The Best Quilt Shop Floor Plan: Help Customers Find What They Need

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When customers enter your quilt store, you want them to have the best experience possible.

There are many factors that affect this experience, including product quality, selection, and customer service — but a factor that’s sometimes overlooked is a quilt shop’s floor plan. Not only do you need to provide the fabrics, threads, tools, and equipment a quilter needs to create their project, these quilt store features need to be organized in the right way.

When a quilt shop floor plan is logically organized, customers can easily navigate the store and find what they need. This increases store efficiency, promotes customer satisfaction, and leads to repeat visits and increased sales.

In this blog, we’ll go over everything your quilt shop needs, and how to organize it to make your store as successful as possible.

Welcoming Entrance and Display Area

When people pass by your quilt shop, they’ll quickly generate a first impression. To make this a positive impression, your store’s exterior must be interesting and inviting. Create a well-designed, eye-catching logo and fill your store’s windows with displays of your best products. Use window space to display bestsellers, new arrivals, and seasonal fabrics.

Customers are still generating their first impression as they walk in and begin to browse your quilt store — so make sure the initial walk-in is convenient and engaging. Decorate your store’s entrance with fabric and quilts, signage, plants, art, or other ornamentation.

A customer’s first few moments in your store should catch their eyes, let them see some of your most popular products, and encourage them to continue browsing.

Organized Fabric Sections

The more your fabrics are organized at your quilt store, the easier it is for customers to locate items and make purchase decisions. Fabric arranged into logical sections minimizes frustrations and increases the likelihood of purchases.

You can arrange fabrics by:

Material
Color
Pattern
Price

Use sturdy shelving units to display your fabrics. Keep them neatly folded and easy for customers to browse. Make sure there’s enough room between shelves for multiple customers to shop comfortably. Use signage and labeling to help people spot products from across the quilt store and understand the characteristics of each product.

Central Cutting Table

Quilt stores need cutting tables to cut pieces of fabric for customers. Placing a cutting table in a central location in your store gives you easy access to it from all sections of the store, allowing you to easily help multiple customers quickly.

Make sure your cutting table is equipped with the necessary equipment, including mats, rulers, and cutting tools. Position the table in a way that you can easily talk to customers that approach you, whether it’s to give advice about a fabric or project, or just to ask how they’re doing.

Be careful to reduce clutter and keep paths to the cutting table clean so you can easily and safely use it to prepare fabrics for purchase.

Notions and Accessories Area

In quilting and sewing, notions refer to the tools and accessories required to put together a project like a quilt. Like your fabrics, notions at your quilt shop should be organized in a logical way that’s easy for a customer to look through.

Here are some examples of quilting notions:

Pins
Needles
Thread
Scissors
Seam ripper
Iron
Rulers
Rotary cutters
Templates
Thimbles

Make good use of your space by using pegboards, hooks, and display racks to organize notions. This also improves visibility and helps customers find even small, easy-to-miss items.

Pattern and Book Section

Quilt books and magazines help your customers get inspired for their next sewing project. You may choose to sell these publications at your store. If not, you can buy a few and set them out for your customers to flip through.

Whether you sell books or just have a few on hand, add some furniture so your customers can sit down as they peruse them. Helping your customers generate ideas for their next quilt will lead to more fabric purchases, too.

This pattern and book section should be in a corner of your quilt store so customers relax and read in peace, away from other shoppers.

Classroom and Workshop Area

Classes and workshops are a great marketing tool for your quilt store. They get potential customers through the door and using your fabrics and equipment. These events help you build community and camaraderie among your customers, increasing their brand loyalty to your store. To successfully hold these events, you need a designated space.

If you have enough space at your store, dedicate a room to classes and workshops. Fill it with tables, chairs, and sewing machines. Ideally, this room will be visible from the sales floor, to generate awareness and attention for the classes and workshops you offer.

Checkout Counter and Customer Service

A checkout counter is an essential part of your quilt store floor plan. This is where customers make purchases, chat with employees, and ask customer service questions. This is also a popular spot for impulse buys. Placing candy, gum, keychains, or other small items at or around the register will likely help you sell a few more items.

Your checkout counter should be equipped with bags, packaging materials, and a point of sale (POS) system that allows you to process payments using a variety of payment methods.

While you scan a customer’s items and take payment, take the time to talk to your customers about their purchases. As customers become more familiar with you and your employees, they’ll be more likely to return to your quilt store.

Storage and Backroom

You may not always have room for all of the stock you have on your sales floor, so to keep your quilt store tidy, you need a storage area. Ideally, this section is separate and closed off from the rest of the sales floor.

Because customers don’t see this section, it’s tempting to let your storage room become a cluttered mess, but keeping this room organized saves you time you’d otherwise waste hunting for a certain fabric.

Use shelving, bins, and labels to keep your back room in order. When you run out of a fabric item on the sales floor, employees should be able to quickly locate the new stock in the back and replace it. Periodically inspect your backroom to make sure it’s orderly and you can locate the fabrics you need.

How To Create the Best Quilt Shop Floor Plan

There’s no one perfect quilt store layout. How you arrange your store will depend on the amount of space you have, how the space is set up, and what you want to focus on at your store. While not all quilt stores are the same, there are several features that help quilt stores run smoothly.

Key features of quilt stores include:

Entrance and displays
Fabric sections
Cutting table
Notions and accessories
Patterns and books
Workshop area
Checkout counter/POS system
Storage room

These features should be arranged with both employees and customers in mind. Signage, labels, and clear visibility help employees and customers easily find their way around the store. Try to avoid putting things too closely together so you don’t cause traffic jams when your store is filled with customers.

An essential feature of any retail business is a POS system. A solid POS system allows you to process payments, and offers a variety of other useful features.

Like Sew is a POS solution designed specifically for quilt and fabric stores with features uniquely suited to the sewing industry. With payment processing, inventory management, website, e-commerce, marketing resources, and more, Like Sew will help you maximize sales and create an excellent experience for your customers. To learn more, schedule a demo today!