By Eric Fairbanks

That the Web is reinventing retail is old news. That even the smallest retailer has to be in the game might not be. TRIO designs over 100 stores per year from the ground up. We advise almost every retailer we work with that they should start building a website as soon as they start building their store. Why? Because their customers will expect it and their sales will suffer without it.

With the rise of ecommerce, the retail landscape has been completely remade. While outsourcing and globalization were already commodifying just about every product and niche, the Web accelerated the process exponentially. The Web puts expert opinions, buyer’s reviews, and, on some cases, wholesale pricing at the consumer’s fingertips. Moreover, the virtual marketplace puts comparison shopping but a mouse-click away. As has been noted, somewhat ruefully, by retail experts everywhere, it’s now a consumer’s market. The consumer can now get what she wants, when she wants it, at a good price, and in a color other than black.

In the event you think that your niche is impervious to the Web-ification of retail, think again, this time of Zappos.com. Zappos.com was born in 1999, back when the thought of selling shoes online ran against conventional online market-think at the time. Sure, you could sell something that didn’t require sizing sight unseen like books, but shoes? No way. Folks needed to try shoes on, walk around a bit, and talk to a salesman. In 2005, Zappos.com saw gross sales of $370 million. The point is, no matter how obscure or particular your product or service is, you’re facing the digital competition.

To remain viable, any retailer needs a website to go with the bricks-and-mortar enterprise. The scale depends on your needs. A more modest investment might be a simple branding web presence that runs under ten pages and includes information about your products or services and contact info. To save money, you can use one of the website templates supplied by your web-hosting company. (Look up “web-hosting” in a search engine.) Such a site, with various traffic analytics, will cost you under $20 a month to maintain. It is money well-spent, and the return on investment is orders of magnitude greater than traditional marketing channels. Exposure to your product now transcends physical geography.

At the other end of the scale is a robust, fully-enabled e-commerce site with an online catalog and a shopping cart. For such a website, the sky is the limit when it comes to budget. Customers can view and purchase product through a completely automated process. But this sells your product directly to millions of Web surfers worldwide 24/7. To make your online business really hum, you should develop a marketing campaign that includes banners ads and pay-per-click advertising. This isn’t inexpensive, but the pay-off is substantial. You’ll have to staff up to handle all the business.

Though e-commerce is only a fraction (some say 2%) of overall retail sales, it is safe to say that the future of retail is digital commerce and marketing. If you’re not on the bandwagon, you’ll soon be left in the dust.

At the very least you’ll need a basic website that tells the consumer who you are, where you are, and what you’re about. We’ll call this a branding website. The branding website gives you online visibility to the millions of people surfing the Web every day. They learn the basic information about you and your business and how to contact you. As important, they will, from the site’s look and feel, start to form an emotional association with your company—this is branding. That’s why, no matter how small an investment a site such as this might be, it is vital that you build a site that looks good.

It will cost you a couple of hundred dollars to have someone such as a Web-hosting service build you a simple branding website from scratch. These services will create a website for a nominal fee and then will maintain it for as little as ten dollars a month. From your end, a website like this takes absolutely no special technical knowledge, and it’s the cheapest way to go. With this package you can expect to receive a few personal e-mail accounts. On a small PR level, it’s far better to hand a potential customer a business card with a business email address, yourname@yourbusiness.com, rather than a “home” email address. In this price range, you’ll also have the option of including basic click tracking statistics. These analytics will tell you how many people view your site every day, and what pages they’re looking at, and what sites are linking to yours, among other things.

At the other end of the spectrum is a robust e-commerce site crammed with features. The more functionality, the more it costs. A site like this is intended to sell your entire catalog of product and services directly and seamlessly as possible. The catalog would include an image of the product with the specs and pricing and pertinent shipping information. Your customer could click on the product and buy it directly off the website using a credit card. The website would then automatically send you, the owner, an email telling you an order had been placed. The website also sends an email to your customer confirming the order. Built right, your website orders can even be integrated into your company’s inventory/fulfillment software. If you run out of an item, and someone tries to order it off your website, they will be automatically notified that it is out of stock. Of course, all the financial transactions are automated. Funds are deposited directly into your account. A site this sophisticated functions as a virtual storefront, and sells product 24/7 worldwide.

