Free Flow Layout

Free Flow Layout Free flow layout is an irregular arrangement of retail setting that encourages a formless traffic flow. It is mainly used in stores which have wide range of products. Easy to navigate and display to another were one of the major characteristics of free flow layout. Compare to the other retail layout, free flow layout had no particular display pattern. All the fixtures and products were grouped and located in flowing patterns on the sales floor. This layout usually used in stores which emphasize mainly on atmosphere and personal selling. Disney, Reebok and Nike were some of the good example which were using free flow layout. Customers could move around freely is one of the advantages of free flow layout. Since there were no barrier or no routes to display item, customers could reach their favourite products with less time. At the same time, employees could assist the customers immediately. Also, this layout could increase impulse of purchases. Customers could view the product easier, and more freely, with no fixed routes.
Meanwhile, free flow layout could confuse the customer, especially those who were visited in the first time. Non- regulated layout might lead the new customers get muddled as they have no idea who to start browsing the item. Also, more floor space has to be waste to follow free flow layout, more spaced were used as free space for customers to move freely. This restricted lots of retail store which setup in a small or medium size store, since they did not have that much space to set up a free flow layout. Furthermore, more free space represented decrease the number of display items which showed to the customers. This increased the opportunities cost of the layout. It was not hard to figure out free flow layout were best suit for big size store especially operated by well-known brand. Disney, H&M, Apple, Reebok, all these brands were famous and acknowledge by most of the people. They mostly understand what type of