The goal of your TPC should be to create a shopable retail environment for your customers.

Shopable—The easy and intuitive navigation of a retail environment; accomplished through a combination of store layout, product groupings, signage and lighting. An environment with this quality is said to have “shopability.”

Let’s get down to some shopability basics. Most of your traffic is coming in with the singular purpose of either paying a repair bill or picking up a part. So make these areas easy to find by using clear signage. If there’s a restroom in the vicinity, a directional arrow or sign should be prominent.

Navigational cues to help a customer know what products you stock and where they are located also makes your store more shopable. Some of these cues can be the products themselves. Depending on layout and orientation of shelving, products can be visibly scanned on shelf, or an end cap display can indicate types of products in any given aisle.

A great way to get ideas for creating a shopable TPC environment is to “be a student of retail.” Anytime you go into a store note the layout, how products are displayed and what gets your attention. There are lessons to be learned both in and out of the automotive category.