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Multi-sensory Design for Retail – How to Make the Most of All Five Senses

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A retail store is a physical manifestation of a brand, and the consumer’s perception of any given brand is built on multiple senses. Generally speaking, there are two types of consumer that will enter your store: the finders and the browsers. With research showing that the latter group is ultimately responsible for the highest percentage of sales, it is important that you focus your efforts on them by incorporating multi-sensory aspects to your retail design. A successful store design in large cities such as Shanghai and Beijing will allow you to make a bigger impact on sales and create the best possible brand experience.

 

Take Abercrombie & Fitch for example. Its combination of loud music, dim lighting, attractive staff and signature scent is perfect for appealing to their adolescent target market and persuading them to make spontaneous purchases in-store.

 

Sight

Impulse purchasing is primarily driven by what we see. There are many aspects to what we experience visually that can be used to influence our purchasing behaviour including colour, lighting, symmetry, balance, contrast and focus. A couple of these we have covered recently in our blog so we’ll refrain from repeating ourselves and leave you instead with this great example of a clear, inviting and aesthetically pleasing baked goods store which includes bright green highlights, well organised product displays and warm yet subtle lighting.

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Sound

The music playing in a store can not only affect the mood of customers and employees but it can also influence the customers walking pace around the store as well as their heart rate. While a clothing store may want to encourage customers to linger, a fast food restaurant may be looking to get customers in and out at quickly as possible in order to maximise sales. So choose the kind of music that's best suits your brand and your product.

 

Touch

This aspect is arguably the easiest to get right. The urge to touch is instinctive and instils a sense of ownership in the customer’s mind. So if you’re products are personal, give people the option to touch them before buying as research has shown that people are a lot more likely to buy a product if they can touch it. One retailer who makes great use of this sense is Apple. In all Apple retail locations, customers are able to hold, examine, and test out all of Apple’s products.

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Smell

Of all five senses, smell is said to have the greatest impact on sales, since it is closely linked to memory. So much so, that there is a whole area of marketing dedicated to it, with consultancy firms like ScentAir specialising in helping brands leverage scent marketing to their advantage. Lush, a UK based Cosmetics Company, trademark scent is created by their products’ aroma that some may consider to be overpowering but nonetheless provides a strong sense of brand identity with customers.

 

Taste

Food, beverage and confectionary stores can easily boost loyalty by providing small samples. It may be more difficult for other types of retail store to entice the taste buds and capitalise on this but there is no reason why they can’t be creative. Offering your customers something they weren’t expecting can go a long way in establishing a connection and increasing brand loyalty.

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Overall, one should look to drive impulse selling by developing creative retail store designs that stimulate all five of the human senses. Doing so will maximise profits and create an overall brand experience. Therefore, you should seek to build your brand into one consolidated message through a multi-sensory value proposition.

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