Commercial space
Showroom and Retail Interiors
What a project here covers
- Frontage, entrance and window display strategy
- Circulation planned around how customers actually move through a store
- Display systems: fixed, modular and seasonal, with a plan for changing them
- A retail lighting scheme with accent, general and display layers
- Counter, trial and consultation zones as the product requires
- Storage, stock access and staff areas kept out of the customer's sightline
What this room has to solve
The frontage does not pull anyone in
Most of the decision to enter is made in a few seconds from outside. Sightlines through the glazing, the brightness of the interior relative to the street, and what is visible at the threshold are what decide it.
Customers stop just inside the door
There is a well-known dead zone immediately past the entrance where people are still adjusting. Putting the first display there wastes it. The layout should carry people past it before asking for attention.
The lighting flattens the product
A uniform grid of downlights makes everything look the same, which is the opposite of what retail lighting is for. Accent lighting, a decent colour rendering index and contrast between display and circulation are what make product look worth buying.
Materials and finishes
- Floor
- Rated for the footfall it will get and for trolleys or heavy stock where relevant. Circulation routes wear far faster than display zones and can be specified differently.
- Display systems
- Modular and re-configurable wherever the range changes seasonally. Fixed joinery is beautiful and becomes a constraint the first time the merchandising plan changes.
- Lighting
- High colour rendering, which matters enormously for anything where colour is part of the purchase, plus adjustable accent fittings on track so the scheme can follow the product.
What we will ask you
- What is the product, and does the customer need to touch, try or be fitted?
- What is the frontage width, and how much of it is glazed?
- How often does the range or the merchandising change?
- How many staff are on the floor, and where do they need to stand?
- What are the mall or landlord rules on signage, shopfront and working hours?
In more detail
Get them across the threshold
Everything before the door is doing the hardest work. From the pavement a customer reads the brightness of the interior, how far in they can see, and whether the entrance is obviously an entrance. An interior that is dimmer than the street reads as closed. A frontage you cannot see into reads as intimidating. Both are fixable at the design stage and expensive to fix afterwards.
Plan the walk
There is a decompression zone just inside the door where people are adjusting and are not really looking. Anything placed there is wasted. Beyond it, circulation should give customers a natural route that passes the product you most want seen, with room to stop without blocking anyone behind.
Lighting sells
If there is a single line in a retail estimate not to cut, it is lighting. Contrast is what draws the eye, so display zones want to be noticeably brighter than circulation, accent fittings need to be adjustable because merchandising moves, and colour rendering matters more than wattage for anything where the customer is judging a colour or a finish.
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showroom & retail
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