Poorly designed back-of-house racking or shelving might not be adaptable enough to host different types of products, leading to stock being shifted around or left in front of the racks. Delays stack on top of delays, lengthening the purchasing process and increasing frustration for the customer. Instead, staff are forced to skirt around a jumble saleвЂ™s worth of misplaced goods, learning where they need to look for products that arenвЂ™t where they ought to be. The constant churn of input and output from most retail back-of-house storage means that there is вЂnever timeвЂ™ to correct these problems, lest the store be shut down and lose business. This disparity undermines the time and money thatвЂ™s being put into the customer experience, and prevents staff from engaging with customers in a positive and timely way.Д«ack-of-house storage doesnвЂ™t start out chaotic, but tends to snowball from small design flaws or errors, and never gets knocked back into shape. In some cases, the elaborate front-of-house displays are a veneer of order and professionalism over a chaotic back-of-house, where storage is ramshackle and staff are undermined by their inability to find products. Problems like this interrupt the shopping experience for customers, as theyвЂ™re forced to wait around for someone to scamper around the stockroom, or for a manager to decide if an item is sufficiently damaged to qualify for a discount, or be removed from sale altogether. Or consider the case where you find the perfect piece of clothing, only to find that itвЂ™s marred by a grubby mark. Just think of how many times youвЂ™ve found an item on the shelf or checked online that it was in stock, only to find that itвЂ™s gone missing when you reach the counter. Where this often falls down, however, is the way in which the front-of-house experience clashes with back-of-house design. For smaller stores, the focus may instead be on the products they вЂdonвЂ™t needвЂ™ вЂ“ trinkets, oddities and other unique items which distinguish the shop from its bigger brethren.Д¬ustomer service is a part of this, and equal focus is often given to outfitting staff with the knowledge they need to help customers, and direct them to the things they need.

From hoardings to window stickers to the way in which shelves are dressed and displayed, the front-of-house environment is engineered to suck people in, keep them engaged, and direct them to the products they need. Getting back-of-house storage right should be a retail businessвЂ™ first priority, and set the standard for everything that follows.ДЇor many retail businesses вЂ“ and particularly the larger ones, with impressive and uniform branding вЂ“ decor and design are everything.

While front-of-house displays are being glitzed up and the position of items is agonised over, back-of-house storage is often neglected, with a negative impact on the businessвЂ™ bottom line. While a positive customer experience is always vital, the relentless focus on getting people through the door ignores some of the fundamentals of a lean and successful retail business. The way to boost footfall and retention is to make the customerвЂ™s journey as beguiling as possible, with a treasure trove of interesting items to lure people in. With bricks-and-mortar retail going through a transitional phase, and eCommerce competitors entering the space with cashierless stores, the emphasis is being placed on вЂexperiential shoppingвЂ™. ThereвЂ™s something of an obsession in retail at the moment concerning the customer experience. Why great back-of-house storage is the key to retail success

Store house storage