Every year new trends emerge in retail and we’re seeing a lot of buzz and activity around a few in particular. Specifically we’re looking at retail sign trends moving into 2022.
If you’re like most businesses or designers you’re focused on staying relevant, capitalizing on design opportunities and ensuring that your retail experience meets the expectation of your customer.
So what are the design trends for retail signs we’re seeing?
We picked 3 of the most prominent which revolve around specific design components, wayfinding and interactivity.
Make an Impact with White Space on Store Signage
We’ve seen this sign trend come in and out over the past few decades and it looks like it’s back!
Using white space in your retail signage is an easy way to capitalize on the minimalist trend as we move into 2022.
Stop creating busy cluttered signs.
Now that consumers are looking for visual relief across retail graphics, signs and design you’ll need to ensure there is room for the copy and graphics to breathe. This actually attracts the customers eye to areas of the signage more easily which gives you the power to share your message more effectively.
Simple, elegant and to the point message will produce amazing results moving into 2022.
Wayfinding Signage Improves the Shopping Experience
A trend that has emerged over the past couple of years reinforced by social distancing practices is an expectation on following direction focused signage most refer to as wayfinding. There has been such a heavy use of suggesting which direction to travel throughout a store and how far apart to stand that people have been conditioned to look for them.
In addition to that some people are less social in general after all of this and don’t want to talk to anyone so they are relying more on their ability to navigate without the help of another person.
There are benefits to this because it makes for a more efficient shopper and it frees up the time of your employees so they can focus on operations instead of giving directions.
So in 2022 you’ll want to focus on making it easy for customers to navigate your store with more signage, more specific signs and sign placement.
Get High Tech with Interactive Retail Displays & Signs
Interactive retail displays have been around for a while but they are now generating more consumer adoption due to the familiarity of working on interfaces like smart phones, the efficiency of browsing well developed navigation structures and again the effects from social distancing for so long.
The most common interactive displays you find are touch screen interfaces.
The drawback for these is that they are expensive, need to be connected and well maintained.
An alternative to the interactive terminals and kiosks is the use of QR codes that have the customers using their own screen (their phone) to interact and shop.
QR codes have also been around for a while, but thanks to restaurants and the pandemic more people started using QR to view menus and pay for their meals instead of handling “germ ridden” menus or “dirty” cards and cash.
While there are a good number of other sign trends moving into the new year, we think these are the most prominent and if you were to take advantage of them you’ll see a big increase in engagement and sales.