We decided to create this website section after realising that
many
of our customers were choosing to fit out their own shops themselves,
rather than bringing in shop fitting companies. Which makes sense to us
in these tougher times! The aim of this section is to provide help and
advice to anyone out there who is planning to fit-out their own retail
business.
We'll be adding extra info like the factsheets in the right
hand
column so please check back from time to time. We also have a thread
running on UK Business Forums, which enables you to ask us for advice
on any areas where you need specific help.
We were recently asked this question by Shaun who is in the
process of opening a computer repair shop.
Question:
'I will be opening a computer shop, carrying out repairs and
selling
products such as mice, keyboards, screens, computers, inks etc. -
anything to do with computers really. The shop is in a residential
area, out of town so it isn' t a high street shop. I have looked around
quite a lot but I haven't been able to find anywhere for advice on
fitting a shop out yourself. Do you know of anywhere for me to have a
look, or have any friendly advice?'
Display Centre Answer:
Without a plan of the shop I cannot be too specific but the first piece of advice would be to maximise use of the walls, as a lot of the products that you are likely to sell will be light and easily hung. One of the most cost effective ways of achieving wall hanging displays, assuming that the walls are solid and not just partitions, is to use slatboard (sometimes called slatwall, slatted boards, slat board or similar!). Click Here for our factsheet on slatboard.
If your shop walls will take the weight, then you could also use shelving which screws to the wall and one of the most popular brands is Element32 which is manufactured in Germany. Click Here for our factsheet on this.
If the walls will not take weight then you will need some freestanding units, from which to hang your products. Given that you will want to hang products rather than just place them on shelves, it would be worth considering a modular shelving system. Click Here for our factsheet on these types of systems.
Depending upon the size of your shop, you may also want to have displays in the middle of the space. You can achieve this either with more modular shelving units or display units which are made out of wood to match the slatboard, or alternatively the most cost effective solution would be freestanding chrome grids.