Too often I come across stores that disregard routing (customer flow) in their stores. It seems to be more important to design the fixtures and fittings with the result that lots of effort and time is spent on how the look of a store should be. However more often than not retailers ignore the fact that they can and should guide the  customer flow in their store(s) store.

During a walk through town  I recently came across this effort...

Case
Centre of town, main shopping street (lots of tourists there too). Store with a fairly narrow front and rather deep, with a dog leg to the left at the end. Colours grey and white with strong lighting high on the ceiling only .
Gift store based on idealistic and fair trade principles.

MISTAKES...

1. Entrance: Here immediately a table presentation with top signage placed as barrier thus blocking free entry into the store and above all if customers don’t like what they see on this display they are 'bounced' out of the store …..
2. Lighting:  Apart from the height of the lights there are no “guiding” lights anywhere. By guiding lights I mean incidental lighting that guides the eye of the customer, brings down the height of the ceiling and as result guides the customer through the store.
3. Back of the store:  Here we have – in this case – the checkout counter in front of a rather bland wall with a heavy worded mission statement. As result of the bland  colours and the uninspired lighting, there is no reason for the customer to become curious or go to the back of the store. And since there is no possibility at the front to show that the store continues to the left in the back, a great opportunity to 'lure' the customers to the back and the rest of the store is lost. Naturally the placement of the counter at the far end brings the customers that have selected merchandise in the front to the back .However too often too late to continue shopping – decision to buy was made earlier!

Conclusion
Colours, lighting (types and placement) as well as positioning of fixtures can have a great impact on the possible willingness by customers to move around in specific- pre determined - ways in the store. As result the flow of customers in the store is often  restricted  and unpredictable which in turn creates a loss of potential sales and success or failure of certain product categories.