The top 3 changes that promise to make life better
It can feel overwhelming – and a little dispiriting – planning Covid safe changes to your retail premises but there are many positives to be drawn from the adaptations you will have to make. London office design experts, MPL, discusses the upside to adapting.
1. A new door policy: we’re all hyper aware of touch points and handles provide a place for virus transmission. Doors that automatically open and shut using a motion sensor are a serious consideration, and we can install two sets to create a separate entrance and exit as part of a one-way system. If you are leaving front and rear doors open to improve ventilation, you may like to consider a motion-activated sensor that beeps with activity, which will also ensure you never miss a customer. Even more sophisticated are store occupancy monitors that ensure your premises is never over-occupied and can provide invaluable data about shopping habits at the same time.
2. Keeping it clean and in style: bottles of hand sanitizer are now a common sight but if you have a brand to uphold, retail luxury goods or want to offer customers an upscale experience, a cheap plastic bottle on the counter won’t cut it. There has been an explosion of more stylish freestanding and wall-mounted hand sanitizing stations – some of which are pedal operated, while others dispense automatically using a motion sensor. We can customize these with your branding to reflect the rest of the store. Hand basins can also be plumbed into the front-of-house and when coupled with fine liquid soap, can turn sanitation into a more sophisticated affair. Don’t forget to opt for disposable paper towels over a repeat-use fabric option.
3. Use a one way system to create a shopping experience: the days of aimlessly mooching and casually browsing may be behind us for now but a one-way system can be turned from a safety must-have into a new style of shopping experience. Just look at Ikea – its system has worked well for decades and allows the store to expose shoppers to goods using a methodically-planned approach – while airports’ duty free zones have long dictated what retail path we take . We can help you combine harvested customer data, impactful signage, display units and product placement to create a high-yielding, fruitful shopping experience.
If your retail store needs remodelling or refurbishing, we’d be happy to get involved from day one – get in touch to start a project.
