Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/147181
Creating a buying atmosphere The right showroom design can increase sales throughout your dealership By Liz Hochstedler w hen owner Michael Wood moved South Florida Mastercraft in 2011, he had a clean slate of a dealership to design. With an 8,000-square-foot showroom space in Boynton Beach to fill, Wood put a lot of thought into the new digs and how the layout would affect sales. "We wanted to be a one-stop shop," he said. A dealership's showroom offers the best format for a store to present itself and its culture and create an environment in which customers want to spend time and, hopefully, money. Jim Rasmus, president of Retail Design 22 | Boating Industry | July 2013 P22x25-BI13JUL-Showroom.indd 22 Associates explained about dealership showrooms, "It's their lifeblood. It's what attracts and keeps customers coming back, if the showroom is designed to meet [customers'] expectations." Typical customers, he said, spend 29 seconds deciding if the store they've entered is one they plan on staying in or not. Because of that, the store should be presented in a professional manner, with 80 to 90 percent of the product visible from the door. "Right off hand, it should be telling the customer that it's a place that they want to shop in," Rasmus said. www.BoatingIndustry.com 6/5/13 10:30 AM