There are lots of factors that can influence your customers’ experience when they step into your shop or store. Obviously polite and friendly staff are a crucial factor however, the floor layout and display quality are just as important.
To help you understand, we’ll look at how you can enhance your customer experience with creative shopfitting services.
Table of Contents
Understanding Shopfitting
Shopfitting isn’t a complex concept. Put simply, it’s the process of equipping a retail space (anything from a local builder’s merchant to a department store) with everything it needs to operate and function.
This includes elements such as:
- Shelving and storage, where products are kept and displayed,
- Display units, which showcase your products in a way that entices the shopper, for example, counters, mannequins and freestanding shelving units (gondolas),
- Signage used to identify your shop, display promotional material, and provide information to your customer base,
- Lighting- used to illuminate the physical space as well as spotlight certain products and create an ambience,
- Checkouts- where customers pay for their purchases.
Implementing shopfitting features involves a mixture of buying off-the-shelf standard items as well as bespoke items, such as shelving units constructed using metal fabrication or joinery techniques. Items relevant to the retail theme can also be repurposed as an alternative to buying off the shelf or making custom features- for example, a step ladder could be used to display paints or hardware items.
Ensuring these elements are optimised will make a big difference to the overall customer experience- and, therefore, your sales.

The Role of Creative Shopfitting in Retail
While the approaches and design styles have changed over the years, creating a retail environment that entices potential customers as well as effectively displays products has always been crucial. For you to make the most sales, your customers need to be attracted to your store and be able to easily see everything available- this is the general premise of shopfitting.
Creative Shopfitting takes this normal shopfitting to another level of imagination and design. It focuses on creating an experience that is immersive and unique and reflects your brand identity. This can be achieved through innovative materials, the use of interactive elements, or a themed design which takes customers on a retail “journey”.

Benefits of Creative Shopfitting
There are many benefits to going down the route of creative shopfitting.
If you’re part of a saturated market, you’ll need a way to stand out from the crowd with your beautiful spaces. You can achieve this more easily with custom-made fixtures, unusual layouts and technological integration, such as digital displays, which will all make for a more memorable customer experience.
Design and essentially having a good time aren’t the only important factors to consider. It’s just as important that your customers are able to move around the shop, following a logical flow through product areas. Creative shopfitting can optimise the way that customers navigate through your store and experience your products. This can be achieved through cleverly placed displays that appeal to the customers’ subconscious, guiding them as you require- or using strategic lighting to highlight certain products or ranges.

Challenges of implementing Creative Shopfitting
Creative shopfitting isn’t necessarily all plain sailing, despite its merits. Here are a few things to consider.
Budget
The first problem many retailers will face is achieving the balance between creativity and budget; the eye-catching designs frequently use custom or unusual elements, which can be far more expensive than standard shopfitting components.
Feasibility
Your creative designer may come up with an earth-shattering proposal, the likes of which no shopper has ever seen before- however, building it in the first place, or finding someone to do it for you, can be a challenge- particularly while navigating and adhering to strict health and safety regulations.
Logistics
Naturally, custom-made shop displays and elements will need to be fabricated, which can impact your overall project timeline. This needs to be factored into any project schedule relating to the shop fitting.
Maintenance
Creative designs need to be functional yet attractive to the eye, as well as low-maintenance and safe. This is another difficult balance to strike- for example, a pretty natural moss product display could add an organic touch to a health product display- however, if it requires watering and the area cleaning every day, it would be less practical.
Adaptability
We all know how retail trends can evolve- quickly. A bog standard, off-the-shelf…shelf will no doubt be so devoid of design flair that it can be utilised in a range of settings- meanwhile, your bespoke signage and display units will likely appeal to a narrower range of niches. It’s important, surfboards, therefore, to incorporate, or consider at least, a degree of flexibility into your design in order to avoid an expensive overhaul in time.
Devising a design for your store takes a good bit of creativity and imagination. Examples could be…
- A beachwear store, using surfboards to display goods, or old campervans as changing rooms,
- A tech or IT shop that uses sleek and futuristic minimalist features, with interactive touchscreens to showcase products,
- A bookshop with cosy reading nooks, comfy chairs, or even a fake (or real!) fireplace.
The possibilities are truly endless, particularly when you’re working with someone who can help you visualise a design and make it a physical reality.

Achieve Creative Shopfitting
As you can now understand, creative shopfitting can be a great way to make a customer experience that is fun, engaging, and memorable- while also ensuring that customers are able to see and find the products they want, and some they didn’t know they want- resulting in a more profitable retail business.
This being said, coming up with an initial design, fabricating the shopfitting elements, and procuring the standard items can be a headache- both from a creative point of view, as well as due to it being yet another time-stealer which takes you away from concentrating on other parts of your business.
If that sounds familiar, or if you need a hand with any part of the creative shopfitting journey, Ashford Retail Services is here to help. As turnkey retail shopfitting specialists, we are able to work closely with you and your team to take your project from just an idea to implementation using our dedicated team.
Just get in touch, and we’ll help make an immersive experience that your customers will love.