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Critique my shop (pics inside)
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12-05-2014 10:34am#1Hi folks,
Some of you might remember me posting before about opening up The Website Shop, a pop up shop we set up in Dun Laoghaire which got off the ground due in part to the help I got on this board.
In late October we moved in to a more permanent place in Harold's Cross and have been slowly improving on the shop.
Since you can get tunnel vision when working closely on something I wanted to post here to get some honest (don't hold back!) feedback on the shop - How does it look? would you come in? Would you know what we do? And so on.
We've got a very good location traffic wise, we're on Harold's Cross bridge which apparently is the 2nd busiest bridge in the city. The problem is it's one of those junctions you just want to drive through, and there's no obvious place for parking.
Here are the pictures:
This is a shot of the outside of the shop from across the road. The rubbish bins are an ongoing problem, they're mostly from the apartments above the shops. I've contacted local councillors and there hasn't been any improvement.
Here you can see the counter and the stools. We want the stools to help give the impression that you can pop in for a casual chat. We feel people might be a bit intimidated to come in to a shop they're not familiar with the concept of so we're trying to make it more inviting.
This is our counter which was installed recently. The guys who built it did a great job. The idea of the counter is to allow for a quick chat about the person's requirements (hence the wide surfaces at the sides to make it easy for putting the laptop up on to) without the necessity of sitting down at the table pictured below.
Here you can see our back wall and the consultation table. The consultation table is for when an appointment is made, or for those longer discussions.
I welcome your harsh and unfiltered criticisms!
Thanks3
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Tough location. There have been dozens of businesses in those shops in the past 30 years (except Delaneys, who's been there since Brian Boru was kicking Viking arse). Although I've said it for years that the location is only any good for specialist retailers, so that's a plus I suppose.
The thing about specialist retail though, is that the shop is basically a big billboard with a door. It needs to be treated like that. Like Delaneys next door, people don't just drop in, they go when they need a bike. People need to see your ad and check out your product/service later on. Your "shop front" is literally your shop front (or vice-versa
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Signage doesn't cut it I'm afraid. Due to the pole, electricity box, and bikes, and line of sight being blocked by cars in front, traffic coming over the bridge from town can't see the window until it's almost through the junction, and it's tough to do a double take coming off Harold's Cross bridge. I'd fill the overhead sign with the store name, and use the window on the left to show examples of your work (on screens or maybe something more static like this).
As Peter said, retail and web site design don't normally go hand in hand, making the business unique. Unique retail needs a strong driver. For your business I don't know what that is, but while it's obvious that your business has something to do with web sites, traffic passing has no way of knowing what you do. I'd use the window on the right to tell them that "We Build Websites". At least that will get some attention.
Finally I'd have no qualms about putting a call to action in that window. Make it smart and maybe even funny.
How about "Click Here to discuss your needs" with an arrow (cursor?) pointing to the door?0 -
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Tough location. There have been dozens of businesses in those shops in the past 30 years (except Delaneys, who's been there since Brian Boru was kicking Viking arse). Although I've said it for years that the location is only any good for specialist retailers, so that's a plus I suppose.
The thing about specialist retail though, is that the shop is basically a big billboard with a door. It needs to be treated like that. Like Delaneys next door, people don't just drop in, they go when they need a bike. People need to see your ad and check out your product/service later on. Your "shop front" is literally your shop front (or vice-versa)
Signage doesn't cut it I'm afraid. Due to the pole, electricity box, and bikes, and line of sight being blocked by cars in front, traffic coming over the bridge from town can't see the window until it's almost through the junction, and it's tough to do a double take coming off Harold's Cross bridge. I'd fill the overhead sign with the store name, and use the window on the left to show examples of your work (on screens or maybe something more static like this).
As Peter said, retail and web site design don't normally go hand in hand, making the business unique. Unique retail needs a strong driver. For your business I don't know what that is, but while it's obvious that your business has something to do with web sites, traffic passing has no way of knowing what you do. I'd use the window on the right to tell them that "We Build Websites". At least that will get some attention.
Finally I'd have no qualms about putting a call to action in that window. Make it smart and maybe even funny.
How about "Click Here to discuss your needs" with an arrow (cursor?) pointing to the door?
This guy talks sense :pac:0 -
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Like I mentioned last time I was down, definitely need to fill up some window space with some call to actions and highlights around what is on offer and why someone should pop in
At the minute it just looks like a temporary space or art installation (and the MDF reinforces this impression).
Also I am sure you guys are all about the minimalism, but definitely also needs a good boost in colour. Imagine if the shop were painted say blue with a little white - you would probably have an explosion in visitors overnight!0 -
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Thanks very much for the replies, loads of varied feedback and honest input which is exactly what I wanted!
Rather than quoting everyone I'll address the main points raised;
The most critical thing for us is getting across the message of what we do. I had thought that the name did most of the work here but I can see that that's just not the case. So I definitely think we need to hammer it home more. I think we'll put a big "WE MAKE WEBSITES" sign on the window just to make it 100% clear.
And thanks to this thread I'm definitely going to have a think about the upper frontage.
About it looking unfinished, that was something I was worried about alright. We are going for a minimalist designy look, but I realise this can also be alienating which we don't want. Bunsen was definitely an inspiration to the poster who mentioned them!
The counter is made from OSB which is a much better quality MDF-like material. It looks much nicer in person and it's a "trendy" material to work with, Airbnb have used it a lot in their Dublin offices for example:
I'm hoping that if we filled out the place a bit more with more colour, a monitor on the countertop, some more plants, more literature etc then it would help alleviate that unfinished look.
I didn't mention in the OP that we've bootstrapped this whole thing with a VERY modest initial investment so the minimalist approach was also out of necessity We're not (yet) in a position to kit the place out with expensive gear etc but still, getting the general look & feel is really important and can be done without loads of cash if you're smart about it, so I really appreciate everyones' input so far. 0 -
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Thanks very much for the replies, loads of varied feedback and honest input which is exactly what I wanted!
Rather than quoting everyone I'll address the main points raised;
The most critical thing for us is getting across the message of what we do. I had thought that the name did most of the work here but I can see that that's just not the case. So I definitely think we need to hammer it home more. I think we'll put a big "WE MAKE WEBSITES" sign on the window just to make it 100% clear.
And thanks to this thread I'm definitely going to have a think about the upper frontage.
About it looking unfinished, that was something I was worried about alright. We are going for a minimalist designy look, but I realise this can also be alienating which we don't want. Bunsen was definitely an inspiration to the poster who mentioned them!
The counter is made from OSB which is a much better quality MDF-like material. It looks much nicer in person and it's a "trendy" material to work with, Airbnb have used it a lot in their Dublin offices for example:
I'm hoping that if we filled out the place a bit more with more colour, a monitor on the countertop, some more plants, more literature etc then it would help alleviate that unfinished look.
I didn't mention in the OP that we've bootstrapped this whole thing with a VERY modest initial investment so the minimalist approach was also out of necessity We're not (yet) in a position to kit the place out with expensive gear etc but still, getting the general look & feel is really important and can be done without loads of cash if you're smart about it, so I really appreciate everyones' input so far.
So many guys have come on here and asked for honest feedback. They they get all defensive when they get it and it ends badly. Fair play for taking this feedback in the manner it was ment.0 -
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