All about the ambiance

Give your store a comfortable, welcoming atmosphere and shoppers will want to stay a while — and buy.

The moment your customers walk into your store, a certain feeling comes over them. That ambiance, vibe, atmosphere or whatever label you give it, affects how long they will want to stay inside your store. The merchandise is only part of the equation, getting the customer to stick around long enough to make a purchase has a lot to do with how they respond to the environment inside.

Whether the vibe you’re going for is elegant nautical, rustic coastal, beachy bohemian, island getaway or something else, take the cue from your merchandise, advises visual merchandising consultant Amy Meadows.

“First, you need to ask yourself, ‘what is your theme, and what is your brand?’” says Meadows. “If your store caters to high-end customers, your ambiance should be refined and sophisticated. There’s an intentionality in a store like that versus a playful T-shirt-and-tiki-torch kind of boutique. Those are two very different brands and two very different levels of customer expectation.”

A store’s ambiance is created mainly by appealing to the senses, especially sight, smell and hearing. It’s done through appealing merchandise displays that are enhanced by the clever use of lighting and color and bathing your store in pleasing music and aromas. Even the walls, floors and fixtures make a difference.

But whatever you do to arouse your customers’ senses, do it with a light touch, advises Meadows. “Today’s day-to-day life is chaotic enough. I look for relaxation, engagement and entertainment inside a store, not sensory overload.”

Finding the right vibe

Located in a courtyard shopping plaza in an upscale area of Hutchinson Island, Stuart, Florida, The Gate’s charm-filled window displays of seaside-inspired household goods provide the first clue of the relaxed, casual atmosphere that owner Chris Rodgers has created.

“It’s a comfortable shopping experience in a nice place to walk around in,” she says. “People enjoy browsing and we also have great customer service. We even ask people to bring in photos of their living spaces so we can recommend certain items.”

Sea La Vie’s vibe combines retro and vintage with a clean European flair.

Nicole Wing owns Sea La Vie, Coronado, California. She describes her 635-square-foot store as “a little pinch of retro, a little pinch of vintage — a fresh, clean look, with that European flair.”

If the name of the seaside store is any indication, Eclectic based in Fenwick Island, Delaware, is “a mix of old and new, with a lot of repurposed and vintage-inspired tabletop and giftware items,” says Billie Jo Cooper.

“Comfortable elegance” is the vibe owner Rita McIntyre tries to convey at her store, Coastal Treasures, Marshfield, Massachusetts. To create that, “I try to utilize as many of the senses as I possibly can to convey that whole feel, between the beachy look and the pleasant smells and the music.”

It looks like she’s achieved it in her 1,000-square foot storefront. “When people come in here, they tell me right away that this is a store that they feel comfortable in — that they can stay in.”

Fixture flair

What you display your merchandise on should complement the goods, but not steal focus. Meadows recommends sticking with neutrals in metal, wood or glass. “You can also repurpose or upcycle old thrift-store furniture pieces; they paint up well, and are nice to use for feature areas,” she says.

Fixtures can do double duty, as they do at Eclectic. “Our display fixtures are recycled pieces of furniture that we refurbished and painted in beachy colors,” Cooper says.

The tables and the settings are also for sale. “If we have a kitchen table, we’ll set it with placemats and mugs and dishes, to show how it can be used in someone’s home.”

Wing has a similar strategy at Sea La Vie, displaying her store’s goods on the European solid-wood furniture she sells. She fell in love with the new-but-vintage-looking pieces when she and her Navy officer husband lived overseas.

McIntyre uses few standard fixtures at Coastal Treasures. “No pegboard. I do have one small area of slatwall that I use to display my totes.”

Everything else is repurposed or repainted, like the three-tier table she made out of pallet wood and painted with a gray wash to make it look like driftwood, in keeping with the store’s beachy theme.

Color consequences

Color plays a big role in creating ambiance. The palette of hues that adorn your walls and fixtures should hew to your theme.

But color can be scary. “If you want to dip your toes in the water you could do a ‘feature wall’ in a more saturated color, say a beautiful cerulean blue or a gorgeous turquoise,” Meadows suggests. “You can let that be the backdrop for new merchandise or a trend statement without committing that color to the entire space.”

Rodgers, for the most part, sticks with a nature-inspired palette at The Gate — seafoam green, turquoise and bright coral and vignettes are set up by color.

“For instance, we’ll do one in chocolate brown, aqua and white,” she says.

McIntyre chose a cool blue for the walls at Coastal Treasures, “a water tone, to make it as light and bright as I could, going for that beachy feel.”

When Cooper paints furniture to sell at Eclectic, she sticks with “what appeals to people buying for their beach houses — whites, blues and grays. I’ll give smaller pieces pops of brighter color, coral or deeper blues.”

