Are you getting the most merchandising space out of your backroom , showroom , and even checkout counter and office space ? And are you displaying your merchandise in a visually effective way ? Chris Miller has the answers to these questions and more .
BUSINESS MATTERS
Space-Saving Design & Merchandising Tips
From Retail Store Designer Chris Miller
Are you getting the most merchandising space out of your backroom , showroom , and even checkout counter and office space ? And are you displaying your merchandise in a visually effective way ? Chris Miller has the answers to these questions and more .
Miller is the president of Pacific Store Designs . Since 1981 , he has redesigned thousands of retail stores across the pet , automotive , pool and spa , motorcycle , hobby , and musical products industries . He has a long history with NAMM University , having presented at The NAMM Show and on the road for the organization going back to 1996 . At last month ’ s NAMM Show , he presented an Idea Center session on “ 10 Space-Saving Merchandising Secrets ” and was also a panelist for the 2018 Store Design Summit .
Speaking with Canadian Music Trade , he shares some of those tips from his presentation and elaborates on other problematic areas he sees in many MI stores .
“ A lot of retail is downsizing and they ’ re trying to offer the same selection out of less square footage . With the rents the way they are and the brick and mortar stores having to be more and more competitive , [ they ’ re ] finding ways to fit 100 pounds of groceries into a 10-pound sack ,” says Miller .
“ I usually start in the back rooms when I talk about stores . If we can maximize the back room , then we free up retail selling space and we ’ ve done our job . So the average backroom for the average store is around six per cent of the square footage . If they ’ re a large rental company , then obviously it ’ s going to be larger because they have to stock the inventory ,” says Miller . “ But what we do then is , in many of my stores , we put in double-deck mezzanines in the back and have gone with high-pile storage and / or mobile aisles . A mobile aisle is where one aisle services many rows of shelving and you roll these shelving units left and right and then you have a mobile aisle . You ’ ve probably seen them in file rooms . So if we have high ceilings , then we go with the mezzanine . If we have a low ceiling and we need to get the capacity , then we go with mobile aisles . If we can free up [ space ] or keep them from having to expand or , again , getting more utilization of the same square footage , it ’ s the best way to free up some selling space .”
Elsewhere , Miller notes it ’ s common for stores to have an office space on the show room floor . “ They basically count money in there or do orders and things like that . It ’ s something that ’ s very easily done at home . The value of a 10 x 10-ft . office is 100 sq . ft . times $ 200 per square foot per year , which is equal to $ 20,000 a year in sales . If they ’ re averaging 40 points of margin , that ’ s $ 8,000 . You get down to a rent of , say , a couple bucks per square foot , that ’ s another $ 2,400 a year . So if we ’ re to lay out $ 10,200 on the table and say , ‘ Can you do your paperwork at home to free up your selling space ?’ most people go , ‘ Yeah , I think I can do that .’”
If an office work space is needed in the store , Miller says sometimes he will create an office workstation at the checkout counter .
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CANADIAN MUSIC TRADE