Commercial

Designing Retail Spaces You Want to Linger In

Designing small-to-medium-size retail projects brings unique and exciting challenges, and great small retail brings so much to the life of a community. So, what does it take to create a space where customers slow their pace and linger? Retail spaces designed for the human scale, that promote curiosity and exploration.

Jeff Pelletier

June 9, 2015

Retail design is one of our passions at Board & Vellum. We work on a variety of small-to-medium-size retail projects and they each bring unique and exciting challenges. In particular, I think I have always been intrigued by the more neighborhood-oriented retail spaces because the scale is so accessible. Living and working on 15th Avenue East, I am witness to great small retail and how much it can enliven a community. Walking to work each day I am reminded how profoundly the scale and density of display really impacts which spaces excel.

After years of reflecting on the retail industry and what makes some spaces feel so right (and conducive to spending time and buying things there), I’ve realized that I spend my time and money in the spaces that have many layers of things to look at and pick up. This is the opposite approach of the Apple store trend, which emphasizes the exclusivity of items, and certainly works for specific retail environments. What it doesn’t do, however, is create that sense of old Main Street corner shops that Americans idolize - even if many have never actually shopped in one.

Working on the design of Ada’s Technical Books & Café, we understood that their business model wasn’t just focused on selling books, but on selling the culture and fun stuff that goes along with the type of books they were selling. Key to the success of that space is that we dedicated a great deal of horizontal real estate to display. Walking through the space there is so much to look at that customers slow their pace and linger. I strongly believe that the plethora of things to look at, touch, and read, help that space feel comfortable, which in turn makes it successful for the intended program of selling things.

Watson Kennedy's 1st Avenue store is another wonderful space supported by its mission to allow the customer to lose himself in the countless objects. Working with them on the expansion several years back, what was important to them is that that they gained enough additional space to increase inventory on the floor, but that it wasn’t so much space that they couldn’t fill it up.

I’m reminded of a former grocery store that was going through tough times and would often have deli cases and shelves stocked only halfway. It creates a sense of discomfort to not see shelves stocked. While the amount of items for sale was still quite substantial, the spaces between the items was jarring to your average retail customer. Had they started out with that ideal inventory they could have grouped their inventory together and then created graphic display areas or tasting areas to take up the space that wasn’t needed for the limited inventory.

I encourage you to look around the stores you frequent and think about what makes them ‘click’ with you. In addition to the lighting, the graphics, and the myriad other things that are taken into consideration when designing a retail environment, take a look at just how much is actually there and how it is displayed. I would bet that spaces that feel more comfortable tend to be ones that you spend more time in and are drawn to.

Designing great human-scale retail is a passion of ours and I hope this post makes you look at that neighborhood shop a little more closely next time.