Retail store designs are bidding adieu to “millennial monochrome and muted color palettes,” according to a report from Modern Retail, and “becoming more colorful, funkier and fun.”
The website says that “as competition for customers’ dollars gets tighter, stores are turning to splashy paint colors, bold art and comforting tapestries and curtains to invite shoppers, many of them younger ones,” to browse and buy.
Rebekah Kondrat, founder of Rekon Retail, a retail consultancy, told Modern Retail, “Brands used to say to us, “We want our store to look like if Apple built a shoe store or a convenience store…[But] we actually haven’t gotten that [request] in over a year.”
Instead, Kondrat says most (about 90%) of her clients are asking for stores with “highly textured and saturated colors.” Alec Zaballero, managing executive at TPG Architecture, told Modern Retail, his clients want store designs that are “distinctive, unique, and brand-driven.”
Modern Retail says part of the shift is because retailers focused on “simple, efficient designs” during the pandemic since customers weren’t browsing around stores. But consumers are out and about again, and “want to see more unique storefronts.”
Plus, Generation Z is now older with more discretionary income, prefers to shop in-store, and Modern Retail says stores think “eclectic store designs” will “cater to their interest in personalization and self-expression.”
But, Cindi Kato, principal at design firm Arcadis, told Modern Retail, that stores “need to be strategic about how they’re using color,” which is usually used for “wall accents, text, logos, digital signs, and point-of-purchase elements.”
Kato warns retailers to not choose colors that “fight against your product. You want to enhance it. It’s more about the purposeful use of color and what the customer is picking up from that.”
Before choosing your colors, learn more about how color influences consumer behavior and about color psychology in retail displays.
Photo by The Nix Company on Unsplash
Rieva Lesonsky is President of Small Business Currents, LLC, a content company focusing on small businesses and entrepreneurship. While you can still find her on Twitter @Rieva, you can also reach her @Rieva.bsky.social and LinkedIn. Or email her at Rieva@SmallBusinessCurrents.com.
