6 Tips for Creating Friendly Storefronts That Draw People In
This article was reposted, in slightly different form, from the Practice of Place blog, which focuses on the art and science of creating thriving public and shared places. It is shared here with permission. All images were provided by the author.
Creating a compelling storefront has never been more necessary for small businesses. With the increasing costs of so many third places, and since so much is accessible online, storefronts can provide people with more social spaces, ones that are inviting and compelling while also serving the needs of the businesses themselves.
So, how does one create a friendly storefront? Well, some of our rules of thumb for other types of places still apply.
We refer to the following as our "6 Windows into Friendly Storefronts," a guide that is taken from our Friendly Storefronts toolkit in our Placemaking Library.
1. Follow Desire Lines
Think about how people get to your store — the paths they already take and the paths they would like to take — and enhance the experience of traveling along the desire lines leading to your front door.
2. Provide Seating
Provide those who accompany customers a place to comfortably sit and wait to give the shopper more time and peace of mind. Chairs also communicate to the outside world that people patronize your store.
3. Surprise and Delight
Stand out on the street with creative, fun and unexpected street engagements. Real-life examples include a skeleton mascot in front of a chiropractic business, a fanciful letter drop for a toy store, or a dish with water for dog walkers.
4. Engage the 5 Senses
Create new positive associations with customers by creating multi-sensory storefront experiences — have your storefront look, sound, smell, feel and even taste good.
5. Create Inviting Transitions
People need help slowing down from the public life of the street to the privacy of your store. Create semi-enclosures and micro-activities to pull people in like eddies along a stream.
6. Enhance Borders
Celebrate the places where two things meet: sidewalk to storefront, pathway to doorway, outside air to window and seating area to shopping aisle. Each is a critical moment and place for your customer. Enhance borders by making them attractive both visually — with color, decor and sensory elements — and experientially.
Max Musicant is the founder and principal of The Musicant Group, an interdisciplinary firm whose mission and service is to create places where people want to be, as well as its Practice of Place blog. Through partnering with communities, businesses and organizations of all kinds to integrate design, events, operations, communications and organizational capacity building, the firm has demonstrated that every space can and should be a great place. Musicant received an MBA from Yale and a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