The virtual storefront website is competing in a very crowded marketplace. If you’re putting out the money for a virtual storefront, it makes sense to advertise online. One of the most fundamental ways to advertise online is through search engines such as Google or Yahoo!. You can buy “keywords” so that if a potential customer types the keyword “maple syrup” into Google, a small text ad linking back to your maple syrup site will appear next to the search results. A popular keyword can send literally thousands of new customers to your site. Take heed: A mis-managed keyword campaign can end up costing you a lot in a very short time with little to show for your investment. Study up or engage an e-commerce consultant beforehand. On the other hand, a keyword campaign properly executed will do things for your bottom line impossible to find in any traditional bricks-and-mortar (physical storefront) improvement.

Other forms of online advertising are closer to traditional advertising and, as such, their underpinnings are little easier to understand. Banner ads (you’ve seen them) can also be effective. These ads typically contain a few lines of text, an eye-catching graphic, and lead to your website when clicked on. Placing a simple graphic banner ad on a commercial website popular with your customers is a very efficient way to advertise. In fact, the primary difference between traditional advertising and online advertising is efficiency. Whereas quantifying just how effective a dollar spent is in generating sales has long been the bugaboo in traditional advertising—if you put up a billboard, how can you track how many sales it’s responsible for?—the unique nature of online advertising enables you to quantify your efforts. Tracking metrics allow you to identify an advertising impression through the final sale. Underperforming keyword and banner ad campaigns can be quickly identified and corrected. In cyberspace, advertising ROI and efficiencies have never been clearer.

The online environment lends itself to affiliation and partnership programs, and these are free and definitely worth pursuing if you have gone the virtual storefront route. It’s essentially free advertising and can pay big dividends. There are other avenues to attracting more eyeballs to your website, including publishing a newsletter, sending email postcard ads, and posting how-to articles such as this one.

While investing in a Web presence, time and money both, may seem daunting, the potential pay-off is astounding. And the hard reality is that a website is now as essential a retail tool as the cash register. Why not plug it in?

How to start? TRIO Display started small. First, we built a branding site to display our design work. Then we added a few pages of e-commerce. Then we started a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign with Yahoo! and later, Google. Now we have a full-time staff that just works on the site as well as a team of trained associates answering sales calls. TRIO’s owner, Jeff Grant, comments, “If you had told me five years ago that we would be receiving thousands of orders annually off of a website, I would have questioned your mental state.” Now Jeff spends considerable time just keeping current on the newest innovations in Web marketing.

Jeff’s advice: Talk to someone who is a Web marketer first. Get their opinions, advice and any references for website builders. Then talk to the site builders and potential web marketing teams. After you get over the sticker shock determine if you want to hire outside consultants or simply hire good people full time and let them build and monitor the site for you.

One thing further: Don’t let the technology scare you. As Grant states, ” It ain’t brain surgery.” I’m 55 years old, don’t have a tech background and other then using design programs, can just barely navigate my way around a computer. Our website worked way beyond our expectations, and I can say the same for many of my clients.”
Our suggestion: Embrace the Web and the profits will follow.

Could the next Stevie Ray Vaughn even now be matriculating through Sarah Hames’ immersive music program? The innovative program is an inclusive series of classes that nurtures the budding musician from the cradle all the way to age seven without repeating a lesson. Children learn to express their creativity through music—by age five, he or she will have a relatively well-developed ear and appreciation for melody. Ms. Hames’ curriculum became so popular that she soon grew out of her existing space.

She bought a building and contacted Trio Display to plan the new 4700 square foot space. Her vision expanded with the footage: the new location would be more a destination than a shop. “She wants it to be the ‘Starbucks for Mommies’,” said Trio Store Designer Bill Mondigo. This included adding a play area for the kids and a workspace where the parents could scrapbook. The new “Friendswood Music and More” will feature a 1375 square foot retail section that will display high-end wooden toys and the like.

“Sarah said she liked a Disney World look for the store,” said Bill, “so we drew on Old World décor for inspiration.” This saw the liberal use of wood and muted colors—“We used ‘The Winnie the Pooh’ palette,” said Bill with a smile. Trio custom designed a L-shaped cash wrap with two point-of-sales stations for Sarah. Part of the design incorporates custom cabinetry with plenty of close-able drawers—key to balancing the need for storage with an inquisitive clientele.

The Friendswood Music and More tune-up should be complete in time for the holiday season.

“The intrinsic problem was how to display a product that has a tendency to roll away,” said Trio Display Store Designer Bill Mondigo. Indeed, the stakes are tripled when said product is breakable and the content is premium wine. Such were the hurdles facing the Trio design team as they planned Bella Vino, a premium wine shop in Virginia.

