Good Design is Innovative

Start considering how the exterior of your storefront can be used to attract customers driving, cycling or walking by. Since you have 5 seconds to grab a potential customer’s attention if they are driving, big, simple, powerful ideas are best for attracting attention. Large perforated graphics over your windows, illuminated by your night-lights, work well. Big transparency boxes (6′ x 10′) on the side of your building also communicate. An artistic mural painted on the side of your building is effective during the day and communicates your store’s interest in art related themes and local culture.

Good Design is Useful

Plan your store so that it is easy for your staff to work with customers. Include workstations on the floor in order for staff members to make calls, write notes and maintain their own client list. Ensure that there is a custom design station somewhere in the store, preferably close to the diamond area. Include a plasma screen to showcase custom designs created for your customers and/or the creation of a sketch. Free Wi-Fi is a huge convenience for your customers and their shopping partners.  A small repair counter for battery changing & watchstrap adjustments on the floor with some staff privacy is popular with customers.

Good Design is Aesthetic

Walk into your store one morning & view it as a customer. If it is tired looking, consider repainting. Clean off all the surfaces in customer view, filing or tossing stacks of papers. Clean the carpet either professionally or rent a steam cleaner. Throw out all torn and discoloured display trim. Replace transparency images if they are more than 3 months old. Replace all blown light bulbs or better yet, replace with LED lamps where possible. Result – little money spent, some effort expended, a fresh, organized store.

Good Design Makes a Store Understandable

Communicate what services are available in the window & when customers enter the store. How about a watchmaker or jeweler in the window? One caveat – the area & the artisan must be immaculate. Make your service department easy to find.  Windows into the jewelers’ work area close to the repair counter or behind it convey a powerful message. Being able to see the jeweler, the steamer & ultra sonic eliminates customers’ fears of loss, exchange or lack of trust. Look books & changing images on a plasma screen communicate custom design available here.

Good Design is Unobtrusive, Subtle & Discreet

Lighting should highlight the merchandise. 4 types of lighting accomplish different jobs. Task lights illuminate inside the cases. Ambient indirect lighting gives a soft glow to the space. Accent lighting from above lights the merchandise. Decorative lighting is pretty and adds to the atmosphere of the store. Quiet is almost as important as light, especially in a busy store. Nothing softens sound like lay-in ceiling tile. Combining tile with drywall sections creates a handsome look. Drapery softens & absorbs sound and is too often overlooked as an option in store design. Specially designed sound absorbent panels can be used to cover complete walls or be designed as a decorative element.  All new walls within a store should be constructed with sound absorbent insulation.

Good Design is Environmentally Friendly

What can you do that is not necessarily expensive? Reuse existing showcases, either your own or purchased from another jeweler. They should be retrofitted with LED light rails, new top glass & possibly raised to the new popular height. Use materials and decorative elements that have a high-recycled content. Use paint with low VOC (volatile organic compounds) count. Visit your local thrift shops for chairs that can be restored and reupholstered and decorative items that can be refreshed as store props.

Good design is Simple

More is not better. Keep some merchandise in the vault or in under stock drawers that can be easily pulled out to make your customer special. Highlight your brands.  Customers trust them & seek them out.

Good Design is Thorough to the Last Detail

Your store is beautiful. Does your packaging reflect this? Small beautiful things make a customer feel special. They are memorable. Tags added to gift bags personalize your message.

A multiplicity of small things can improve your business. Try something.