We recently unveiled a new floor plan outlining a distinctive store fixture layout for one of our customers. He loved it! However, he had one big question
"Why so few end caps? I thought that was prime real estate" he said.
We quickly acknowledged that his concern reflected traditional thinking. However in the stores that we have observed and many that we have actually worked with there is no end cap program. Without a program that addresses keeping the store fixture end cap displays dynamic and relevant they usually degrade into being used as additional display space or, even worse, simply storage area.
End caps work best displaying featured items. The items can be new, or special buys. A single item or at least a single price on multiple items is ideal. The problem with most small stores is that if the manager buys feature items regularly for a bunch of end caps she can quickly work herself into problems with what to do if the items don't sell. If there is not a contingency plan to deal with this scenario things can go bad quickly.
We will design a store with a manageable number of end caps. Manageable, here is unquantifiable because it will depend on the size of the store and the feelings of the manager.
But one thing's for sure. If you hire Discovery-Based Retail to help you with interior floor plan design, we'll have you thinking differently about store fixtures and end caps.
