In the October 2012 Apparel NZ issue Mark talked about choosing a designer, this month explores how to select a shopfitter.

I have read a number of articles warning that building a house is one of life’s most stressful activities. I haven’t yet seen any about fitting out a shop but, given the tight time frames, compressed site and complexity, I suspect that fit-outs are even worse! One of the very best ways of smoothing the process is to have a good shopfitter.

Having discussed choosing a designer last issue, in this article I want to discuss the selection of that shopfitter and, then next month, how you might manage him through the building process. (At the risk of being politically incorrect, I will refer to the shopfitter as “him” as I have yet to meet a woman shopfitter, but would be keen to!)

First lets explore just what a “shopfitter” is. By my definition a “builder” is not the same as a “shopfitter”. Builders working on residential or industrial buildings, for example, operate in a fairly sequential process, on relatively roomy sites with comparatively long construction programmes. Shopfitters, on the other hand, usually have many trades working at once in very tight spaces with fixed dates bounded by the tenancy handover at the beginning and the opening date at the end. Whereas a house builder may run days or weeks late in completion, with only some frayed nerves as a result, in most retail fit-outs there are fixed dates when stock, staff and customers will turn up, along with launch dates for advertising etc. These generally can’t be moved at short notice. So, in my opinion, the main thing you need to look for in a shopfitter is a supernatural ability to organize his staff and sub-trades and to work to a tight programme without any loss of quality. Obviously price is important but having the mall-opening pass with your stock, staff and customers sitting outside on the street shop would be more disastrous than a slightly higher quote! Continue Reading..

Often the changing room is the place where buying decisions are made. That’s why it’s an important space within the store that needs attention to detail together with careful lighting design to help customers look their best while making their decisions. Did you know that women buy only 25% of what they try on while men tend to buy a phenomenal 75% of the items they try on? Over the years we have designed quite a few changing rooms. Here is a selection of some of our favourites.