As with many retail design projects, Bella Vino started as a long bare rectangular box. The task was to create a warm inviting store that would appeal to the upscale wine buyer. Through fixture choice and placement, the Trio design department tried to evoke an Old World feeling with some twists and turns through racks of fine wines, while providing a place for some premium food displays, wine gifts and accessories, in-store wine tastings, and fine cigars.

“The task was to create a warm inviting store that would appeal to the upscale wine buyer.”

The fixturing and design reflects the Mediterranean theme. “The owners wanted a Tuscan look,” said Mondigo, “so that translated into, among other things, the liberal use of mahogany and, wrought iron, as well as actual brick pavers in the entryway.” The rest of flooring is redwood vinyl. Wall displays combine slatwall and wrought iron, a melding of function and fashion. Crystal chandeliers say elegance while the walk-in humidor suggests a certain decadence necessary to seduce the high-end clientele.

Bella Vino is expected to pop the cork in the next few months.

When their lease came up for renewal on their jewelry store, Christine Anzell and Jack Levenson saw an opportunity. The lay-out dated back to the previous tenant, and didn’t account for the unique security and merchandising requirements of selling jewelry. “We also run a watch repair business,” said Christine, “and the repair customers would have to pass behind the jewelry showcases, which wasn’t good for security. There also weren’t any wall cases to display the jewelry, and we wanted to show more lines.”

They looked up “retail store design” on the Internet and found the Trio Display website. “We wanted an experienced firm that was close,” said Christine. Showcases are the centerpiece of any jewelry space, and Trio’s design called for eight custom showcases and twelve custom wall cases. “We designed the cases from top to bottom,” said Trio Store Designer Bill Mondigo. “It took some creativity. We had to figure-out how to light the sit-down showcases without exposing the wiring. We ended up making the legs thicker so we could stash the ballasts for the fluorescents in them.” Another challenge was designing access to the radius corner of the showcase, made all the more difficult because a conventional entry requires the section to have a back. Bill eventually solved it by designing a side entry from the adjoining section. Longtime Trio supplier Tanner Construction of Spring Valley, California, fabricated the cases.

“Accessed by swinging doors, the main showcase and cash wrap created a seamless barrier between the front of the store and the workspace and storage in the back.”

The new lay-out opened up the space, consistent with Christine and Jack’s vision of creating an atmosphere that was friendly, warm, while remaining classy.” Security, of course, was paramount, and the new design smartly incorporated the cash wrap and showcases into the schema. Accessed by swinging doors, the main showcase and cash wrap created a seamless barrier between the front of the store and the workspace and storage in the back.

Response to the new look has been overwhelmingly positive. “Everybody has been saying how much bigger the store is,” said Christine. “The new wall cases have increased the number of impulse buys. Before they couldn’t even see the jewelry.”

The Jewelry Box can be found in Lake Forest, California.

By Eric Fairbanks

Showcases are one of the cornerstones of retail store display. Used on the sales floor, at the point of sale and along the walls they provide both impulse and destination merchandise presentations. At the cash register, showcases provide display for an impulse buy that every paying customer has to see. When used on the wall, as a vertical display, cases provide texture and interest that draws customers to them. In fact, many of our action sports customers have made showcased watches and sunglasses a strong segment of their sales.

Other merchandising factors also come in to play. Showcases not only display product, they increase the perceived value of the product placed in them. Security is another selling point for showcases. A locked showcase is the best way to display items that pose a theft risk such as jewelry, watches, cosmetics, and small electronics.

“You can spend anywhere from $200 for a basic melamine finish wood knockdown case (assemble it yourself) to well over $3000 for a custom contour case with curved glass and a laminate or veneer finish.”

Showcases are available as standard units or they can be custom built to your specifications. Cases typically come in a range of finishes and sizes. Counter cases are between 34″-42” high, and the lengths typically vary from four to seven feet. Wall cases run seven-to-eight feet high, with four- to six-foot lengths. The finish colors on standard showcases will match most traditional color palettes, including wood tones, metals, plastic laminates (Formica) or, on the economy cases, the standard melamine finishes. Locks, lighting, and custom finishes are other options to consider.

