Children's Store

Decorate a children’s store to be most pleasing to your target audience: children. Make your shelves no taller than your own waist so most items sit at children’s eye level. Set out low tables with sample products for children to test out, putting a game on one and some building blocks or musical toys on another. You might even set up a curtained “dark box” that children can look inside to play with glow-in-the-dark items.

Space tables and shelves at least 5 feet apart to give kids lots of space to move and look around. Paint your shelves and tables bright colors and put bright, oddly shaped area rugs on the floor.

Clothing Store

Group your clothing according to occasion: formal, professional, evening and casual. Place at least two mannequins in each section on top of round racks where they stand out. Make sure the clothing the mannequins wear is close by. Place your clothing racks at least 2 feet apart from each other. Decorate pegboard walls with accessory assemblies; put hats, scarves and purses together in a visually pleasing way. Fill in empty shelf space with sample boots and shoes arranged artfully.

Pick colors for carpeting and linoleum that are calming but attract the eye. Blues and greens work well, as do mauves and browns. Use bright hues for young customers and softer tones for older ones. Light your store with bright, indirect light so that customers can see the merchandise but aren’t blinded by fluorescent lighting.

New Age Store

The key to decorating New Age stores is atmosphere. Your customers should feel like your store is a magical place. Choose wooden shelving and tables and area rugs in deep burgundy, dark blue, hunter green and black; solid colors work best. Cover linoleum flooring and cinderblock or pegboard walls completely with rugs, shelving and tapestries.

Mix and match your merchandise to give your store the feel of a witch’s workshop. Group things that customers might use together; brace books with carved and gemstone bookends, and tuck packets of incense into censers and burners. Place candles into various holders. Store gemstones and herbs in glass jars with calligraphy labels intermixed with small cauldrons and mortar and pestles.

Set up sample altar arrangements on tables around the store. You could even set up an altar for several major practices: Celtic, Egyptian, Wiccan and African or whatever practices you supply for the most.