Guide to Designing the Perfect Floor Plan for Your Small Business

When it comes to creating the ideal floor plan for your small business, you must consider layout, design, and implementation. For an effective shopping experience, a floor plan is essential since it dictates where merchandise, equipment, and the checkout process should be placed. You must put out the necessary effort to ensure that your design will be efficient for your staff and your customers. In order to achieve this, you must learn why a floor plan is important, how to plan the layout of your store, and where the checkout line will be. Check out below for why these factors are necessary to designing the best floor plan:

Why is a Floor Plan Important?

The set up of your store has a huge influence on customer experience and satisfaction. Having a floor plan that represents your company’s vision and leaves your customer with a positive association with your company is key. If your floor layout restricts their movement and doesn’t provide enough space, it might make them feel anxious, and they may decide to leave your business. Make sure to have enough space between merchandise. This is referred to as “an open layout,” which will put customers at ease and shop longer. As a small business owner, you may group products together to make it easier for clients to find different items in one place.

Plan your Layout by Products

Now it is time to strategize how you will layout your store. As previously mentioned, organizing your layout around your items is a great approach for building a successful floor plan for your store. You may need to research what products are the most popular and what else is trending each season. Product placement is helpful in this regard. You should be placing popular products in areas of the store where they will grab the most attention. If you do have popular products, the best place to put the items are in the middle or front of the store. Customers will notice your items immediately if they are displayed in a place where everyone passing by your store would recognize them. Customers will also appreciate that your store is up to date on the latest trends and will view your store as “trendy.” Being trendy may attract a large number of customers, yet failing to keep up with the latest trends will cause people to perceive your shop as “outdated.”

It is also important to have product organization for shoppers to easily find what they’re looking for.
If you sell band-aids, for example, you may put a first-aid kit or any other injury-related product on the shelf. Customers will have an easier time finding what they’re looking for since they were able to find a product that will help them recover an ailment. As a result, if your related products are close together, your customers will have a pleasant shopping experience and you will receive positive feedback.

You can also have some fun with the checkout area by showcasing products that shoppers would find appealing as impulsive purchases. Any small item such as snacks or tiny gifts that are easy to grab are ideal for an impulsive buy. Customers will gravitate towards an item that captures their eye and purchase more than they anticipated. By having these products in the checkout line, customers will have an engaging checkout experience and your overall revenue will increase. It is definitely a win-win situation for all!

Where to put Your POS and Checkout System

Another crucial component of your floor layout is the positioning of your POS (Point of Sale) and checkout system. You may need to think about how you want to position your checkout to leave enough room for a line without being too overcrowded. To allow enough space for your items, the checkout line should be in the back of your store. Once you have done this, now you must think about what POS system will help make your customers’ shopping experience more enjoyable. Luckily, National Retail Solutions (NRS) offers a great POS system to make your check out experience more efficient. The NRS Pay Credit Card Processing system is a great option for quick and easy payment. The customer can swipe, dip, tap, or key payment all in one place!

For more information, check out NRSplus.com.

By fbatista