Page 144 - DMGT552_VISUAL_MERCHANDISING

Unit 7: Retail Design and Circulation Plan

7.1 Retail Design Notes

Retail design is a very specialised discipline due to the heavy demands placed on retail space.
Because the primary purpose of retail space is to stock and sell product to consumers, the spaces
must be designed in a way that promotes an enjoyable and hassle-free shopping experience for
the consumer. For example, research shows that male and female shoppers who were accidentally
touched from behind by other shoppers left a store earlier than people who had not been
touched and evaluated brands more negatively. The space must be specially-tailored to the kind
of product being sold in that space; for example, a bookstore requires many large shelving units
to accommodate small products that can be arranged categorically while a clothing store requires
more open space to fully display product.
Retail spaces, especially when they form part of a retail chain, must also be designed to draw
people into the space to shop. The storefront must act as a billboard for the store, often employing
large display windows that allow shoppers to see into the space and the product inside. In the
case of a retail chain, the individual spaces must be unified in their design.

7.1.1 History of Retail Design

Retail design first began to grow in the middle of the 19th century, with stores such as Bon
Marche and Printemps in Paris, “followed by Marshall Fields in Chicago, Selfridges in London
and Macy’s in New York.” These early retail design stores were swiftly continued with an
innovation called the chain store. The first chain store was opened in the early 20th century by
Frank Winfield Woolworth, which quickly became a franchise across the US. Other chain stores
began growing in places like the UK a decade or so later, with stores like Boots. After World
War II, a new type of retail design building known as the shopping centre came into being. This
type of building took two different paths in comparison between the US and Europe. Shopping
centres began being built out of town within the United States to benefit the suburban family,
while Europe began putting shopping centres in the middle of town. The first shopping centre
in the Netherlands was built in the 1950s, as retail design ideas began spreading east. The next
evolution of retail design was the creation of the boutique in the 1960s, which emphasised retail
design run by individuals. Some of the earliest examples of boutiques are the Biba boutique
created by Barbara Hulanicki and the Habitat line of stores made by Terence Conran. The rise of
the boutique was followed, in the next two decades, with an overall increase in consumer
spending across the developed world. This rise made retail design shift to compensate for
increased customers and alternative focuses. Many retail design stores redesigned themselves
over the period to keep up with changing consumer tastes. These changes resulted on one side
with the creation of multiple “expensive, one-off designer shops” catering to specific fashion
designers and retailers.

The rise of the internet and internet retailing in the latter part of the 20th century and into the
21st century saw another change in retail design to compensate. Many different sectors not
related to the internet reached out to retail design and its practices to lure online shoppers back
to physical shops, where retail design can be properly utilised.

7.1.2 Role of Retail Design

A retail designer must create a thematic experience for the consumer, by using spatial cues to
entertain as well as entice the consumer to purchase goods and interact with the space. The
success of their designs are not measured by design critics but rather the records of the store

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