What is the Business Importance of a Shop Counter?

In every customer-facing business, you are likely to find a shop counter of some description. Vital for customer interaction and orientation, and for the actual operation of the business, a shop counter centralises your interactions with your customers, and allows you to lay out your business appropriately for the ideal results – for example, by putting the likely impulse-buy items at the counter, where they can catch the eye at the best possible time.

Shop counters are much more than just a space for the cash register, though – and in the age of internet shopping and instantaneous bank transfers, here’s why the shop counter is still critically important in business.

Why Have a Shop Counter?

The shop counter is the heart of your shop – the location where sales are finalised and customers can go for any help they need. The location of your counter really does shape the layout and function of the entire rest of the premises, and a good counter can be a fantastic business asset. Consider, for example…

Organisation

Having a well-placed, well-chosen shop counter allows you to organise the rest of your store around it – your shop counter is the point at which sales are made, so the rest of the store can be organised as one large sales funnel, making sure that customers get the best possible experience as they progress through the shop to the counter. In addition, the shop counter can be used to keep the organisation of your store in good order, acting as a meeting point for staff, a front-of-house storage location and an organisational hub.

Ease of Management

With a shop counter providing a central organisational location in your store, you can quickly and easily manage the space during operation, providing customers with a place to go and staff with a focal point for their work. This, coupled with a shop counter’s ability to serve as a sort of small storage area in the front of house, makes management of your shop easier when you have a shop counter!

Shop Layout

As mentioned above, once the shop counter is installed, the rest of your shop can be laid out to take advantage of its sales potential. If you think of the shop as a sales funnel, with the shop counter as the point where sales are made, then your shop layout naturally begins to work around this concept, making sure that the customer has the maximum possible opportunity to build up to a purchase as they move through the store.

Sales Enhancement

Regardless of the idea of arranging your store around your shop counter to boost sales, the counter itself is a crucial sales enhancer, as it gives you the chance to market impulse-buy items and make last-minute sales. Depending on your industry, these items will take different forms, but there’s always something that the customer has forgotten, or something they could be tempted to buy!

What Should Your Shop Counter Be Made Out Of?

At UK Shopfittings, we stock a wide range of shop counters and materials, allowing you to tailor your shop counter to the specific requirements of your business. A range of materials means that any business needs can be catered for, providing the best value for your shop counters and the best aesthetic and functionality for your customers! The shop counters available from UK Shopfittings can be finished with materials including:

Melamine

If you shop at convenience stores, newsagents and other shops, then you have likely seen melamine shop counters in action many times. Seen as standard in a huge number of businesses for their appearance, easy maintenance and longevity, melamine shop counter finishes are easy to clean and look great – but some stores which deal with slightly more wear-intensive industries, like trade counters and trade collection points, may need a more durable countertop finish.

Marmoleum

Marmoleum is an ideal finish for shop counters which need more durable, hard wearing finishing. Usually 3mm thick, marmoleum is durable and good looking, to the point that it is sometimes used in floor coverings as well as shop counters. As marmoleum is tinted all throughout the material, any scratches are invisible, making this tough shop counter finish an excellent choice for applications which may inflict more wear and tear, like trade shows, trade outlets and other applications which might damage a more delicate counter top.

However, this toughness isn’t at the expense of aesthetics – marmoleum is popular not just for its hardiness, but for its great appearance, making sure that it sees use in a wide variety of stores, including high-end retail and luxury goods retailers! Marmoleum is one of our most versatile and most popular shop counter finishing materials, and for good reason.

Laminate Finishes

A laminated cover to your shop counter is a great way to introduce some variety to your store – laminated finishes are available in a variety of patterns, colours and materials that are unavailable in a melamine finish. For example, if you would like your shop counter to match a different part of your shop décor, then a laminate finish may be exactly what you need to achieve this!

Alternatively, laminate finishes can be used for their particular hardiness, standing up to scratches, damage and wear and tear well, and keeping your shop counter looking great.

Hanex Solid Surfacing

At UK Shopfittings, we consider Hanex Solid Surfacing to be the best shop counter finishing material on the market. Very durable, waterproof and with seamless joints, this extremely easy-to-clean material is particularly durable and will last for the lifetime of the store – and maybe longer!

With a resemblance to marble or granite, this shop counter material isn’t just tough – it’s also very aesthetically attractive, available in a range of colours, with almost infinite versatility. Hanex material can be cut, machined and jointed, polished, bent and joined without a problem, and as the material is a tough, synthetic shop counter top, it’s possible to sand down and smooth away and scratches or wear that do appear!

What Features Should Your Shop Counter Have?

Your shop counter should come equipped with, at the very least, a space for employees to stand, a cash register or means of taking payment, and a countertop for your customers to place goods before buying them.

Once you’ve got those three things, your shop becomes a functional retail space, but it can be much more than that! You may also want to consider including impulse-buy items at the register, where they can catch the customer’s eye at the ideal time, as well as the materials needed to register for a loyalty scheme (if your business uses one) and quick resupply goods to address any store issues without needing to leave the shop floor. In this way, the shop counter is not just a self-contained sales hub – it is also a key storage location in the front of house!

Contact UK Shopfittings for Shop Counters Today!

For more information on shop counters and the benefits that they can bring to your business, you can get in touch with UK Shopfittings at any time by calling our telephone number, 01704 565341, or using the contact form on this site to send us a direct message. The experts at our head office have been helping store owners to outfit their premises for years, and UK Shopfittings is still the UK’s leading supplier of shop counters, store fittings and other necessary furnishings for any customer-facing business, so whatever you need, we’ll be able to help!

Once you’ve called us or sent us a message, our experienced staff will be able to answer any questions that you may have, provide any advice that you may need, and help you to find the ideal shop counter solution for your business. So what are you waiting for? Call us today to see what UK Shopfittings can do for you!