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Writer's pictureOliver Morse

Good Design Matters For Customer Experience

Updated: Jun 26


GDM has been designing and manufacturing retail systems for over 40 years.

We use the full potential of our retail, design, and manufacturing knowledge to play our part in the customer experience journey.


At GDM we use the phrase “Our product sells your product”. With this in mind we put emphasis on design and functionality of our fixtures.


71% of retailers said the design component of the retail industry is becoming more important.

 

The most common problem we are required to solve is how can we achieve maximum versatility at a reasonable cost to the customer?


We already have many off the shelf solutions that are readily available to help with this.


Our fixtures break down into 3 main categories:


Wall Systems – Wall Systems or wall bays, provide a low-profile fixture that hugs the wall of the retail space. They can be customized to fit virtually any product. They are compatible with a wide range of attachments and give you flexibility to customize and update your displays. Because of their height they are a perfect platform to mount any advertising.


Custom wall display for apparel store made from metal pipe, frame and joinery shelving.

Footwear wall display system with adjustable height shelves


Gondolas – These versatile furniture pieces are designed to fit together in a modular fashion. They can be as long or short as the space demands. Gondolas provide a dynamic display space for merchandising and encouraging products to be purchased in unison. Generally, gondolas will sit front and centre of the space providing maximum visibility of merchandise while remaining low enough to not obstruct sight lines to the back of the store.



Apparel gondola with hangrails, shelves and signage Liquor store gondola shelving and end bay


POS (Point of sale) Stands – These specialised and portable fixtures are designed to highlight merchandise and encourage impulse purchasing.


Once we understand how you want these pieces as the building blocks of the retail space, the focus can then turn to the brand identity, how we make the most of every square meter of the space and what is going to be the best customer experience.


Customer Experience drives 66% of customer loyalty making it more influential than price and name alone.

 

As well as off-the-shelf solutions, we also have an in-house design team that design bespoke solutions. Either we collaborate with external designers who we work with in sympathy to their vision, or we work directly with the client to develop retail system solutions.


Customer experience is at the heart of our designs. Often, we will embrace a sculptural approach. Aiming to make the fixture inviting and encourage interaction. Obviously, we want this to all happen behind the scenes as the fixture must never overpower the product. A great example of this is that recently we developed a Banana display for a supermarket. The store owner reported back to us that the sales of bananas increased by 300%!!. We attribute this dramatic increase in sale to the interesting way we hung the product, essentially recreating the tree from which the product first came from. By displaying product in unusual or interesting ways the customer is attracted to the stand.


We are inspired by the latest trends both here and overseas and they help to inform our designs, with this in mind we always ask ourselves how we can design something that will outlast the ever changing trends. This ethos also extends to the upkeep of the fixtures, utilising components that can easily be replaced should the unexpected happen and they become damaged in any way.


We work closely with our clients considering all aspects of the space and the user experience including design for accessibility.


Our team of designers work collaboratively to create fixtures that are functional, pleasing to the eye, and robust enough to withstand the high-volume usage that retail demands so they’ll always look their best.


Once a design has been approved through presentations, the product moves to engineering where it goes through robust testing, analysis, and prototyping before it is ready to go to production for final output.


Even in the face of the growing online industry, research tells us that most consumers still prefer the brick-and-mortar shopping experience. However, the way this experience is being presented is changing rapidly, most immediately we have seen it in our supermarkets with the increased usage of self-checkout kiosks. Some regions overseas are using on demand grocery delivery systems that will pick and deliver your groceries to you while you wait in store or implementing technology into the customer experience using data analytics that can provide a targeted experience to the customer.


However, even in the face of these technological advances the trend in store is moving towards a more domestic look and away from the industrial, providing the customer a more familiar environment to enjoy their time in and promoting a more natural, sustainable, and eco-friendly atmosphere.


We are aware of these rapid changes happening in the retail environment and have equipped ourselves to be in the best possible position to bridge the gap between the physical and the digital customer experience. We have already participated in numerous projects involving screen technology, self-service, light technology, click and collect and eco-friendly solutions.


 


We at GDM are here to help you create an environment:

·       Where your customers will be comfortable

·       Where your customers will be valued, and

·       Where your customers have an enviable experience.

 

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