Tips For Laying Out Your Store

Sometimes it’s hard to know how to make the right decisions when choosing the layout of your store, but there are definitely a few rules to abide by to help your shop succeed. 

When your customer’s enter your shop, direct them to the right to steer them round the shop in a counterclockwise direction. Research shows that shoppers prefer to move to the right and then in a counterclockwise direction, so design the layout to draw people right. You can use bright floral displays, a wider aisle to the right or place a large display for customers to navigate, with a clear pathway to the right and a smaller gap to the left. 

If you can, lay your aisles out at an angle, rather than straight.  Ideally, aisles should angle in from both the right and left sides, meeting to form a central aisle, forming an arrow shaped layout that should end in a back-wall display. But only use this angular, directional approach if you can keep the aisles wide enough for customers to navigate easily and comfortably. No one likes a narrow aisle where they have to squeeze past other shoppers!

Make sure any long aisles have breaks to make shoppers pause and browse all your products. Long, uninterrupted aisles mean customers skip over most of your items, making their trip round your shop a quick and fruitless one! By adding breaks using movable and easily changeable displays, your customers will linger and be encouraged to buy more. 

Come and see what we have to offer!

Our showroom is open 6 days a week, so why not pop in to see what we have to offer! Shelving4Shops has a great showroom and warehouse, which you’re welcome to visit anytime that suits you. We're based in Wolvey, Leicestershire, so why not pop in for a cup of tea and a chat, to see how we can help you make the most of your shop floor space. You’re welcome to wander around and take a look at what we have, or we’re happy to help you find what you’re after- we’re a friendly, professional lot who are always on hand to help!

If you need a bit more help, why not bring along a floor plan of your store and we’ll be happy to give advice on the best fittings for your shop, to maximise on the store’s floor space and help you get the most from the layout.

We have extensive knowledge of all the major brands of shop fittings and shop shelving, so we’ll be able to help if you have existing units that you’re looking to add to or extend these. Our knowledge of these brands means that we can match your existing units to make sure the new ones match and fit perfectly.

Here at Shelving4Shops we want to make ordering as easy as possible, so you can order units via the telephone, online or in person at our showroom. All orders can be collected in person- they break down into smaller units for ease of transport, or we can dispatch your goods within 24 hours of your order. We can even help you assemble the units once they’re delivered! 

 

The Many Uses Of Gondola Shelving

 

Gondola shelving is a great option for maximising space in your store, as you can also use these to create your aisles as well as for displaying your products. Versatile and sturdy, these units can have shelf risers added to keep goods in a neat order, or to prevent products sliding off the shelves. These help keep your store tidy and reduce the risk of products being damaged by being knocked off. 

Shelving4Shops offer a range of different heights, with high and low gondolas available. The taller units come in heights of 1.8m and 2.1m, with a total of five shelves. The low gondolas come in heights of 1.6m and 1.8m, with four shelves for your products. By using these units to create your aisles you can maximise on the space available, while directing your customers round the shop.

The gondola comes with a plain back panel, but you always have the option of using peg board instead. This means you can hang or attach items to the board, change up your display and get more products displayed in a better, more efficient use of the space. Each of the shelves can be tilted at an angle, perfect for displaying produce, while you can add price tickets to clearly display the cost of items to your customers. 

Dump Bins

No matter how well you design your shop, most people find they end up with an unused, awkward space where they struggle to put anything worthwhile.

Take a look at Shelving4Shop’s selection of dump bins, which are a great way to use these small spaces to display lots of products at once. Perfect for promotional items or for smaller, awkward sized products, these can be a great way to shift stock quickly.

They can also be used in succession to create a queuing area, for example, while at the same time encouraging customers to make impulse buys. This is maximising on space, using your queuing area to hold more stock. Dump bins are robust and have adjustable base heights, so you can use them for a variety of different products.

Made from a more robust steel than most on the market, dump bins from Shelving4Shops are zinc plated and come flat packed but are super easy to set up. They have a height of 800mm and a width of 500mm.

