Store Layout & Basics of

Architecture
Store Design Objective
Grid Layout
Free-flow Layout
Loop Layout
Minimal Layout
Spine Layout
Combination Floor Layout
Architectural Symbols for reading
store layout (a floor plan)
And symbols used for fixtures
 
Bubble Plan & Block Plan
1
 Store Design Objectives
• Consistent with retailers image and
strategy
• Positive influence on customer
satisfaction and purchase behavior
• Cost effective
• Flexible
• Meet needs of disabled

2
 Consistent with
retailers image and
strategy

3
• Retail Managers must define the target
customer and then design a store that
complements customers’ needs. For instance,
warehouse clubs, like Costco, have high
ceilings with metal grids and concrete floors
instead of tile – all of those things are
perceived to mean low prices . Actually, they
are more expensive than some alternatives,
but they are used to maintain an image.

4
• Customers would find it hard to
accurately judge value if the
physical environment were
inconsistent with the merchandise or
prices.
• Example : REI is a master of
matching its target customers with
store design.

5
6
7
8
• Recreational Equipment Inc (REI) has
transformed a decaying 88-year old
historic landmark building in Denver
into a modern retail adventure. The
94,000 sq foot, three level store
raises the bar on interactive retailing,
taking the try-it-before-you-buy-it
concept to new heights.

9
• Among the new attractions : a large, steel
encased freezer-like fixture where shoppers can
test winter parkas and sleeping bags. The
temperatures inside can drop to as low as
-30degree F. Simulated wind chills can make it
seem even colder. Mountain bikes can be tested
on a rugged 318 foot trail that runs through the
store’s landscaped outdoor courtyard. Insider,
shoppers can try out hiking boots on a footwear
test track, compare bike lights and reflectors in a
illuminator room, and test water purifiers in a
ministream.

10
• The centerpiece of the store is a 45-foot
sculptured indoor rock-climbing pinnacle . It
offers a variety of climbing terrains, including
routes specifically geared for children . Weary
shoppers can take a break at the on-premise
starbucks.
• REI is in an industry where people love to get
the product in their hands and test it. Letting
them do so makes for a happier and better-
informed customer-one who enters into the
purchase with a much better feel as to how the
product is supposed to perform.

11
 Positive influence on
customer satisfaction
and purchase behavior

12
• Retailers concentrate on store layout and
space - planning issues . Imagine a grocery
store laid out like a women’s specialty store,
or an art gallery that looked like a tire store.
• Grocery stores are organized to facilitate an
orderly shopping trip and to display as much
merchandise as possible. Yet boutiques are
laid out in a free-form design that allows
customers to browse.

13
• Customers’ purchasing behavior is
also influenced, both positively and
negatively, by the store’s
atmosphere.
• Signs are designed to attract
attention.
• Smell is also used for positive
influence on customers.

14
 Cost effective

Design should consider costs

versus values

15
• It is important to consider the cost
associated with each store design
element versus the value received in
terms of higher sales and profits.
• For instance, the free-form design
found in many boutiques is much
more costly than rows of gandolas in
a discount store.

16
• The best locations within a store are
“worth” the most, so they are reserved for
certain types of merchandise. For
instance, many grocery stores place their
produce near the store’s entance because
it has a higher margin than other
merchandise categories and it creates a
nice atmosphere.

17
Flexible

18
• As merchandise changes, so must a
store’s image. Thus, store planners
attempt to design stores with
maximum flexibility.
• Flexibility can take two forms : the
ability to physically move store
components, and the ease with which
components can be modified.

19
• Today, most stores are designed with flexibility
in mind. For instance, Wallace’s Book store, one
of the US’s largest operators of college
bookstores, is rolling out an innovative new
concept with built-in merchandising and design
flexibility called flexsmart, the format allows the
store to expand or contract its space to
accommodate the seasonal flux inherent in the
college-bookstore business.
• The rush for textbooks at the beginning of each
semester and the slower in-between periods
make for extreme peaks and valleys in sales.

