With most retail stores owning a very small amount of space or downsizing their once big outlets to small sizes, the use of maximizing the given space in your store has become a high priority for many owners. The reason many are downsizing their stores to smaller locations or outlets is to allow other stores to come into space, while also showing that they can earn more money by paying less rent or utilities for their space. When a company’s goal is to make money, they also look to see what’s the best way to save money as a number one.

Since outlets are downsized, giving them less room to hold stock or display products, it has become very important to use all the space given to its full potential. You can see this in the way that stores in a mall would, by hanging items on the walls, having display containers, having racks, and many more options. From studying and viewing other stores, you can easily see some key components that will help in using the little space to its full potential at your store. Here are some great ways to maximize space in a retail store.

Invest Into Wall Shelves

When you only have racks or tables for display, you’re leaving a lot of space on the walls empty that could be utilized in other ways to display more stock. This can be done by hanging displays, logos, products, items. Even having racks or shelves attached to the wall can hold your product for you and allow customers to see a display of the product.

The walls are a part of the building and space that is paid for via the rent, meaning the walls are for you to utilize for whatever your needs are. Many stores do this by having shelves that customers can take from or have displays hung up for them to see a new product. This is one way of maximizing space, as you are using the walls and not just the floor, meaning you are using the whole space given to you.

The Importance Of Lighting

The way your store is lit up can play a big impact on sales and the way you maximize space. This can be done by lighting key areas of your store to draw more attention from your customers. Think about it this way, if an area is dark, you’d be less likely to check out the products in the area because you would see it that well, but if it’s lit up properly, your eyes would instantly go to it first.

This displays the importance of lighting! The better your store is lit, the more potential customers you will draw in. That is often why malls and shopping strips are lit up to the best of their abilities and display many neon signs or other signage to get customers to stop by and visit.

You could also use the lighting as a way of direction. To have customers walk through the entire store guided by lighting so that way they view every product with the potential of increasing your sales and what the customers will see.

Using Color To Your Advantage

Color is a very important part of maximizing your store’s space. Studies have found that using warmer, lighter colors will have a drastic increase in the thought behind how large the store is versus the actual size of the store. Not only can color influence the thought process on size, but it can also influence the customer’s desire to enter the store or even purchase the product.

Warm colors, like yellows, light browns, whites, and others increase the opinion on the size of the store, meaning you could make the store appear drastically bigger with the use of these colors when in reality you have a small outlet that is the same as many other stores. These colors add a sense of depth, meaning the store would seem larger and nicer than what it is.

Along with the size, color influences purchases! Ever wonder why the majority of fast food places use colors like yellow or red? It’s because those colors play an influence on your hunger, making you more willing to eat or consume food, meaning that a customer would be more likely to stop and partake in the product. The same can be done for a retail store to help influence a customer’s purchase of a product.

Finding Better Ways To Display Stock

While display shelves and tables are great, you can only use so many of them before the floor gets crowded or you have shelves lined on every wall at every location. You want to add some variety to it, and this variety can come from different and better ways of displaying stock.

Rather than having just tables or shelves, invest in some hanging racks, or rolling racks, that can be used to display clothes or other products, like up a standing shelving unit right next to a wall shelf, maximizing the number of shelves and space it has right there. The rolling racks can be put and moved everywhere to allow customers the ability to move through your store without a hassle, while also displaying some great product in a hanging fashion rather than a folded one.

There are many ways you can display products to be sold, more than just the traditional table and shelf. Investing into these ideas can help save space or maximize it by giving you the ability to display more products at more locations on different racks or displays.

Give The Customer A Great And Organized Experience

Finally, the organization of a store is a big way to make the most of your space. If you have a messy store, customers will walk in, see it, and instantly think there isn’t enough space to walk around and view the product. Imagine walking in to see the doorway blocked by two rolling racks, right next to some tables with display shelves in the back. The customers would have to fight their way through the racks and tables just to get around to the display shelves.

What this means, is that you should have an organized layout for your floor plan that will give your customers the best and most organized experience when walking in and out of your store. No one wants to see a mess, especially when they walk into a store to buy something. That is an instant turn-off and will make them seek products elsewhere.

Organizing a store with a proper floor plan will make the store seem bigger while also giving customers a logical way to find all the different products they are looking for, rather than having pants and shirts mixed, or jewelry under some hats. The idea is to have an organized layout, that will provide a way to display all kinds of stock at select locations in an ideal and logical format. When this is achieved, it will seem as if your store has a lot to offer while having a lot of space when it is a small outlet.