How Important Are Floor Plans for Small Businesses?

Floor plans for small businesses need to be thought out carefully as it’s one of the key strategies to succeed. You need to make the most of your floor plan so that you can maximise your ROI, especially since smaller businesses don’t have the same space or other advantages as their larger counterparts. Here’s why you shouldn’t overlook the importance of it.

clothing store floor plan

They Create a Positive Shopping Experience

As a small business, it’s important to make customers feel at ease. Larger retailers have the space to avoid crowding certain areas but that can be a little more challenging on a smaller scale. That’s unless you have an effective floor plan.

Your store’s layout can determine the emotions that are evoked in their shopping experience. Think about where you’ve placed the merchandise, the colours and even how much room you have between sections. All of these factors can affect how your customers feel, whether they like spending time in the store, if they’ll make a purchase or whether they’d return.

If your floor plan restricts their movement and doesn’t give them enough room, then it can cause a feeling of anxiety and they might want to leave your store. Try to make sure that sections aren’t congested to reduce any tension as this can make shoppers feel like they need to rush through the store.

With open layouts, customers can feel at ease and shop longer. This is how you can build a positive experience and encourage repeat custom.

Floor Plans Prevent Possible Thefts

Small businesses can also be susceptible to theft, but a floor plan can prevent risks of shoplifting. For example, having high-priced items locked in showcases at the back of your store rather than towards the entrance reduces that risk. Or if you have smaller items, you can keep them in displays where there’s more security or more traffic for extra support.

If your floor plan requires extra manoeuvres from shoppers or passes through security, then it’s more difficult for someone to steal something from your store.

You Can Predict Customer Behaviour

You also shouldn’t overlook the importance of your store floor plan because the flow can determine how your customers shop. In a large business, it’s easier because they have so much room. However, with less space, you need to be more strategic and utilise the area you do have.

The longer a customer is in your store, the more likely they are to make a purchase. Your floor plan’s goal should be to keep customers moving around and shopping for longer. As you’re likely to have less space compared to a larger counterpart, it’s important to make the most of it. The progression through your store needs to be natural.

So look at the larger counterparts for some inspiration. Look at what supermarkets do – they place necessities such as milk and bread towards the back so shoppers have to navigate through other aisles to get there. Even department stores are strategic with their placement, as children’s clothing is usually placed on the top floor so parents have to walk through other sections.

Try to do something similar in your store, even if you don’t have as much space to enjoy.

A Strategic Layout Can Provoke More Sales

As a small business, you can organise product types and brands together so that customers can find different items in one location. This can make customers feel more inclined to buy products connected to what they’re shopping for.

You should do this carefully in your store, especially since you won’t have a lot of room to play with. If you group together designers or the same type of merchandise, then you’re likely to increase cross-category and cross-brand sales.

You Can Maximise Your Square Footage

As a small business, it’s even more important that you create a space that makes more money by maximising your sales per square foot. A floor plan can be really helpful here. For example, you might find that there’s an area in your store that’s lacking sales. Rather than letting that valuable space go to waste, you can rearrange areas to increase sales.

Another example to show how you can take advantage of the small space you have is by deciding where high and low-priced items will go. You can allow expensive items more space so they’re noticeable by customers while cheaper items can be stacked or grouped together to create more space.

A layout is more than just placing products in certain areas, though. Customer satisfaction goes a long way and it’s more challenging for small business because of the lack of space to worth with. To help you improve that, we’ve created a bunch of templates that will help your small businesses enjoy repeat custom and compete with the big businesses.

Get Your Free Floor Plan Templates

Our floor plan templates are perfect if you need some ideas or extra inspiration. Think of them as the initial blueprint that will shape your floor plan. Whether it’s a clothing store, coffee shop, an exhibition or even a hotel, you’ll get plenty of amazing ideas.

To get your free copy of the template pack, click on the link below.