When you think about your store’s most valuable assets, the checkout counter might not be the first thing that pops into your mind. Sure, it’s important for completing transactions and creating connections with customers, but what other functions does it serve?
As a matter of fact, your checkout counter is so much more than a place for you and your employees to make sales and small talk; it’s one of your most powerful marketing tools, and when used properly, it can significantly boost your profits.
A well-designed checkout counter will:
-Maximize floor space, ensuring that you are using every available inch of your store strategically
-Focus customer attention where you want it, directing shoppers toward key merchandise
-Optimize product display around the checkout area, increasing impulse buys
-Enhance the checkout process, ensuring everything works effortlessly for both employees and customers
In this blog, we’ll dive deeper into how your checkout counter works within the overall layout of your store to increase sales, what makes an ideal checkout, and how DisplayMax can help you design and build the optimal checkout counter for your space.
We’ll start by talking about store layout.
A Quick Lesson in Layout
Have you ever gone into a store for one or two items, only to come out with more than you meant to buy? Odds are, the layout of both the store and the checkout counter was responsible for your unintended purchases.
You see, a good store layout, and, by extension, a good checkout counter layout, enhances marketing opportunities. When you optimize the setup of your retail space, you guarantee that your customers see what you want them to see and do what you want them to do.
Strategic placement of shelving and merchandise ensures that shoppers move through your store in a specific and controlled way, past persuasive signs and tempting products. In addition, by leveraging layout to highlight high-margin items and maximize merchandizing around your checkout counter, you make it easy for shoppers to make last-minute additions to their baskets as they walk through the aisles or wait in line to checkout.
This increases the likelihood that people will arrive at the checkout counter with more items to purchase, translating into greater gains for you.
Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. A bad store layout and poorly designed checkout can lower your profit margin by making it difficult for customers to find what they’re looking for, preventing them from easily accessing more lucrative merchandise, and giving them a poor overall shopping experience. If people don’t like your shop, they won’t come back, further damaging your profits.
So how is your store measuring up? Is your current layout hurting or boosting your sales?
If you’re unsure how to answer that question, have concerns about your store or checkout counter design, or feel that you could be using layout more strategically, reach out to us today, and we’ll be happy to provide our expert assessment.
What Do Your Customers Want from Their Checkout Experience?
Looks Really Are Everything
A well-planned store is not only practical on the marketing front, but it is also pleasing to the eye. This is important, because research shows that most customers judge a store on looks alone within the first few minutes of walking in the front door.
What does that have to do with sales?
It’s simple: a nice-looking store will quickly turn a one-time customer into a repeat customer.
Checkout counters tend to take quite a beating. As the central hub of your shop, they are subject to heavy use by both employees and customers. Consequently, they can quickly become shabby and unsightly, particularly if they are made of cheap, low-quality materials.
At DisplayMax, we understand this problem, and we’ve put a lot of thought into how we design our checkout counters. Our counters are made of high-quality, durable materials that effectively hide dirt and scratches, hold up to daily wear and tear, and maintain their good looks for years.
To complement your store’s aesthetics, we offer a full range of laminate panel, shelving, and countertop colors. Keep it neutral with Fashion Grey or Battleship. Embrace a more natural look with Beigewood, Veranda Teak, or Mangalore Mango. And for an extra pop of color, choose Navy Legacy for your counter top.
Whether you’re going for a sleek, professional look or wanting a design that is quirky and fun, we can help ensure that your checkout counter is on-brand. Simply tell us your branding theme, and we’ll find the right colors to match.
Browse a small sampling of our most popular panel, shelving, and counter top colors here.
Embrace Efficiency
Good checkout counter aesthetics are critical to maximizing your profits, but functionality is also important. People aren’t as patient as they used to be, and in our fast-paced culture, it’s crucial for the checkout experience to be as quick and seamless as possible.
Is your checkout counter large enough for your staff and customer base? Do your employees have adequate storage space at the counter? Can they easily access necessary supplies? Is your checkout equipment up to date and organized effectively?
Our services don’t end with counter design or installation. As checkout counter experts, we can help you identify the issues with your current counter and find effective solutions that will enhance your checkout process. In addition to optimizing your counter layout, we can streamline your checkout with equipment like bagging racks, scales, and barcode scanners.
Don’t wait: reach out today to maximize your checkout’s efficiency!
Flexibility and Functionality
Throughout this blog, we’ve highlighted several features that set DisplayMax apart from our competitors. We’re authorities on optimizing store layout and checkout counter design, and we’ve intentionally crafted our counters to look great and last a long time. But there’s one more point we’d like to mention.
Because DisplayMax checkout counters are modular, you can select the pieces that best meet your needs. To increase impulse buys, choose our Candy Front or Lottery Counter. These units prominently display high-margin products around the checkout, maximizing last-minute marketing opportunities as customers wait in line.
Our Glass Top Display Case and Solid Top Display Case come with shelving and LED lights, features that allow you to showcase valuable merchandise like liquor, tools, or vape products, while ensuring that it all stays secure.
Use our Slat Wall Corner unit to optimize the use of corners, guaranteeing effective use of every inch of your display and counter space. Encourage productive face-to-face interactions and ensure appropriate employee ergonomics with our Flat-Faced High Top. And lastly, make certain that your store is accessible to all shoppers with our ADA-compliant Counter.
All of our counter units are available in standard sizes as well as custom sizes, ensuring that you end up with a checkout that is ideal for your retail space.
In addition to varied design options, we also offer several different checkout counter configurations. Based on the size of your sales space and staff, you can select a straight, L-shape, or U-shape configuration. And because our counters are sold as modular units, you have flexibility for potential rebranding and expansions in the future, allowing you to easily rearrange your counter as your store grows and changes.
What are your unique sales and merchandising needs?
Our knowledgeable team can help you create a checkout counter tailormade to meet those needs.
The Perfect Checkout Counter
A strategically-planned checkout counter is one of the best marketing tools in your store. When you get your checkout right, your employees will work efficiently, your customers will stay happy, and your profits will jump up.
Are you ready for a better checkout counter?
The DisplayMax counter experts are standing by to help you design a checkout that looks fantastic, stands the test of time, and boosts the value of your retail space. Get in touch with us today, and let’s get to work!
