Are you thinking of refurbishing or redesigning your showroom or exhibition space to boost your business sales? Do you want to find new ideas to showcase your brand’s range of products or solutions for furniture, flooring or wall coverings? Having the right design will help us to achieve these objectives successfully.
A showroom is a commercial space that offers the possibility to go beyond the standard in a conventional shop and offer inspiration and new products in a more relaxed atmosphere. In addition, just as in the design of shops and commercial premises, the showroom is a space in which to transmit brand image. Today we show you five aspects to take into account to design an attractive showroom space:
Display a selection of products and offer personalised service
Showrooms have always been presented as spaces where product solutions were displayed, often with a variety of finishes or colours on display for the user to see. The aim was direct sales, even if there was no accompanying context or ambience.
In today’s showrooms, the tendency is to display only a selection of products – conscientiously chosen – accompanied by supports to show the variety of colours or finishes, but also the origin of the materials or information about the collection to which it belongs. The key to the showroom is to offer a well cared for space where the client can stroll around in a relaxed manner, find inspiration in their projects and, ultimately, decide on one solution or another.
In a quiet and exclusive environment, customer service plays a key role. Sales staff must be able to detect the visitor’s needs and offer a tailor-made solution for each project. In this sense, spaces such as material libraries where to explore more textures or shades reinforce the user experience and the personalised treatment throughout the visit.
Turn your showroom into a brand experience centre
Showing products is all very well, but it is even better to see their practical application in an environment. A showroom should be a living space, with the in situ application of furniture, wall coverings, lighting or other solutions offered by the brand itself. Incorporating flooring or furniture in use, for example, is the best evidence of how it looks or how resistant one or another surface is.
In multi-brand spaces, the different collections in the catalogue can be integrated and offer a solution in the space that is as close as possible to what the user is looking for. Brands such as Porcelanosa have succeeded in creating small spaces where they include all the designs that can be made with the products of the eight brands that make up the group, from ceramics, kitchen and bathroom furniture, stone or aged marble.
Integrate offices or workstations in the showroom
There are multiple solutions for integrating work environments with showroom space. More and more brands are embracing the possibility of bringing together exhibition space and offices, with customer service spaces, open or private workplaces or more or less formal meeting rooms.
A clear example is the Bernadí Hub, a place, as defined on its website, halfway between a showroom and retail space. The historic office furniture firm has transformed its business model to adapt to the new market solutions and the new Hub functions as a meeting point with the client, has formal and informal workspaces and rest areas as well as incorporating biophilia criteria and lighting solutions in line with the latest trends in office design.
Bernadí has created the multi-brand Concept Spaces, responding to the new trends in the workplace: coworking, networking, flexible and remote work. An example of this is the phonebooth, a space designed for short meetings or to take calls. Both the company’s internal team and the client can make use of it and it forms part of the visit experience. In short, there is nothing better to show the offices of the future than to become one of them.
Grouping solutions by usability and not so much by product is the key to success in your showroom space. This usability can be transferred to the bathrooms or workplaces, because both the work team and the client can make use of them. In this way, the showroom goes from being a sales space to an experiential centre of the brand.
Create spaces to generate synergies with professionals
Another aspect to achieve success in the exhibition space can be to consider the space as a meeting point where creativity can be fostered and a benchmark space within the sector.
Cosentino City Barcelona offers, in addition to multiple exhibition areas, multi-purpose and open-plan areas for events, work spaces and places of inspiration for its clients. As described on its website, the space is designed “to offer a unique technological and sensory experience to the entire community of architects, planners, interior designers and designers”.
Along the same lines, there is The Next at Bernadí Hub, a community of experts from the workplace sector and other disciplines, architecture, design, branding, management, wellness and biophilia, who work to offer the optimum solution to the client at every stage of the project.
Relying on the knowledge of specialists from different areas can make the project grow and add a differential point with respect to the competition. In Bernadí’s case, teamwork, collaboration and the crossing of knowledge converge in a single methodology, the B Method.
Always design your showroom according to the needs of your company
Before implementing changes in our space, it is important to assess the needs of our brand, the available space and the location of the showroom. There are smaller showrooms, such as boutique spaces, which will prioritise product representation and a personalised and close customer service.
There are also large-format spaces that can offer great possibilities in the display and even complete environments for customers. When planning a space, it is necessary to consider not only the objects on display and their uses, but also the people who will use it, both visitors and the internal team itself.
Each design project is different. At Grup Idea we imagine and design spaces based on the client’s business model and incorporate our experience to guarantee a surprising and profitable result. Our design department works in a transdisciplinary way and incorporates the know-how of each technician on the team and external professionals to offer the design and conceptualisation project tailored to the client’s needs. In addition, we take care of all the architectural and engineering work, paperwork, legalisation and licence management until the final construction of your premises with Abessis.
At Grup Idea we specialise in the design and construction of corporate offices and retail spaces for major brands. Discover now all our projects.
