making your store look high end and more expensive, conveying the message that you sell exciting, high quality products. Use your space more liberally and look at an angular floor plan, with curves and soft angles to make displays that more focussed on individual products.

If you sell clothing, take a look at geometric floor plans, which are great for creating displays that are “out of the ordinary” without costing you an arm and a leg to set up. You can create feature points and use signage to let customers know where to find what.

For high quality display units, take a look at Shelving4Shops and their great range that will help you set up shop without breaking the bank. We know how important it is to get a great set up on a budget to balance the books, so we sell both new and used units.

Visit our showroom or give us a call to chat over how we can help!

Perfect Planning!

Your floor plan is the foundation of your store, so it’s crucial that you spend time working out what will be best for you and, ultimately, will produce the most sales and gain you the most profit.

You have several options to work with when it comes to floor plans, and Shelving4Shops are always happy to offer help and advice when you’re making those critical decisions. The most common and most efficient layout for smaller businesses is the straight floor plan. Here you have all the fixtures and displays at right angles, making the most of your floor space. Even corners can be successfully used to display your products- and Shelving4Shops has a great range of corner display units!

Straight floor plans accommodate all the major types of display unit, including gondola, wire and slatwall, so you’re options are still wide open when it comes to choosing the right unit for your products. Shelving4Shops have a range of different units which can be customised to work for your business. By carefully planning out your store, you can still work in any feel or theme you want to!

An “angle” floor plan is a bit misleading, as it is more of a “curved” floor plan, using curves to create a more sophisticated and visually diverse feel. This plan ends up with less display room, therefore it’s more commonly used by stores that have less products to sell or require less space, such as a jewellers, for example. Their products do get more emphasis, so this is more for high end retailers.

The mixed floor plan gives you the versatility to use a number of different set-ups, including angular, straight and diagonal. This is ideal for stores that have a variety of different products that need to be displayed with different vibes in different areas. You can highlight different products and create clear sections to your store, as this plan gives you plenty of flexibility.

However you choose to plan your store, Shelving4Shops gives you the ultimate choice in display units and we’re always here to help!

Avoiding Retail Disaster Zones

When a customer enters a shop, it takes a good few steps before they actually start engaging with the store and the surroundings. As important as that first impression is, it’s also important to help the customer “decompress” and take note of your goods. It therefore makes sense to not overload the customer by placing masses of products at the entrance - many of these will only get overlooked anyway as the customer walks past before they’ve started to properly engage. It’s better to place a few key items near the entrance and focus on using lighting and flooring that contrasts the outside environment. This will help the customer slow down and help them adjust to the store, to help them start processing what they see.

Make sure you pay close attention to your checkout area. Too often these are overcrowded and overloaded, so make sure the last impression a customer gets of your store is a good one. Although it’s tempting to place lots of items at the checkout to encourage impulse-buying, if you put too much up there, customers are more likely to ignore the white noise of too many products. Instead place a few well-signed items to get the customer’s attention without blinding them with too much. Make sure your staff have enough space too, while making sure your countertops are of high quality, attractive materials. You don’t want your customers to take away a claustrophobic and cheap feeling when they leave your shop!

When planning your aisles and space, take care to make sure pathways are left unobstructed and gaps are big enough to pass by without a customer accidentally brushing against another. Most people are quite particular about their personal space, and no one wants their intruded upon when they’re shopping and minding their own business! So ensure no one is put off buying by having their personal space invaded when browsing your products.

If you need any further help or advice feel free to visit our website or come and see us at our showroom.

Presentation, Presentation, Presentation!

By the time a customer has walked through your doors, they have already received several impressions of your store - by word of mouth, your front window display and any advertising you’ve done. The last chance you have to create an impression is by the actual product presentation in the store. It’s worth thinking about the way you do this and taking time to plan what you want your store to convey to customers as they enter and look around.

Will you go for a formal or a more relaxed style? Deciding this very much depends on the products you offer and the type of customers these attract. You’ll either need a professional, tidy layout or something more fun and relaxed. The store should always be a comfortable place to shop, so don’t make your aisles too small or cram too many products in one space, as it’s one way to make your customers abandon the store quickly.

Instead make sure all your products are organised neatly, either stacked or lined up in a orderly fashion. Regularly check your shelves to ensure products don’t become disorganised or messy, as this will give off the wrong impression to your customer. Neatly stacked products will always convey much more than just your stock levels - it says you care about the items you sell and the customer service you offer everyone who walks through your doors.

Make sure you clearly label each product that’s displayed, so people don’t have to ask or search around for a price or details. Nothing is more off-putting or disillusioning to customers than an unmarked item - and most will put the item back rather than asking or bringing it to the till.

Remember, you want your customers to not only come in but to come back to your store, so create a lasting impression that they’ll take away with them, but which will encourage them to come back too.

Using Our High Quality High End Bays!

Versatile high end bay units from Shelving4Shops are great for displaying a whole range of different products. Each unit can be configured to suit your needs, so there’s a few things you need to check before you buy:

• What will you be placing on the shelves?
• How tall are the items?

• Will you need a tilt to the shelves?
• If you need the tilt, what risers will you use - acrylic or wire?

It’s worth taking the time to measure your items to make sure you get the shelf height and depth right for your needs. We have 4 different widths available, so you can choose the right bay for your store. These look great alongside gondola units and sit flush against them to give your store a professional look.

The unit from Shelving4Shops includes 5 coloured Epos Ticket Strips, with a range of different colours for you to choose from, allowing you to tailor your high end bay to match the design and colour scheme of your brand or store.

If you need some help finding the right solutions for your store, feel free to call us or drop into our showroom to see examples of all the units we hold in the range of sizes we stock. We have professional, experienced staff who will be happy to offer advice and talk you through the best options for your store in terms of both layout and value.

Getting Christmas Right

Did you know that an enticing scent encourages “lingering” or “dwell time” by up to 26%? This is just one of the small, finite details that high end retailers pay particular attention to when contemplating how to get the most out of shoppers during the Christmas shopping period. Placing delicious scents, such as cinnamon and orange, that instantly evoke thoughts of Christmas encourage shoppers to slow down and spend more time browsing your products.

Music is also a big influence on a person’s mood, again influencing “dwell time” and therefore how much a person buys. Studies have shown that customers take approximately 17% longer to browse a shop aisle while music with a slower beat (approximately 60 beats per minute) was played, while sales increased by 38%. This means carefully choosing your Christmas music- with no crazy remixes of Jingle Bells or Deck The Halls!

Another concept to consider and utilise is exclusivity. People see things as innately more valuable if an item is exclusive, seeing it as a better way to express their individuality and identity. If you can offer exclusivity, your store stands to gain- and it’s a great way to draw customers in. Exclusive items make a great gift, as people feel better about giving something that isn’t a “common” item. Personal touches make a gift more unique and appealing.

Create the entertainment factor in your store during the Christmas period. As online shopping becomes more and more accessible, people are less inclined to enter a shop- unless they know that they’ll get something “extra” from going in. Offering incentives such as free mulled wine, hot chocolate or even a pop-up Christmas-themed show, willencourage customers through your doors. It will also slow down their browsing, encouraging them again to “linger” over your products, adding valuable purchasing influence.