With the advent of online shopping the 'high street retailer' has realised if they are to compete they must offer an in-store experience that the customer will not get anywhere else. The internal ambience of a store is essential to engage the customer with the product or service on offer. This is especially important in the audio/visual market and when Belfast Guitar Emporium approached Richmond we realised we needed to come up with something very special...
Retail design is as varied as the products they display. A space devoted to the sale of only guitars is as specialised as you can get and Belfast Guitar Emporium is the Nashville of acoustic, electric and bass guitars in Ireland.
Displaying over two hundred items throughout the shop called for the use of every inch of wall space. Guitars suspended from patent brackets against the original brick walls, dark timber flooring and a long feature service counter are evocative of the Americana design of liquor bars and saloons in New Orleans and Memphis. Theatre lighting suggests performance. The essence of any musician and guitar heroes of the past are represented in a feature sand-blasted glass panel at the entrance.
A chill out area provides a welcome respite from the retail environment, adjacent is an acoustic room where the client may try out the instrument in the peace of a dedicated space that is full of ambience using soft furnishing and fibre optic lighting for mood enhancement!
Ultimately maximising space is the objective and this solution maximises the produce for sale.
Where many retail shops have to change with their products, Belfast Guitar Emporium remains the benchmark for the future of guitar retailing.