20
• Stores with the new design can respond to
seasonal changes and renew themselves
from an image perspective without the need
of large-scale renovations . During busy
times, as much as 30% more retail space
can be provided for books or apparel in
various departments. The key to wallace’s
new flexibility lies in an innovative fixturing
and wall system that is used to portion off
the textbook area. On the front end of each
textbook aisle there is a panel with an end-
cap display that can swing open or closed
as needed.

21
Meet needs of disabled

22
• A person in a wheelchair or one using
a walker/ motorized cart should have
unencumbered access to
merchandise through adequately
wide pathways.

23
 Tradeoff in Store Design

Easy of locating merchandise

for planned purchases

Exploration of store,
impulse purchases

24
• It is difficult to create a differential advantage
on the basis of merchandise, price, promotion,
and location. In such a situation, the store itself
becomes a point of differentiation.
• Store can be compared to a theatre
* Walls and floor are the stage.
* The lighting, fixtures and signs
represent the sets.

25
 * The merchandise and the store
personnel represent the show.
• A customer who is familiar with the store layout is
likely to buy more than those unfamiliar with it.
• The layout helps support the customer’s memory of
the list of things they plan to buy and where they
are likely to find these items in the store.

26
Grid Layout

27
28
Grid Layout is a type of store layout in which
counters and fixtures are placed in long
rows or “runs,” usually at right angles,
throughout the store.

• Disadvantages
Advantages • Plain and uninteresting
• Low cost • Limited browsing
• Customer • Stimulation of rushed
shopping behavior
familiarity
• Merchandise • Limited creativity in décor.
exposure • Can be confusing and
frustrating because it is
• Ease of cleaning difficult to see over the
• Simplified security fixtures to other
merchandise
• Possibility of self-
service

29
30
Receiving & storage

Fruit

Books, magazines, seasonal Cart area

display
Vegetables Checkouts

Entrance
Office &
customer
service
Exit
31
32
 Best used in retail environments in
which majority of customers shop the
entire store
* Should be employed carefully,
forcing customers to back of large
store may frustrate and cause them
to look elsewhere
• Most familiar examples for
supermarkets and drugstores

33
Free-flow Layout

34
 Free-Flow Layout is a type of store
layout in which fixtures and
merchandise are grouped into free-
flowing patterns on the sales floor.

Advantages Disadvantages
• Allowance for
browsing • Loitering
and wandering freely encouraged
• Increased impulse • Possible confusion
purchases • Waste of floor space
• Visual appeal • Cost
• Flexibility • Difficulty of cleaning

35
36
The Disney Store’s Effective
Use
of the Free-Flow Design
• Approximately 250 million
consumers visit Disney’s
entertainment retail outlets each
year. New store designs showcase
merchandise in an engaging and
contemporary fashion, keeping
pace with evolving retail trends.
Technological elements - including
a front-of-store media wall that
engages guests with Disney
programming, and interactive
kiosks-setting the stage for the
Disney Store in the 21st century.

37
 Storage, Receiving, Marketing

Underwear Dressing Rooms

Hats and Handbags

Stockings

Accessories

Tops
Checkout counter
Casual Wear

Tops
Pants

Clearance Items

Skirts and Dresses

Jeans

Feature Feature

Open Display Window Open Display Window

38
• Fixtures and merchandise grouped into
free-flowing patterns on the sales floor – no
defined traffic pattern
• Works best in small stores (under 5,000
square feet) in which customers wish to
browse
• Works best when merchandise is of the
same type, such as fashion apparel
• If there is a great variety of merchandise,
fails to provide cues as to where one
department stops and another starts

39
Loop Layout

40
 Loop Layout is a type of store layout in
which a major customer aisle begins at the
entrance, loops through the store, usually in
the shape of a circle, square or rectangle,
and then returns the customer to the front
of the store.

• Advantages
• Exposes customers
to the greatest
amount of
merchandise

41
42
43
44
45
• Exposes shoppers to the greatest
possible amount of merchandise by
encouraging browsing and cross-
shopping

46
Minimal Layout

47
• As the name implies, is almost gallerylike
in its simplicity.
• In fact, the merchandise may sometimes
be wearable art-handcrafted, designer-
made, in one-of-a-kind fabrications.
• More often, however, this layout is used in
very high end retail stores with designer
merchandise(Dolce and Gabana , Soho,
New York City).

