Managing hot and cold store layout zones

The management of hot and cold zones of a retail shop helps to increase these figures.

Zoning a shop by likelihood of purchase is driven by the psychological characteristics of shoppers:

1. most people are right-handed;

2. it takes time to adapt to a new environment;

3. people tend to move around the perimeter of the room.

Thus, hot zones include:

1. shelves on the right-hand side counter-clockwise to the perimeter of the premises;
2. intersections of traffic flows;
3. checkout areas;
4. areas next to escalators.

The cold zones have the following location:

1. at the entrance to the shop;

2. the shelves on the left hand side of the pathway;

3. the space at the centre of the shop;

4. nooks and crannies;

5. basement floor and upper floors.

In order to optimise sales, it makes sense to place impulse goods in the hot zones; in the cold zones, it makes sense to place targeted products that people come for deliberately. In doing so, it is possible to consciously direct the flow of visitors to the shop in such a way that they pass through as many departments as possible. At the entrance to the shop it is recommended to place heavily discounted promotional items at the entrance to the store: this reduces the "holding time" for customers when they enter the store and help them focus on their purchases and not miss out on enticing offers.

Creating heat maps with the GreenShelf builder

GreenShelf allows you to find hot and cold zones in your shop by experimenting with them. The tool creates heat maps based on the sales statistics of the products positioned in each shop zone and on each shelf.

GreenShelf's data is more reliable than the theoretical reasoning. The editor generates heat maps based on the sales history of a particular shop, while theoretical editors are based on general laws of behavioural psychology without taking into account the specifics of a particular shop and its target audience.