Why not set up your dump bins with seasonal goodies to capture the eye of your customers? Fill them with creme eggs at Easter, santa hats at Christmas and plastic spiders at Halloween! You can always dress these up with fabric to match the season or to compliment your store colour scheme, so you don’t always have to have them as bare metal bins. Get creative and decorate your bins to make sure your customers don’t pass them by!

Tips For Making A Small Space Seem Bigger!

When it comes to setting up your shop, naturally you’ll want to create the illusion of a bigger space, especially if your shop is smaller than you’d like. By using a few smart tricks, you can fool people into thinking you have more space than you actually do.

1. Paint an accent wall. Using a bold colour on one wall can create the illusion of a receding space, plus it really spices the place up! You could also use a colourful, patterned or textured wallpaper to do this.
2. Use window-like effects to enlarge the feel of the room. You could use boxes cut into a wall, or for a cheaper effect, use curtains draped around tall mirrors to achieve the same effect.
3. Use floor to ceiling drapes to draw the eye upwards, or hang things from the ceilings to create the illusion of more space.
4. Displaying items on different levels is also visually appealing, whilst maximising on space, so think about different levels of shelving and how flexible you can be with them.
5. Use neutral colours such as ivory and grey- use these colours to add more items, but without bunching too many together, as this will make your space look cluttered. You can then use brightly coloured accents to liven up the area.
6. Think outside the box when it comes to displaying your products. Doing something outside the norm will help distract your customers from a lack of space and instead inspire them to make impulse purchases!
7. Lighting lighting lighting! Use the right lighting for your space, to make sure your products are properly illuminated. Lighting is exceptionally important in small spaces- if a space is not properly lit then that area is as good as wasted.

Shelving4Shops can help you display your products effectively and efficiently- call us today to see how we can help!

A Supermarket Success

Supermarkets are a popular business, so how can you make sure your succeeds? It’s all about balancing the books and making sure you don’t spend more than you need to, while ensuring your store still looks great.

Shelving4Shops can help you kit out your entire shop with budget-friendly shelving that won’t break the bank- we have both used and new shelves, and we’ll always do our best to ensure your requirements are met.

Our shelving is suitable for a whole range of products, including:

• Fresh produce
• Chilled and frozen goods
• Baked goods
• Deli counters
• Packets, tins and jars
• Magazines and paper goods
• Convenience foods
• Beverages
• Clothing and toys

Whether you’re after freestanding gondolas to create aisles, or wall shelving to make the most of your space, we have the perfect solution to making your shop a success. If you’d like some extra help, feel free to send us the plan of your store and we’ll be happy to look over it to see how we can help.

Summer Shop Shelves!

Do you remember to update your shop seasonally? There’s so much you can do to entice your customer through your doors, no matter what time of year it is. Appealing to the eye and making your shop change with the seasons is a great way to refresh your shop regularly to make sure you customers see something new every time they come in.

Summer is the perfect time to create enticing, exciting displays that will draw customers into your shop. Think about the themes you could use that tie in to your shop. Do you have products which could be used in a nautical theme? This is great one for personalising products to appeal to people in the summer- you can use boat-shaped shelving, stripes in textiles and sand in window displays to really impress!

Consider what colours you’ll use- summer is the time to use bold, bright colours, with plenty of yellows to tie in the warm weather and long sunny days. Creating your window display doesn’t have to be costly- you can use colourful fabrics or paper to create backdrops and props to bring your display to life and make your shop stand out. Avoid being predictable to really make an impression- people love something different!

Make sure you have the right amount of light on a product- lighting up your window display shouldn’t be an afterthought. The correct amount of lighting can really make your products shine, no matter what they are. Use a focal points to illuminate and avoid lights from above, which create shadows. It’s worth keeping a few spotlights on after you close up- if you’re the only shop with lights on you’ll be the only one people look at when they walk by in the evening. You’ll be sure to stick in their mind next time they’re out shopping!