Highlights of the CHA SMART Store 2

The CHA SMART Store, sponsored at CHA Winter 2007 by a group of vendors at CHA to give retailers ideas on how to improve their operations, was a dream to walk through for anyone who is a scrapbook store customer! Retailers could learn a lot from the example of the SMART Store.

When you walk through the door of the SMART Store, the store’s checkout and information center is right there in front of you. This provides security for the store while also allowing staff to greet customers entering the store. The store’s checkout is handled with a computer POS system, a must-have not only for tracking inventory and sales, but also for minimizing the time spent by staff in pricing items.

As you proceed to the right from the store entrance, you encounter two areas for non-scrapbookers: the play area and the lounge. The play area is a safe and contained area, within view of the register, that allows children to play while their mothers shop. The lounge has comfortable chairs and a television to entertain non-scrapbookers that may accompany customers to the store. Use the television to screen how-to videos and they may even become customers!

Proceeding further into the actual sales area, several features become noticeable. First is that you can see the whole store from anywhere else in the store. All of the displays in the center of the store are low enough to see over at eyelevel when standing. The second prominent feature is the signage. There is plenty of it, and it is clear and visible to help customers locate which area of the store has the products that they are seeking.

In addition to being low, some of the rotating fixtures have a hidden feature: internal storage. This allows the storage of additional stock right on the sales floor to reduce the time and effort involved in restocking items with frequent turnover such as basic adhesives.

A closer look reveals that the store is organized in two ways. Some areas contain product organized by topic for customers who shop that way. Some areas contain product shelved by manufacturer or product line for consumers with greater awareness of brand names. Rather than choosing between the two methods and risking alienating a large portion of shoppers, the SMART Store shows how to combine both methods to cater to a wider range of shoppers.

In the center of the store is a beautiful crop or class area. Not isolated from the rest of the store, but instead on the middle of the action while still separated from it by the display walls, the crop area will be an inviting area for any scrapbooker looking for a comfortable crop spot.

Bordering the back of the crop area is a demo area for large tools that the croppers can try while they work. To the front of it, just behind the register, is an area for demonstration or make-it-take-it events.

And lastly, the SMART Store suggests bringing digital into the store to get a piece of that market for the local store as well. The SMART Store 2 had a computer workstation set up in one rear corner of the store with display space for relevant merchandise behind it.

Perhaps none of the concepts illustrated in the SMART Store are revolutionary, but put all together in one place they do make a powerful illustration of the fact that many retailers can do much more to put their best foot forward in what is becoming an increasingly competitive market.