Laws of attraction: Store design

In today’s ultra-competitive market it’s more crucial than ever that retail jewellers make their shops as enticing as possible. Retail Jeweller considers how every shop - whatever its budget - can turn heads

Shopping is a bit like searching for the right partner. You want the place to look good, have some spark about it, a bit of personality and be dressed well - and finally it helps if it smells pretty nice too. Only after you’ve got over those initial impressions do you really start to look closely at the detail.

Get any one of those things wrong, and shoppers will high tail it away from your shopfront quicker than someone after their blind date rescue call.

We’ve gone from being what Napoleon called a nation of shopkeepers to a nation of shoppers, and shopping is now one of the top leisure activities in the UK. But consumers are so spoilt for choice with Bluewater, Westfield London and Lakeside et al that they have become fussy about where they buy, and the brands they choose to engage with. This makes it even tougher for shops to woo customers and maintain the excitement levels in their relationships with them.

But if shopping is like dating, then stylish jeweller Cottrills at Wilmslow in Cheshire is the perfect partner. It’s open and attractive from the outside, smart but welcoming, and has a central champagne bar that could entertain you in style for hours.

“It always amazes me that a restaurant can have the most fabulous décor and charge, say, £100 a cover, when a jeweller can be selling £10,000 items from an outdated, tatty and boring environment,” says Malcolm Rawle, managing director of Peter Dooley Design, which designed and fitted out Cottrills and Prestons of Bolton, as well as custom-making cabinetry for the new Stephen Webster store in Mayfair and interiors for Weirs in Dublin.

“A store should be able to attract customers into the shop without feeling intimidating,” says Leona Nicholas, director of retail design specialist Robert Nicholas.

Good looks definitely count high on the list of features that will attract a shopper into a store, but they have to be more than just style over substance, according to the experts. “Store design should accurately reflect the position of the retailer’s brand,” explains Rawle. “The design should state with confidence the proposition from the retailer to the consumer. Image is incredibly important and the materials used and the quality of manufacture are paramount. You often see shopfits that look like quality, but then on closer inspection you spot poor joinery or light fittings that are not flush. At whatever level you trade, this is important.”

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