48
• Borrowing from the artistic school of
aesthetics minimalism, products are
presented dramatically on the walls of the
store-much like art objects- with a
minimal use of selling fixtures on the
floor.
• This allows for wide-open spaces in the
center of the stores, where customers
may stand and survey the entire offering
of the collection before they approach the
merchandise for a closer look.

49
• The minimal layout option requires
dramatic merchandise, simple
display strategies, and effective sales
associates.

50
51
52
Spine Layout

53
• Spine Layout is a type of store layout
in which a single main aisle runs from
the front to the back of the store,
transporting customers in both
directions, and where on either side of
this spine, merchandise departments
using either a free-flow or grid pattern
branch off toward the back aisle walls.

54
• Variation of grid, loop and free-form layouts
Based on single main aisle running from the front to
the back of the store (transporting customers in both
directions)
• On either side of spine, merchandise departments
branch off toward the back or side walls
• Heavily used by medium-sized specialty stores
ranging from 2,000 – 10,000 square feet
• In fashion stores the spine is often subtly offset by a
change in floor coloring or surface and is not
perceived as an aisle

55
56
Combination Floor Layout

57
• It employs the best features of standard
layouts in one overall plan that suits the
retailer’s specific strategy.
• A department store may use a minimal
layout for its more upscale departments,
and a free-flow layout for its junior sports
wear department.
• A specialty store may combine a free-flow
layout in a first third of the store and a grid
layout for a clearance department in the
rear of the store.

58
Architectural Symbols for
reading store layout (a
floor plan)
And symbols used for
fixtures

59
60
61
62
63
64
65
Bubble Plan & Block Plan

66
 Functions of Store
Planner
• To design an efficient and attractive
selling environment that will promote
maximum sales and savings in labor
and energy.
• To combine the selling space with the
“behind-the-scenes” service area
where stock is maintained and the
non-selling activities of the store are
carried on.
67
 Functions of Store
Planner
• To set up traffic patterns that will promote
customer movement from areas that get
the greatest exposure (near entrances,
elevators, and escalators) to remote
comers and back areas where the more
expensive items are usually located.
• To promote and sell to stock and show.
The store planner selects the selling
vehicle for the specific merchandising
being offered.
68
 Functions of Store
Planner
• To enhance the store’s image and,
thereby, add stature to the merchandise
being offered.
• The store planner work closely with the
architect, the merchandiser and the buyer.
• Based on previous sales figures, or on
projected or anticipated sales figure, the
store planner, together with the executive,
will prepare a block plan.

69
 Functions of Store
Planner
• A bock plan - This is the first
allocation of space on the ground plan
and the designation of selling areas
on the selling floor.
• This apportionment of space is based
on the merchandising needs, propsed
traffic patterns, proximity to related
merchandise, and anticipated sales.

70
 Functions of Store
Planner
• Management gets a visual picture of
how much space is actually needed
and how much is left for growth.
• Non-selling area (behind the scenes)
– service elevators, storage,
employee’s changing rooms, toilets,
back office, restrooms.

71
 Functions of Store
Planner
• The floor plans are then redrawn,
always in scale, with more and more
details and specifications added on.
• The final floor plan will have all the
counters, cases, tables, and free
standing floor fixtures drawn in place
and will show the aisles, trial rooms,
exit and entrances.

72
 Functions of Store
Planner
• The store planner will locate the
“impluse items” (merchandise
purchased on impulse rather than by
plan in the high traffic areas, leaving
the customer to find his or her way to
the “ demand merchandise”

73
 Before detailed planning
begins, the designer must
have a clear
understanding of the
following :

74
 The building’s type, age and
construction.
 Brand values, image and identity.
 A detailed breakdown of the
customer profiles.
 The client’s philosophy and
objectives.
 Product information by category.
75
• Blubble plan is the rough drawing of layout.

76