SERVICE 03
Shelf and store layout consulting
If a customer cannot find what they came for, the product may as well not be on the shelf. Layout work is what lets a store explain itself: what sits where, what stands next to what, and what earns eye level.
Why does layout matter this much?
A large share of home improvement customers come in to finish a specific job: change a tap, paint a wall, mount a shelf. If the items that job needs are scattered across the store, the customer either leaves with part of the basket or completes it elsewhere. Either way the sale is lost.
Layout is where the assortment becomes visible. Even the right products fail to sell when they are in the wrong place. The reverse holds too: a good layout raises basket size measurably with the same assortment.
This is not window dressing. It is building a practical order around the route customers take, how long they spend in each department, and which products they actually buy together.
If any of these sound familiar, this page is for you:
- Customers frequently have to ask where something is
- Products used together sit at opposite ends of the store
- Eye-level shelves hold the bulkiest items rather than the best sellers
- There is a corner of the store customers barely enter
- Average basket size is below what the range would suggest
What we do
Layout work starts with the whole store, moves down to departments, then to individual shelves.
Customer flow plan
We map the natural route from entrance to checkout and plan how to guide it so it covers the whole store. Dead corners and needless backtracking surface at this stage.
Department placement
We set where each department sits, and where bulky goods, frequently bought essentials and discovery-driven products belong. The transitions between departments have to make sense too.
Product grouping
Products are grouped by the job the customer is trying to finish, not by supplier or pack size. When the parts of one job sit together, both findability and basket size go up.
Complementary placement
We identify what gets bought together and position those items so each reminds the customer of the other. Paint with rollers, screws with plugs, basins with traps — drawn from sales data, not guesswork.
Shelf-level layout
For each shelf we set what sits at eye level and what goes above and below, and how many facings each product gets. The decision follows turn rate and margin contribution.
Signage and wayfinding
We review department signage, aisle markers and shelf labels for legibility. The target is a customer who can find their way without asking a member of staff.
How we work
Layout changes are made department by department without closing the store — so sales continue and each step can be measured separately.
On-site observation
We walk the store at both busy and quiet hours, watch how customers move, and note the questions staff are asked most often.
Matching against data
Observations are read alongside sales data: what is bought together, which department underperforms relative to the space it holds.
Layout plan
We prepare the store-wide flow plan, department placement and shelf-level drawings for the priority sections.
Phased rollout
Changes go in department by department, with the affected section's sales tracked after each step. What does not deliver is reversed or corrected.
What you receive
Drawn plans your team can act on:
- A store-wide customer flow plan
- A department placement diagram with the reasoning behind it
- A product grouping list organised around customer jobs
- Complementary product pairings drawn from sales data
- Shelf-level display drawings for priority departments
- A signage and label renewal list
- The rollout order and what to measure at each step
Common questions
Do we have to close the store?
No. Changes are made department by department while the store trades, usually after closing or during quiet hours. Changing everything at once is both risky and impossible to measure.
Will we need to replace our shelving?
Usually not. Most of the work is done with the fixtures you have. Where physical investment genuinely helps, we present it separately with its cost and expected effect, and you decide.
How is the effect measured?
We compare the changed department's revenue, items per basket and the rate at which complementary products sell together, before and after. That is the main reason for going department by department.