We love to shop. New clothes, sparkly jewelry, stylish furniture, updated faucets, cool kayaks. And all of it’s available online without ever leaving the comfort of home.
A recent Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults found that roughly eight in 10 Americans are now online shoppers.
What does that mean for brick and mortar retailers? You have to step up your game to attract shoppers who will stop in and spend.
You might offer sales and promotions, increase your ad budget, but don't forget the power of great landscaping to attract shoppers.
How to bring them in? Here are seven great retail center landscaping ideas.
Add Appeal To Your Signage and Entrance
This is where it all starts. Will potential customers love the look of your place so much they can’t wait to stop in? Or will they drive right by and head home to shop online?
Grab attention with colorful flowers planted around your signage. Everybody loves a cheerful welcome.
But think beyond summer annuals — you need customers all year long. Add lush layers of plantings that span the seasons. If it’s in the budget, incorporate a water feature for a sense of luxury.
Great lighting will boost your sign’s visibility. Don't forget to light the surrounding plants, not just the lettering.
Once your signage landscaping is in place, be sure to follow up with regular maintenance to keep things tidy. Nothing turns potential customers off like messy, overgrown landscaping that looks neglected. Plus, too-tall plants can block your sign from view
Brighten Things Up With Lighting
It’s way too easy to shop online late at night in your PJ pants, cozy and comfortable at home. Make your retail space inviting, safe and beautiful at night, and you’ll give shoppers a reason to venture out.
Professionally designed lighting, with artistry in mind, makes a spot look high-end and inviting. Why keep the best architectural features of your building and the stand-out elements of your landscaping in the dark?
Everybody feels safer when a property has professionally designed lighting. Nobody wants to look furtively over their shoulder as they walk from their car, or stumble and fall.
Not sure what areas of your retail center need a lighting boost? Think parking lots, sidewalks, entrances and common areas, as well as landscaping.
Approach your business after dark the way a customer would, and see what impression you get. Let that guide you.
Intrigue Shoppers With Unique, Interesting Plants
Adventure beyond your ho-hum petunias and begonias and install plants that make customers stop for a second look. Tropicals. Stunning foliage combinations. Dramatic ornamental grasses. Trees in pots.
There are lots of gardeners out there intrigued by what other creative plant-lovers are doing. Lure them closer for a look. Unique, out of the ordinary plants lend a high-end feel, creating a sense of the exotic.
Position your attention-getting plants where people can appreciate them — on either side of your main entrance, lining your walkway or in a shopper common area.
Trees look extra special anchoring huge pots. Smaller crape myrtles, flowering cherry, Japanese maples and bamboo are impressive in an oversized planter.
Add Seasonal Color They Can’t Ignore
Color is king. Everybody loves bright, seasonal flowers. You can't help but want a closer look.
Switching out your colorful plants each season keeps your business looking current and fresh, and lets shoppers know you want to impress them.
Start spring out right with cheerful daffodils, tulips and hyacinth to put winter-weary shoppers in the buying mood.
Follow that up with summer annuals planted in blocks of color for visual pizzazz.
Incorporate trees and shrubs that offer stunning fall color. Evergreens, like holly, sport bright red berries for winter interest.
Keep things vibrant and changing, so shoppers are always intrigued.
Offer Appealing Common Areas
Give your customers a reason to linger. If you entice them to sit and soak up the sights and sounds of a relaxing patio, they won't be in a hurry to leave.
Maybe they’ll search out a snack to enjoy under the cool shade of a patio umbrella. They might realize they need one more thing after all, and duck back into a store before they head home.
You get the idea.
Even a simple hardscape patio with comfortable seating and shade beckons to weary shoppers.
Add a soothing water feature for a sense of serenity and luxury. Plus, kids love to wiggle their fingers in the spray.
Don't forget shade, with either trees or colorful patio umbrellas. Consider fragrant plants and flowering shrubs, so even the simple act of inhaling is pleasant.
Make A Splash With Water Features
The cool gurgle of a water feature on a hot day turns all of us into kids who want to play in the spray.
There are lots of possibilities for water features in a retail space. Attract attention to your entrance with a tall fountain. Create a sense of relaxation and luxury in a common area.
Kids love water features. They’ll want to hang around. And where there are kids, there are parents — who shop.
Dazzle With Holiday Lighting
We love our childhood memories of being enthralled by twinkling holiday lights and the giddy excitement of visiting Santa at the mall.
Holiday decorations put shoppers in the mood to buy, and lighting is a key part of retail holiday dazzle.
Try something new this year
Cherry blossom lights feature hundreds of petal-shaped bulbs that make trees shimmer with texture and color. Choose one color or opt for lights that cycle through several different hues.
Meteor lights add a stunning shooting star effect to your retail property’s trees. These light tubes contain a row of diodes which light up and then descend, creating the delightful effect of shooting stars.
Impress your customers with an RGB display. It stands for red, green and blue. These three simple colors combined, when varied in intensity, produce millions of different colors. It makes fora spectacular holiday light show that will bring families in to enjoy the spectacle. Offer warm cups of fragrant hot chocolate to encourage lingering.
Let Outback Landscape Wow Your Retail Customers
Yes, online shopping is stiff competition.
But we still love to browse, to touch the stuff we might want to buy, to run into friends, to grab a cookie and lemonade in the shade between stores.
Make your business the place to be.
At Outback Landscape, we have lots of great retail center landscaping ideas to attract shoppers to your business.
We’re experts in seasonal color, unusual plants, landscape lighting and mesmerizing holiday lighting displays.
Let us tell you more.
We serve residential and commercial properties in Idaho Falls, Rexburg and Pocatello, Idaho, as well as Bonneville, Madison and Bannock counties.
Call us at 208-656-3220. Or fill out the contact form to schedule a no-obligation meeting with one of our team members.
We’d love to hear from you.
