3 Ways Luxury Retail Stores Are Designed Differently From Budget Stores

3 Ways Luxury Retail Stores Are Designed Differently From Budget Stores

If you have ever been in one of the flagship stores of a high-end, exclusive designer labels like Christian Dior, Prada, Chanel, Victoria Beckham, or Gucci, you will know that the stores themselves are worlds apart from the mainstream brands like Gap and Forever 21. Offering a completely different experience and a sense of luxury, rather than a manic parade of bargains, these stores are carefully designed to best show off – and sell – high-end items. But exactly how do they differ in design from the more cheap and cheerful shops at the mall?

There are three ways the design is different in a high-end luxury fashion store compared with a mainstream clothing store:

The Building Matters

Most mainstream fashion brands will be able to open up just about anywhere they have identified as a good location with an available empty lot they can move into. Whether it’s at a retail park or in a mall, the exterior isn’t really important – people are drawn in by the familiar branding and the promises of discounts and bargains displayed in the windows. While luxury brands do have some of their smaller locations in upscale malls, their flagship stores tend to be in either buildings that were already interesting, or in buildings especially designed to house them, often by award winning architects like luxury designer Peter Marino, who has designed retail stores for just about all of the big names in high end fashion.

No ‘Color Psychology’

When you look at most mainstream fashion retailers, you’ll notice a lot of color on their store fronts – often red and blue. Psychology suggests that red signals danger and motivates us into action – in this case, the danger of missing out on a great deal. Blue, on the other hand, makes us feel relaxed and comfortable – and more likely to make impulse purchases. High-end stores don’t use this and you generally see most with their branding in elegant black on white with no use of bold, brash primary colors at all. They’re not trying to sell you amazing deals or get you to impulse buy small, cheap items. Rather, they want to sell you sophisticated design and great quality, so more elegant branding is displayed.

Fewer Products on Display

Often, when you go into an expensive store, you will have to ask to see or try something, as there are far fewer things on display. This is partly to show items off at their best and partly because with high ticket items, they can afford more staff who can assist you in making the decision to buy what will inevitably be quite a major purchase.

These are three of the ways that luxury brands’ stores differ in interior and exterior design from mainstream fashion retailers. A lot of thought goes into both types of store design, but selling expensive luxury items is a different matter to selling large quantities of cheaper products that offer value rather than prestige.