All in order

The Ordning & Reda store at DIFC.

Every retail space presents a unique set of challenges, according to Alexander Thorstrand, visual merchandiser for Ordning & Reda.

The Swedish producer of high-quality paper, storage products, bags and accessories recently opened its second store in Dubai, at Ibn Battuta Mall, with Thorstrand, who focuses on interiors, on hand to oversee the design.

“There are always challenges. When a franchisee finds new premises, they send the drawing up to me in Stockholm and we have a look at it together. There isn’t a perfect space. You always have to adapt to certain things.

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“The perfect shop is a complete square but how interesting is that? It’s better when you have some things that aren’t perfect. When you adapt to those elements, that’s what makes the space charming,” he maintained.

The Ordning & Reda brand is centred around the great Scandinavian ideal: simplicity. “It is also very high-profile. The furniture and interior reflect the products and they are of a very high quality.

“The products are colourful and have been since the very beginning, but the core colours are black and white. The logo is very much ‘Ordning & Reda’, with its straight angles, simplicity and black and white colour scheme.

“Scandinavian design is often very simple, straight and angular, and Ordning & Reda is very Scandinavian,” said Thorstrand.

Keen to control its brand personality, Ordning & Reda closely manages the design of its franchise stores around the globe. Thorstrand, who comes from a background in set design, was responsible for developing a new system of shelving that is rolled out across every single store.

As a result, every shop now follows a very precise, highly-structured template. Shelves are organised vertically by colour and horizontally by type.

As such, shops are a rainbow of coloured strips, a key attraction for potential customers walking by.

“The main thing is that the colour spectrum should be seen by as many people as possible. In the case of the Ibn Battuta store, we have used the left wall – which is what the most people walking past or entering the shop can see.”

Ordning & Reda relies on its colourful spectrum of products to entice visitors in – although black is still its best selling colour. Controlling the movement of customers once they enter is also a key challenge, Thorstrand continued.

“You always have to think about how customers will move around the shop and keep that in mind as you design,” he said.

If you have new products at the back of the store, you will draw people all the way through. Or should you give them easy access to your newest lines? These are the questions that you have to ask yourself all the time.”