How can you make room in your shop to expand your product range?

Our planet has finite dimensions and resources, as climate science reminds us every day. Your shop also has physical limitations: its floor area and ceiling height!

How can you optimise the space in your shop so that you can offer new products on a regular basis?

The aim of the game: optimising the space in your shop while maintaining a sense of order and harmony.

You need to maximise the space in which your products are displayed, without customers feeling like they’re unable to breathe. Unless, of course, you want to create an Alibaba vibe in your shop!

In this article, we share practical tips on saving space in your shop so that you don’t need to change premises immediately :)

Create a specific space for new products

If you want to exercise regularly, you need to block out time in your schedule each week to do it.

The same goes for displaying new products in your shop: you should create a specific space for these products.

Be firm about this: from now on, this space will only be used for new products and nothing else!

As well as ensuring that you always have space available, this gives you an incentive to find new things to offer on a regular basis.

We recommend browsing Kami Store’s new products.

Be ruthless with low-selling products

To save space, review your product range on a monthly or quarterly basis.

Do you stock a product which rarely sells? It’s time to reclaim the valuable space it takes up in your shop and put a more successful product in its place.

If you’re not sure of the exact number of sales of your products:

• check with your accountant (who will be able to give you the information via your monthly ledger),
• use your cash register software, which usually contains the information in a statistical sales analysis section
• or check your latest orders with your suppliers and wholesalers.

Remember: Kami Store can help you to find popular items quickly with our selection of best-selling products.

Make use of unused walls and play with height

Your shop is a 3-dimensional space. Most people focus on two dimensions and always want to use more floor space.

But you can also make use of the height of your shop, with product displays up to the ceiling!

This very comprehensive article features a list of ten simple and cheap solutions to display your products vertically. (article in French)

These solutions include:

• perforated panels,
• hanging shelves,
• wooden crates,
• picture rails,
• ladders.

As you can see, there’s plenty of choice when it comes to displaying your products at different heights.

Make use of outdoor space

When the weather’s nice or if your shop is based somewhere sunny, take advantage of your shop’s outdoor space.

You can display attractive items in this way. Passers-by will stop to take a look at your products and you’ll have made space in your shop to add new products.

Please note: the use of public space (such as the pavement, for example) requires authorisation from your local authorities. Make sure that you apply sufficiently in advance to get approval in time.

Just tidy up!

In many of the small shops we’re lucky enough to visit, we often notice opportunities to make space on the shelves.

Some products are displayed so that they’re separated from neighbouring products, leaving an empty space. This has the advantage of highlighting the product but has the disadvantage of taking up space.

Our advice: only use this kind of display for products which have “proven themselves” in terms of sales or as a test for a limited time.

You can also decide to make use of the depth of your storage space by putting products on top of each other. This way, rather than having several rows of the same product, you only have one row, thus saving space.

Lastly, when you organise your facing, remember to move the rows of products closer together on your shelves.

However, there should be enough space between the rows so that your customers can easily access the products. In general, a gap of 1 to 2 centimetres may be sufficient, depending on the type of product.

For heavier or bulky products, allow several centimetres of space and check that the product can be removed easily from the display area.

Store your goods in hard-to-reach areas

Your customers enjoy a better view of the products which are within their field of vision.

Avoid displaying high-value products too low down or too high up. It’s annoying for the customer if he or she has to kneel down to look at your new products!

Take advantage of these hard-to-reach areas:

• to display less important products from your range,
• to store your goods, hiding the stock with small custom-made curtains.

Store everyday equipment behind the counter

Do you give customers the option to have their products wrapped if they want to give them as presents?

You also need to be able to access more everyday equipment: scissors, paper for receipts, notepads, pens, computers, a coin counter, etc.

Save display space on your counter by making sure that you store all this equipment (which is irrelevant to your customers) in the drawers and storage units of your shop’s counter.

Use the space on the counter, which is visible to your customers, to display appealing products!

As we’ve seen, it’s possible to find additional space in your shop! All you have to do is apply the tips in this article and prioritise the products you want to display.

Blog post written by Mathieu Maréchal.