Retail Atmospherics are generally divided into four major parts:
Exterior
Generalized interior
Layout
Displays

These are related to the Americans with Disabilities Act in terms of
considerations made by retailers. The law was signed in 1990, and went
into effect in 1992. A recent figure puts the estimate at 54 million!

Consider the four major parts of atmospherics and its contribution to
store profitability, retial consistency, consumer reactions, and so forth.

Establishing and Maintaining a Retail Image:  Objectives

• To Show Examine The Concept Of Retail Image
• To Describe How A Retail Store Image Is Related to all components
• Image:  how the retailer is perceived by customers and others
• Positioning:  the firm’s strategy that projects the image in relation to its competitors – this is depicted on a positioning map
• ** To Compare Traditional Bricks and Mortar Principles to E-Commerce Applications
• Elements of a Retail Image

Bricks/Mortar and Web Comparisons

• Elements of Atmosphere:  Bricks and Mortar vs. E-commerce and web design
• Bricks and Mortar
• Exterior
• General Interior
• Store Layout
• Interior Displays (point of purchase)

• Web Design?

Elements of Exterior
Traditional Exterior
Storefront
 Marquee
 Entrances
 Display Windows
 Height of Building
 Size of Building
 Visibility
 Uniqueness
 Surrounding Stores
 Surrounding Area
 Parking Congestion

ADA access?

What is the analogy to a web site?
 

General Interior
 Flooring
 Colors
 Lighting
 Scents, sounds
 Fixtures
 Wall Textures
 Temperature
 Width of Aisles
 Dressing Facilities
 Vertical Transportation
 Dead Areas
 Personnel
 Self-Service
 Merchandise
 Prices (Levels and Displays)
 Cash Register Placement
 Technology/Modernization
 Cleanliness

How can these design elements be chosen to maximize sales per sq. foot?
How can they be chosen to provide reasonable access to disabled customers?
Web analogy?

What about Space Constraints?
Selling Space
Merchandise Space
Personnel Space
Customer Space

What does the customer need to do?
Can the customer try the mdse. realistically? Safely?

Store Layout
Allocation of Floor Space
Product Groupings
Traffic Flow
Straight (Gridiron) Traffic Flow
Curving (Free-Flowing) Traffic Flow

Space/Merchandise Category

• Department Locations
• Arrangements w/in Departments
• Selecting the layout with customer behavior in mind
• For instance, what is the planned traffic flow of your customers?
• If it is direct with little browsing time, the gridiron layout is optimal.
• If customers are more likely to stop, integrate merchandise, and wander back and forth, the free-flowing plan tends to be preffered.
• In actuality, retailers tend to use hybrids of these, depending on the customers' real behaviors in the store.

• Retailers have to consider more profitable locations throughout the stores as well.
• They generally track movement of merchandise at various points, and often do some very interesting analysis on the impact of alternative display and endcap placements on sales per square foot.
• There are many methods which can be used to enhance the consumers' reactions to the goods, such as the use of color breaks throughout the aisles.
• What about web site location? Are there placements on the web page that are more likely to be seen and purchased?

Some layouts are mixed

Interior Displays:  (point-of-purchase) Function, Consumer Use, Stocking, Upkeep
Assortment
Theme-Setting
Ensemble
Racks and Cases
Cut Cases
Dump Bins
Posters, Signs, & Cards
Mobiles
Electronic

Analogy on Web Site?
Store Offering Classifications
Functional Product Grouping
Purchase Motivation Product Groupings
Market Segment Product Groupings
Storability Product Groupings

Freeing the Customer from Space and Time Constraints