As you might guess, the price range is enormous. You can spend anywhere from $200 for a basic melamine finish wood knockdown case (assemble it yourself) to well over $3000 for a custom contour case with curved glass and a laminate or veneer finish. Because of their size and prominence on the floor, you don’t want to skimp on your cases. A showcase that doesn’t look good (integrate with the theme and finish of the store) may blemish your entire presentation.Two terms you’ll run into when it come to showcases are “full vision” and “half vision” or a permutation thereof (“extra vision,” “three-quarters vision,” etc). These refer to how much of the showcase is constructed of glass. The remaining area is the wood or steel base. Typically jewelry is displayed in “jewelry cases” 10″ deep. Half-vision cases allow approx. 16″ of display and are the most popular for sunglasses, accessories, and general display. Full-vision cases may run to 4″ from the floor and maximize a presentation. We tend to specify full-vision cases sparingly, particularly with an aging population that has a hard time squatting (really). If budget allows have your showcase fabricated using tempered glass—it’s stronger and less likely to shatter into large pieces. If you’re using the showcase for jewelry, for security reasons, make sure the glass is locked in. Lighting is also critical and ranges from standard fluorescent tubes to high-end halogen lamps. The halogen lamps provide a whiter light that really makes jewelry sparkle.

When merchandising your showcases, pyramid the product in the middle of the shelf or create an inverted pyramid from the sides. You’ll want to group product in categories by color, materials, fabrication method, or use. If you’re using display risers within the showcase, acrylic or Lucite fixtures help to keep the view uncluttered. Use jewelry displays in leatherette or velvet to highlight the merchandise and imply value. Glass collects fingerprints and dust, so keep the case clean and replace scratched top glass as needed.

Buying a showcase can be a daunting task due to a mind-boggling array of choices but the silver lining is that with a little advice and some diligent shopping you will find a showcase that fits your needs perfectly.

As its name suggests, Creair Concierge is a service whose purpose is to serve. “Our business is to enable our clients to experience life to the fullest. We do this by taking care of the things that cut into their quality time,” said co-founder (with wife Ericka) Chris Frazier. “Our services range from the head to toe, inside and outside. We’ll arrange your haircut to your pedicure. We’ll schedule a doctor to make a house call for you to a personal trainer. Anything you can imagine, we do as long as it’s legal.”

When Creair decided to open a new Creair Center in Orange County, they retained Trio Display to draw the design and source the furnishing. “We picked Trio because they do great work at a reasonable price,” said Chris.

Trio Design Director Brian Jones started by dividing the 9000 square foot space into a front greeting area and a back office “engine room” filled with concierge and vendor rep workstations. The engine room is laid out to economize on space while retaining the privacy required by a business so dependent on client-account executive interaction.

“We are looking for a ‘comforting way to shock people,’ if that makes sense.”

The front is open, airy, and, not surprisingly, unconventional. “We are looking for a ‘comforting way to shock people,’ if that makes sense,” said Chris. “While the customer will enter the office building with expectations of a traditional office, they will be surprised. The front represents structure, relaxation, and modern creativity. Our business is founded on building a relationship with the client, and it starts when they first walk through the door.”

Low-slung chairs, a long sinuous couch, and coffee tables greet the visitor. Computer stations where clients can access their account information are spread throughout the space. The custom-built front desk is less a barrier between client and account executive than a communal workspace. In a word: Inviting.

“The Creair Concierge project is a departure from our retail design work,” said Bryan Jones. “Designing contemporary office workstations requires completely different approach than what I’d use for a retail space. We’re creating an environment for people to work in, not to sell merchandise.”

In planning this first Creair Center, Trio is designing a template that can be applied to CC franchises across the nation. Trio is partnering with Parron Hall, an office furniture company, to furnish Creair Concierge offices nationwide. Parron Hall would take the Trio design template, as modified for the particular space, and supply and install workstations, storage systems, executive desks, etc, onsite. “We really excited about this because the idea behind Creair Concierge is such a novel concept,” said Merle Berman, Parron Hall Account Executive. “It could really take wing.”

The first Creair Center will be opening in Orange County, California, in Q1 2007.

“They wanted the new store to evoke a T-Mobile company store without mimicking it,” said Trio Display designer Bill Mondigo of Trio’s recent retail store design assignment. The assignment: Plan a space for an independent dealer of the popular cellphone service provider. “We were going for a clean and contemporary style that respected the brand without reinterpreting it.”

“We were going for a clean and contemporary style that respected the brand without reinterpreting it.”

The owners presented Trio with a shell and Bill and the design team laid-out a simple floor plan. The design incorporates ample signage for branding and an interior soffit that runs the perimeter. “The soffit takes what could be a rather standard rectangular space and gives it some character,” said Bill. Slatwall lines recesses in the soffit that hold phones and accessories. In a nod to environmental awareness, the client opted for bamboo flooring. Bamboo is tough, attractive, and, best yet, renewable. A combination of floods, spots, and pendants provide the lighting from an extensive track.

