A Beginners Guide to Strategic Retail Store Signage
When your retail business has good signage, you can easily convert window shoppers into loyal customers.
More than just something you hang up to fill an empty space, retail store signage is a strategic advertising tool that attracts passersby from the street, helps promote special offers and deals, and guides customers around the store once they enter. With careful planning and intelligent, creative design, business signs in Barrie can give your store a more polished look and feel, make it easier for people to shop in, and easier for them to remember and tell others about.
But what should good retail store signage include?
Effective store signage in the retail industry should cover every interactable customer touchpoint, both before they come inside, and while they’re shopping, and should ideally include:
- Signs at the entrance to the store – these establish your brand identity
- Window graphics – these convert ordinary panes of glass into effective marketing tools
- Promotional banners – ideal for announcing sales and grand openings
- Floor graphics – point-of-purchase messaging and creative wayfinding
- Department or product signs – these help to organize the shoppers experience
- Accessibility signage – helps to ensure inclusivity and compliance
Why is strategic signage crucial for your bottom line?
The role of retail signage is both practical and visual, having a direct impact on the following:
- Visibility – helps stores stand out in areas of high-traffic
- Brand consistency – gets rid of any imbalances between your presence online and your bricks and mortar store
- Customer navigation – encourages customers to browse for longer in an ordered and calm environment
Let’s take a closer look at the 5 main types of store signage:
- Storefront signs
These are your first point of contact for potential customers, and your first opportunity to communicate with them. Identifying your business and creating a physical presence, storefront signs help shoppers spot you before they’ve even got to the entrance.
- Custom window graphics
Highly versatile marketing tools, window graphics essentially turn store windows into huge billboards, 24/7, and can be used to promote sales, deals, business hours, and contact information. They can also shield the shoppers inside, affording them more privacy.
- Promotional banners and posters
Keeping your store active and updated, promotional banners and posters are perfect for announcing grand openings, events or short-term campaigns. They’re quick and easy to design and put up, and just as quick and easy to remove when needed.
- Floor graphics
Highlighting particular sections of the store and guiding foot traffic from section to section, high-impact floor graphics can be highly effective while not taking up any valuable space on walls or counters. They’re especially useful for directing customers to promotional features and for managing queues.
- Accessibility signage and ADA
Playing a very important role in the overall experience of every shopper, accessibility and ADA compliance shop signs in Barrie aren’t just recommended, but required by law. Entrances, permanent rooms and parking all have specific rules set out by the ADA Standards that must be followed, and in planning these well in advance of opening your store, you can make everyone feel welcome while complying with all legal guidelines.
Good retail store signage should be easy to read, with clear messaging that is both aesthetically appealing and informative. Get it right, and you could increase footfall to your store tenfold, get it wrong, and you may never enjoy the same success as your competitors. The best way to ensure that you get it right? Work with an experienced signage company.
