The window signage is the first thing your customers see before entering your store and it gives them an idea of what they might find inside and what to expect from your business. It’s like a profile picture for your shop, you have to make it pretty but suggestive so you attract the right kind of people. The best part is that possibilities are endless and you can use your imagination to the maximum, working with colors, textures, puns and jokes, fonts, depending on what identity you want your business to have.

How to Stand Out from Other Stores

#1. First of all, the most important thing is to stand out from the rest of the stores and pop up into people’s eyes so they see you when they walk across the street, after all that’s the main purpose of window signs. You have to find a way to work with your environment and adapt to it in such a way that it emphasizes your store but at the same time looks good and high quality.

#2. At small, hand made jewelry store did the opposite of what most people do: they left their storefront window completely empty and painted the walls plain white. The owners did that because their shop was placed in an agglomerated mall, next to all the big companies with big windows and lots of colored banners, so that was their only way to stand out with very little money.

While this method doesn’t work for everybody, it is a good example of someone working with the environment not against it. If you are surrounded by lots of colored shops, try sticking with one color and use signs with different shades of it. This way, the customers will be grateful that they catch a breath of air by looking at your store in comparison to the others, but you will still have all the signs you need for advertising.

#3. If your store is placed on a busy street, in the city center you have to draw the attention to you by using unconventional signs like the neon lights that fill our Instagram feed these days or projecting your logo on the pavement.

#4. It is a known fact that people are more likely to enter a store if there are sales but since most of the big and small retailers use this strategy, the public has become tired of it and started not to trust these signs anymore. Our advice would be to use the ‘SALES’ card if you really mean it and not occupy the whole window with it because you lose your chance to expose your products and to attract customers based on the type of products you sell.

#5. Other signs like ‘New Collection’, ‘Spring Collection’ should be used in the same way, only if you mean it. The goal here is to separate your business from all the other ones, especially with from the big corporations that don’t have a certain style or personality. Instead, use original signs designed especially for your store and for your needs. For example, if you have a bohemian boutique and sell elegant clothes, you won’t be using stickers with ten different colors on your storefront windows, but classy ones with a beautiful font that stand next to your best items exposed there.

#6. If you are at the beginning of your business and you are not sure how to deal with organizing and designing your store, you should hire a professional. By doing this you know that you have someone with experience that listens to you and your ideas and provides the best solution that you need at the moment. It saves a lot of time which is crucial especially before opening a new shop when it’s most likely to be a chaotic time and in the end you will have a quality result for the big opening (leave a good first impression!).

The downside of hiring a designer would be the financial part but I think it’s important to invest in this section because it’s the first thing people see and it will also give you a direction of what patterns and methods you could use in the future if you want to do it yourself at some point. If you have time and confidence in yourself go ahead and make your signs instead of telling someone to do it for you; this way you will be 100% sure that they come out the way you wanted them and have a more personal and original look.

#7. Last but not least, use high-quality materials when designing the signs. Even if you might think it doesn’t matter, the details make all the difference when comparing a small retail business and a big corporation that sells products from the same category. This is what helps small retailers survive on this gigantic market so why not use everything you’ve got. From paper to cardboard, to velvet and Christmas lights, make sure you use them right and don’t end up with a cheap advertisement for your business. Don’t be afraid to spend a little bit of money to make your store look pretty on the outside so it can match with the inside and the products you sell.

The storefront window is the business card for your shop and it should provide all the information someone might need before entering. What do they sell, is it a high-end store, does it match my style, what category of prices they have.

All of these are questions that customers have when they see your store for the first time and a good signage can answer all of them in a subtle and clever way that speaks to people on another level. Make sure you take very good care of how you manage your signs and change them periodically to avoid monotony but try sticking with a theme. Your business’ branding starts with your storefront window and all the signs placed on the outside part of the shop so make it with style.