Designing or redesigning your store is one of the most exciting and satisfying moment of your company's journey. It's a decisive step through which you redefine your brand and reaffirm your position in the market. It is also a large investment of time, money and resources that's pushes retailers to plan carefully and strategically.
In The Full Guide to Retail Interior Design - Part 1 we defined the Interior Design field and its counterpart in Retail, helping retailers to get their head around this ever-evolving and growing industry. We described the different professionals working in the industry, their different levels of specialization and indicated what professional was best to hire based on your project requirements. In this Part 2 of the guide, we will help you understand why hiring a Retail Interior Design company, among all the interior design options, is the most reliable and complete solution. We will also explain when you should get your design partner's team involved in your project's timeline to optimize the development of your project.
Why hiring a Retail Interior Designer ?
There are tons of different options to achieve your store's design. You might want to handle the design yourself, hire freelancers to support specific tasks of the design, hire an Interior Design company, or even mix and match different options. Whilst some retailers might be inclined to select their design partners based on budget and time, you want to make sure that you are not cutting corners. Seeking to maximize the project's efficiency in its development and execution is a priority to avoid ending up spending more money and delay the project.
( Read more - Why is it worth investing in Retail Interior Design ?)
Whilst each option has its pros and cons, here is why hiring a Retail Interior Design company is the most complete and reliable option. It will ensure that your project is effectively executed and ensure that the design will give you the edge over your competitors. You want it to contribute to your brand's sustainable competitive advantage, capitalize on it and expect high Returns on Investment.
Interior Designers are KPIs Oriented
Interior Designers know what KPIs matters for retailers and how to leverage design to maximize returns on investment. From increasing sales per square foot, retail conversion rate, gross and net profit, to driving new sources of revenue, Interior designers, especially if they have a background in Interior Architecture, know how to merge functionality and creativity to build strategic designs that will positively impact your business metrics.
Minimize Errors
An Interior Designer is an experienced, organised and meticulous professional that breaks down design projects into stages and sequence of procedures from the preliminary concept design up to the built. The objective is to work step by step to filter challenges associated to each stage one by one, and funnel it down to tackle every possible error or risk.
Technical & Software Skills
Design softwares are a communication tool. They allow designers to test ideas, observe all the design options, details and layouts, whether they are reflected in 2D or 3D. There are tons of user-friendly designing apps and softwares on the market, allowing anyone to cross the foot door of the designing world by testing some basic ideas, colors, and layouts. However, those are not to be confused with professional designing softwares such as Cinema 4D, Vectorworks, Sketch up and AutoCAD which takes years of experience and technical skills to master.
It’s is important to understand that even if basic designing apps and softwares have made it easy for non-professional designers to experiment and test ideas, they can’t compare, on any level, to the detailed drawings produced through professionals designing softwares.
Time Efficiency
Designing or redesigning a retail space is a full time job. When hiring an Interior Design company you will have a dedicated team working full time on your project. They can make projects happen up to 4 times faster thanks to their experience in breaking projects down into stages and sequences, allowing you to freely focus on the other aspects of the business.
Translate & Test Ideas
Testing ideas quickly and effectively is crucial during a project. It’s a time and money saver for retailers. From aesthetic to functionality, the design goes through sets of trial and error to find the best option to translate the brand’s essence. Interior Designers, thanks to their experience, technical and software skills, will optimize trial and error stages, finding the best balance and combinations between creative and strategic design.
(Read more - Retail Strategy 2021)
Some retailers will try to take shortcuts such as designing the store themselves or hire a contractor to design the store instead of hiring an Interior Design company. They will inspire themselves from other stores, Pinterest, Instagram or other means and many times be disappointed by the outcome. The reason ? Interior Design is an Art and it takes years of experience and "trial and errors" to blend colors, textures, patterns, and materials. Beyond aesthetics, it takes a strong technical background to understand their application and interconnection.
Network of Professionals in Connected Disciplines
By working on multiple projects, Interior Designers develop an incredibly diversified network of contacts. They are connected to Contractors, Suppliers of all kinds, Architects, Artists, Consultants of all sort, Engineers … they know the design world and all its interconnected disciplines better than anyone so they know who to get involved and when, to equip the project the best way possible. Also, they can strike better deals on their customers behalf since they have established relationships.
Wide Spectrum of Material & Applications
Whether it’s sourcing a concrete material that can absorb CO2 and clean the air for a city building, or sourcing fog nets panels to turn humidity into water for a project in a desert, Designers know all sort of quirky and unthinkable design solutions. Each project comes with a set of new and unique challenges pushing Designers to have internal specialized teams sourcing materials across the world, learning their applications, providing them with an incomparable awareness of materials.
Inimitable Know-How & Boundless Creativity
Not all Interior Designers are Artists, but they are creative individuals equipped with the ability to realize most creative projects. When choosing your Design partner it is important to understand where their source of inspiration comes from. Do they travel? How do they expand their knowledge? If their inspiration comes from Google and Pinterest researches, your design might be beautiful but it likely won’t be unique and generate a competitive advantage. At Zadeika & Adam for example, we are passionate motorbikers and in-between projects we take on new adventures to explore the globe and share the story and inspiration behind the uniqueness of our customers’ designs.
When to hire an Interior Designer?
Every project is different and unique, and based on this, there is no rule to establish when, exactly, you should hire an Interior Designer. However, for this same reason you want to consult them as early as possible so you can define, together, when it’s best for them to get started.
" You want to consult your Interior Design partner as early as possible so you can define timelines together."
Some retailers might need to consult designers early to get help on defining the project’s brief. Others might require a Design company with Retail Consultancy services to help define the Brand strategy.
"The store's design contributes to the company's competitive advantage, so you want to make sure that its design is a piece of the Brand's story which is carefully aligned with the rest of your company's departments initiatives."
Because the objective is for your store's design to contribute to your competitive advantage, you want to make sure that its design is a piece of the Brand's story and carefully aligned with the rest of your company's departments initiatives. Once you get the Interior Design team onboard make sure that you connect them to the rest of your teams in the Brand and Marketing departments early enough, to create a seamless and coherent journey across the physical and digital channels.
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