Decorating the walls of your shop. The first thing you need to attack is the walls. A bare wall gives out one simple message…which is blank. In fact, without proper office or shop décor on the walls, it makes the place very unwelcoming and dull. Who do you think would walk into a shop that has bare walls that sings an uninviting song? To entice your customers to walk into your shop and purchase something from your shop, you’ll need to use the right color for the walls…some shade or color that attracts the right customers. If you want the walls décor to give out a warm and welcoming feeling, you can use a darker shade; on the other hand, if you want to make your customers feel happy to be in the shop, color your walls with a lighter shade. Then use some clever slatwall panels to decorate and display your products.
Give your shop décor an alive feel. Apart from decorating the shop’s walls, you’ll have to add plants into the shop décor as well. Having a couple of potted plants will instantly give the place an ‘alive’ feel and your staff and the people who walk into your shop will feel less removed from the outside world. Each type of plant gives out different signals, so play with the type of plants that you use to decorate your shop. If it’s within your budget, assign someone to come into your shop to work out the décor and accentuate the placement of the plants with lighting. Having plants as part of your shop décor can be tricky, though because plants require maintenance. However, you can hire people to take care of your plants for you or you could actually ‘rent’ the plants for your office décor.
Don’t mix and match concepts and furniture in your shop. Maintain a consistent look throughout your shop’s décor. It would give the customers a very mix-and-match feel when they walk into your shop when the furniture don’t match. For instance, you can’t very well decorate your shop with an antique piece together with a modern looking sofa in your shop. It would give the customers a really odd feeling. What you want to avoid with your shop décor is to give it a ‘thrown together’ feel…you want it to shout, CLASS ACT instead of ‘last minute thrown in together’.
Clear the clutter. And of course, just as any professional shop décor artiste or designer can tell you, clutter is an absolute no-no. It’s been said before so keep this clear in your mind…a clear desk clears the head even before you sit down and start your work. This principle applies to your shop décor. Keep things that should not be seen in your shop tucked away in a storeroom…for instance, stuff that you don’t use very often or products that you don’t intend to sell. Don’t leave boxes of products lying strewn all over the place. Ask your staff to regularly check and rearrange the products on the display areas, the desk, the slatwall display unit and of course, the walls. Some customers tend to pick up products and then leave them somewhere they don’t belong. Your staff should make it a point to return the item back to where they belong.