Layered lighting

Lighting is key to creating visual texture. “It’s all about layering,” says Meadows. “You want a mixture of fixture types, in a variety of sizes and textures; overhead lighting to illuminate large zones and spotlights or pin spots you can focus. Finally, add small feature lights like desk lamps, votive candles or battery-operated tea lights.” Jewelry items should get special attention, says Meadows, as they’re small and can get lost.

Sometimes, though, you have to cope as best you can with the lighting you’ve been given. Wing’s landlord won’t let her remove the fluorescent fixtures her space came with, so she compensates for it with a beautiful chandelier mounted low over a table. “I want customers looking at the chandelier, and not up at the fluorescents or the ceiling squares.”

This sleight-of-light works well. “The chandelier was a big game-changer for me,” says Wing. “As soon as I turn it on, the goods on the front display table just pop. Customers gravitate to that area, where they used to walk right by it.”

Eclectic has tracked lighting that Cooper can maneuver, and seagrass fans that add a touch of the tropics, while Coastal Treasures has eyeball lights, recessed lighting with adjustable lenses, often used in museums.

Any new lighting you install will probably use LEDs, as other less energy-efficient lightbulbs are being phased out.

“They can be selected to be warm or cool — you always want to go with warm,” Meadows advises. “You can select lighting that fits the season, like pink ones for Valentine’s Day.”

And don’t leave out the restrooms and dressing rooms. “They’re part of the selling floor too. Make sure that your customers look rosy and sun-kissed in there. We call that ‘The Closer,’” says Meadows.

Walking is talking

What your customers walk on makes a subtle yet important difference in the way people experience your store. The first priority for flooring should be on safety and ease of passage, especially for people using strollers or wheelchairs, Meadows says. Carpeting adds a softness and has the advantage of dampening sound. Hardwood floors add panache, even better when accented here and there with area rugs.

Coastal Treasures features vinyl tile that looks like wood but is more durable, in a sand color “to remind people of the beach.”

Cooper is lucky to have a family heirloom at her disposal, a gorgeous oriental rug that her grandparents shipped in from overseas.

“It’s 24-feet-by-40 feet, and was just rolled up in my Mom’s garage,” she says. “Nobody else in the family could use it because it’s so big, but it looks great in my store.”

Soundtrack of sales

Whatever your store’s soundscape is — birds in flight, water splashing, whale songs, or beachy music, keep it subtle, advises Meadows. “Maybe it emanates from a small speaker nestled inside an armoire, not blasting all over the store.”

At The Gate, “we have lovely cool jazz piano music in the background,” says Rodgers. Coastal Treasures has “music going on all the time that’s either beachy or reggae, but soft.”

Wing looks for playlists on Pandora of feel-good happy tunes.

It’s no longer necessary to install expensive sound systems. Small Wi-Fi speakers aren’t pricey and can sound great. Better still, you can take them with you when you move to a new location.

Subtle scents

Through the olfactory sense, you can evoke fond memories of a customer’s honeymoon in Hawaii by wafting the scent of flower leis.

As with sound, the keynote is subtlety, says Meadows. “It should be just a hint; you don’t want some overpowering scent to be all that someone remembers about your store.”

Most of the people that walk into Coastal Treasures say, “‘Oh it smells really nice in here!’” reports McIntyre. She has the goats to thank — soaps, shampoos, and facial oils made from organic goat milk happen to smell very nice, and are customer favorites.

“I keep them near the front door so as soon as people walk in, it smells lovely, with the combination of the different soaps and their plumeria and honeysuckle fragrances,” says McIntyre. “I’ll see people trying to detect which one they’re smelling.”

Candles, too, evoke a romantic, relaxed feel, and scented ones add ambiance even when unlit. “If you’re selling candles, you should have one lit all the time,” advises Meadows — unless, of course, an open flame isn’t allowed or desirable.

Fortunately, there are other ways of obtaining that candlelight glow. Rodgers uses flameless votives at The Gate, saying, “We have enough scents going on in here between the soaps and the unwrapped candles — they’re very fragrant.”

Use the merchandise

Ambiance also emanates from what you’re selling. Keep your merchandise consistent with your theme and brand, says Meadows. Seaside retailers have the advantage of offering ocean-themed goods that shoppers instinctively associate with serenity, peace and relaxation — instant ambiance!

Wing showcases local artists and artisans inside Sea La Vie such as Art of MVP — the initials being those of San Diego-based resin artist Michele V. Pruyn. “She makes charcuterie boards in vibrant blues and greens that look like waves coming in and give my front window a pop of color,” says Wing. “They’re my best sellers right now — and they’ve even captured the men’s eyes.”

McIntyre’s main reason for opening Coastal Treasures was to showcase her husband’s photography; his framed seascapes adorn the back wall. There are other visual delights too. “One of my most popular items is a suncatcher by HeavenlyLightCrystal,” says McIntyre. “I keep them in the window, and they cast rainbows throughout the day.”

Your store’s ambiance isn’t something that happens by accident; it comes by putting yourself in your customers’ beach sandals and perceiving your store through their eyes, ears and noses. Do that, and you’re sure to get it right.