Shop design in Batumi: the customer's route and the shop window

Shop design starts with the goods

For shop design in Batumi we first look at the product range and how people buy it. Clothes are touched and tried on, groceries are picked up quickly from a list, and jewellery is examined with a sales assistant at the display case. This decides how much stock sits on the sales floor and how much in the stockroom, whether fitting rooms are needed and where the assistant stands.

Then we calculate the display: how many metres of shelves and racks the range and the seasonal collection will take, and how much stock to keep on the floor. If the equipment supplier or head office has sent their own plan, we check how it fits into the real premises with their columns and risers. The general procedure for working with a shopping centre and the timing for the opening are described on the page about commercial interior design.

The customer's route, the till and the stockroom

For the first few steps after the door, people adjust to the light and don't look at the shelves yet, so we leave the area right by the entrance more open. Further in, at eye level, we put new arrivals and the seasonal offer, and move the goods that people come in for specifically towards the back. On the way there the customer walks past everything else.

The till stands closer to the exit, but its queue must not block the entrance or run into a shelving unit. The counter needs room for the card terminal, the receipt printer and bags. From behind the till the assistant can see the whole sales floor, including the fitting rooms and the far corner.

We draw the aisles wide enough for two people with bags to pass each other, and in a grocery shop a trolley and a pushchair as well. We keep the route for goods from unloading to the stockroom separate from the sales floor if the premises allow it: boxes carried through the shop during opening hours get in everyone's way.

A shop window that can be seen from the pavement

A passer-by notices a shop window on the move, a few steps away, so the first thing we choose is its type. An open window shows the whole shop and suits a small sales floor with a neat display. A closed window, with a backdrop, becomes a stage for one composition and hides the till and the stock shelving from the street.

We draw the window depth, platforms and hanging points so that the display can be changed without a stepladder next to fragile glass and without drilling new holes: a lighting track in the window ceiling, sockets in the platform, hooks for hanging. The window lighting is brighter than the sales floor, otherwise in daytime the glass reflects the street and the goods can't be seen.

How to build a warm shop window without condensation and which profile to choose is covered on the page about shop renovation. In the design project we show the window in 3D together with the frontage and the sign, and the same sheet goes for approval by the shopping centre or residential complex.

Lighting suited to the range

We draw the lighting from the display plan, once the racks and shelves are already on the drawing. Goods on the wall are lit from above and slightly in front, so that the upper shelves don't cast shadows on the lower ones, and the main display gets fittings brighter than the general background: the eye goes where it is lighter. In a grocery shop we choose the colour temperature by department: warm light suits the bakery, neutral light suits vegetables and fish.

We check glare separately. A fitting seen from the aisle at a sharp angle dazzles the customer, and over glossy packaging it leaves a bright spot instead of the label, so we specify the tilt of each group on the drawing. A detailed illuminance calculation and evening scenes can be ordered separately as a lighting design project.

Retail furniture, style and sound on the sales floor

Shelving and tables come either ready-made from a supplier or made to measure from our drawings. Ready-made equipment is quicker and cheaper, but in premises with columns and recesses it leaves empty corners. Made-to-measure furniture fills them and carries the brand style; for it we issue separate sheets with dimensions, materials and fixing to the wall or floor.

We keep the brand colours to a few elements: the till counter, the window backdrop, the background behind the main display. The rest of the sales floor stays neutral, so that the goods are brighter than the walls.

A sales floor of porcelain tiles, glass and bare concrete bounces music and voices around, and by evening this tires both the assistant and the customer. An acoustic ceiling over the till, textiles in the fitting rooms and soft pouffes by the mirrors noticeably reduce the echo. In a showroom a conversation with a customer lasts longer, and quiet matters more there. How a showroom is also prepared for changing displays is described on the page about showroom renovation.

How much shop design costs in Batumi

A design project for a shop or showroom costs from 93 to 130 ₾ per m². The price covers the sales floor and the customer route, the shop window, lighting, 3D and working drawings. This is the designer's work: retail equipment, the sign and the renovation are priced separately, and a shop renovation with materials costs from 780 ₾ per m².

If you first need to show the idea to the landlord or partners, an interior concept ahead of the full project costs from 1,680 ₾. An extra 3D view costs from 210 ₾, and lighting design with calculations and selection of light fittings from 20 ₾ per m². Of the renovation lines, the ones that depend most on the design are an aluminium and glass shopfront or entrance, from 780 ₾ per m², and lighting track installation, from 27 ₾ per linear metre.

Made-to-measure retail furniture, a closed window with platforms and a shopping centre's requirements for the drawing package push the project price up. We give a preliminary price from the floor plan and photos of the frontage, and the final cost is set after the measured survey, once the project scope is agreed.