Trio designed fixtures for the entire store, “Mobile Zone,” from scratch, including benches and the customer counters, combining maple tops and aluminum-clad legs. In fact, brushed pewter aluminum veneer and varieties of maple are used liberally throughout.

The 1275 square-foot store will be opening in Temecula, California, in late October. Another location is in the works for San Francisco, California.

When Jurgen Schulz, owner of a surf, skate, and snowboard actionsports chain in San Diego, California, decided to open a third location, he called Jeff Grant and TRIO Display. Jurgen had been impressed by a remodel TRIO had done for another one of his locations. “I had a great experience with Jeff when we remodeled the Encinitas store back in 2002, and he was the natural choice for this job. It also helps that Jeff is a surfer.”

The first step was visiting the Oceanside, California, space with Jurgen, and a conceptualizing session to rough out how to best implement Jurgen’s vision in the space. In an earlier life, the store had been a Ducati motorcycle shop. The task was re-imagining the 4000 square-foot space as a boardsports store aimed at the 18-34 year old male demographic.

It’s the “arm-waving”� phase of design-build, where counters, cash wraps, and clothing displays are conjured up and arranged at the wave of a hand while the owner and the designer stand in the empty space. Fortunately, Jurgen had a good idea of what he wanted. Jeff and Jurgen built a virtual store there on the Pacific Coast Highway.

Back at Trio, Jeff worked on the floor plan with Design Director Brian Jones. Placing the cash wrap proved problematic. The building had an off-center front door that made centering the unit difficult. The elegant solution? “We ended up clocking it 45 degrees, opening up the store in an unpredictable way”� said Jones. Once they laid out a floor plan with counter placement, it went back to Jurgen for approval.

Next came the walls. One of the more interesting design elements is a two-story surfboard rack equipped with a rolling library ladder. “You can merchandise up to about eight feet, but going higher adds excitement and fills the shop to the gills,” said Jones. Grant and Jones envisioned paving the walls with asphalt and mocked up a vertical roadway for the skateboard rack (an idea which was eventually rejected by Jurgen).

Sometimes the abstraction of the blueprint runs athwart the reality of the bricks and mortar. Plugging into the actionsports demographic at the retail level requires a robust audio-visual presentation playing boarding videos nonstop. To this end, the initial K-5 plan called for a huge projection screen, but when Jones saw how the ambient light from outside the store shone through the windows, it became obvious the stronger luminescence of plasma screens was required.

The design didn’t stop with the interior floor plan. Armed with Photoshop, software that enables artistic manipulation of photos, the design team re-imagined the storefront with different color schemes, stone planters, and signage. “We study the local building ordinances before mocking up the signage,” said Jones. “The first-time business owner might be surprised at how stringent building codes can be when it comes to signage.”

The roughs of the floor plan and exterior are only the first step in the retail design process. In the next installment, we’ll explore how Jurgen and Trio Display designed and developed the store fixturing.

“We’re excited to be working with someone new to retailing,” said Todd Murphy, TRIO Store Designer, “an entrepreneur.”� But it’s not just the owner who’s new to business, it’s the business itself.

Pregnancy and shopping are usually mutually exclusive, so why not build a retail store that recognizes and addresses the issue? Enter La Bella Belly Maternity Boutique, a combination maternity clothing store and prenatal massage shop opening in a Texas shopping village. Expectant mothers can shop “til they drop” into one of the two private massage rooms where licensed masseuses stand ready to ease sore backs and aching feet.

Such a bold new retail concept called for an equally innovative design. “Designing a hybrid retail/service environment presents a different set of planning demands,”� said Murphy. “We had to balance privacy issues with the open interaction typically required in a retail space.” These hybrids compose an increasing share of TRIO’s upcoming design-build projects.

“Naturally, we tried to design a harmonious environment conducive to the massage service. The colors were especially tricky,”� noted Murphy. TRIO themed the Dallas, Texas, store around urban, contemporary lifestyle architecture. Preliminary sketches of the 1500 square-foot space included faux vaulted ceilings, bare brick walls, and a custom waterfall. While the owner, Tamarra Billings, liked the look of custom fixtures, the cost proved problematic. TRIO found a work-around, however, and she was able to lease the fixtures instead of buying them, thereby retaining the atmosphere she wanted while keeping the bottom line within reason.

The store opens early this fall. (You can visit www.labellabellymaternity.com for more information.)