Interior Layout is Part of Marketing (Guest Post)

Retail Interior Layout for Libraries

Christie Koontz, PhD

[Christie Koontz, PhD, is on the faculty at Florida State University in Tallahassee, School of Library and Information Studies (USA). Koontz teaches marketing and serves on the IFLA Management & Marketing Section. Her e-mail address is Christie.Koontz@cci.fsu.]

My favorite grocery store offers a wonderful space of orientation upon entry. The wide doors open, and to the immediate right is free coffee, and soft drink and copy machines. To the left is check cashing, an ATM machine, and for better or worse, Florida lottery tickets. Several yards ahead to the right are specialty foods (organic), and to the left, seasonal promotional items. The wide right hand turn (that favors a world of right-handed people) sweeps you to toiletry and cosmetic items, dairy foods, and aisles of canned and packaged goods. The tour finishes with frozen foods and fresh bakery items and check out. The store offers convenience while communicating daily and seasonal products to customer markets. This grocery chain effectively employs the principles of retail interior layout reviewed in this article. Why not libraries? Consider this.

Layout for Increased Sales and Use

Retailers estimate planning and deploying displays can increase sales of average items as much as 330-360 percent. Specifically, the proper display of items in the average department store results in $312-$584 additional sales. To put these figures within the library context, review the following.

A library serving more than 50,000 people currently has an annual circulation of 275,000 or 5.5. per capita. If improved layout increased circulation by 300 percent—circulation figures would rise to 1,100,000 or 22 per capita. If the improved layout only increased circulation 100 percent—circulation figures would still rise to 550,000 or 11 per capita. Clearly libraries can immensely benefit from application of tried and true retail practices,

especially since we have so much in common. Let’s review what we have in common.

What Retail Stores and Libraries Have in Common

1. Organizational Goals

The overriding goal of most retail stores and libraries is to maximize the number of customers and profits. For libraries, profit is measured in the use of services and materials.

2. Means of Attracting Customers

The principal means of attracting customers is similar for retailers and librarians including: the nature and size of the product lines (collection and services); special offerings to targeted groups (e.g., Spanish language books for children of Hispanic families); convenient delivery of services (location of library and or hours of access).; and successful promotional messages directed to actual and potential customers (websites and direct mail to registered users.)

3. Customer Satisfaction Tools

In order to retain customers and increase use, retailers and libraries must satisfy customer wants and needs within the majority of transactions. Retailers identify three chief tools for generating satisfaction which also apply to libraries: 1) the size and convenience of the facility; 2) adequate pricing strategies (how much time customers must expend to use our services); and 3) the interior layout of the materials and equipment, furnishings, and displays (effective for, but lesser used by libraries.) .

4. Shopping Behavior
Retail and library customers also share shopping behaviors: 1) our consumers seek to accomplish their goals with the least time and effort, and with the most convenience possible; and 2) increased customer traffic generates purchases within the retail store, and the volume of use of materials and services within the library.

These shared characteristics provide a positive basis for libraries using retail interior layout principles. Check out some retailing websites which share layout tips!! http://retail.about.com/od/storedesign/ss/store_layouts.htm

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Portions of this post were first published by Koontz, C. M., (2005), in “Retail Interior Layout for Libraries,” Marketing Library Services, v. 1, (January/February): pp. 3-5.