The Good and Bad of Free Flow

Put yourself in the customers shoes. Picture the experience in which you want when you enter a clothing store. What is your ideal set up when going into the store? Starting from the front to the back of the store without encountering any difficulties. Customers depend on the layout of the store. It plays a big part on whether the customers want to purchase anything and if they want to return or recommend it to others.

The main goal of a layout is to be able to create a space where customers and the associates to move around freely, to widen the space, and to expose the products to the public eye. The 'Free Flow Layout' accomplishes all these goals.

A lot of the stores at the College Square Mall has a free flow layout. This layout seems to work best for small stores such as boutiques, clothing, and jewelry stores.

To the right is a picture of a free flow layout. As you can see the circles are all spaced out so it allows for customers to come in and easily browse and wander freely. With the items spaced out, it gives the customers a more visual appeal of the products and the more merchandises are exposed, the more customers are intended to purchase.

There are some disadvantages to this layout:
1. It encourages customers to loiter.
2. It can confuse customers.
3. It's a waste of floor space.
4. Cleaning can be difficult.