ARNO Retail Design Agency – Experienced, Comprehensive and International

ARNO started as an agency designing and producing high-quality retail furniture more than 8 decades ago. Throughout the years, we have gathered a wealth of knowledge and experience as a retail design agency working with numerous international companies from various sectors of industry. From fashion to electronics, we know our way around – and we know how to reach your customers.

Over the years, we have managed to retain our status as an independent retail design agency thanks to our flexibility and the quality of our work – which our clients have come to expect of us. Our staff include experts from every profession which is of use to a design agency, from visual designers and marketing experts to professional carpenters, architects and electricians. Thanks to the combined expertise of this team, our agency is able to reliably create designs for all major types of retail furniture. From zoning and outfitting entire brand stores to modular shop in shop systems to individual POP or POS display solutions for mass production – we know from experience how to shape the customer experience at every step of the way to a purchasing decision. Simultaneously, we know when and how to utilise cutting-edge technology such as digital multimedia elements for added marketing effect.

ARNO agency is not content to simply apply proven methods of retail design – we are an agency constantly looking for new scientific insights into customer behaviour and new trends in advertising, design and manufacture. To this end, our agency can be found at all the major exhibitions, from the DLD tech conference to the Retail Design Expo. Here, we gather valuable information about contemporary brand representation trends – and often, we draw inspiration from the creative designs which can be found here. Naturally, our agency also actively seeks out and promotes promising retail designers with ARDA, the annual ARNO Retail Design Award. Each year, we offer a theme and ask creative newcomers to come up with designs to fit this theme. This allows retail design students or freelancers to gain valuable experience as well as contacts within the industry, while we are able to draw inspiration from a fresh perspective.

Our agency can provide you with all the services needed to fully fit an entire chain of mono-brand retail stores, from zoning and creating a strategic layout to actual installation. This way, we can optimise the visual effect of individual displays, gondolas and marketing stands to mesh perfectly with the very layout of your store. This has both a beneficial impact on sales as well as on customer satisfaction, as the act of shopping is turned into an actual experience. Likewise, we can create shop in shop solutions to represent your brand in its own space within the retail environment. This ensures that the values and attributes conveyed by surrounding brands have no appreciable impact on your own brand identity, essentially carving your own fully controllable retail environment out of a larger mall or multi-brand store.

The wide range of professions among our staff allows our agency to design, produce, ship and even install your retail furniture on time, without incurring the additional costs typically associated with having to manage multiple companies working in tandem.

When coming up with your shop design, shop in shop system or free standing display unit, we focus on key aspects which all our furniture has to adhere to:

• Good shopfitting has to catch the attention of the customer.
• It should convey the branding, even at a glance.
• In a multi-brand environment, it must be easily distinguishable from surrounding brands.
• It should include interactive elements in appropriate positions. 

All of these are based on insights gained via the scientific discipline of retail design, which uses customer studies and psychological theory to determine the best approach to shopfitting in regards to its effect on purchasing behaviour. Thus, our agency takes an approach which is equal

parts scientific theory and hands-on experience. Many retail design agencies specialise in working out visual designs for the various types of shop displays with no consideration for practical aspects such as the feasibility of the finished piece of furniture. This is why our agency has professional architects and manufacturers involved from the very first step. While our marketing experts and visual designers determine the ideal way to gain the customers' attention, our manufacturing experts make sure that no design decision is taken without analysing its impact on both the production process and the everyday use of the finished units. For example, our manufacturing experts may veto designs which are too fragile for sustained use inside a brand store or they may suggest more robust materials or structural changes to a display in order to make the marketing vision fit the practical requirements of proper shopfitting.

This means that all designs created by ARNO retail design agency arrive at the production stage of the shopfitting process fully viable, with our manufacturing experts already being familiar with every detail. They then organise and supervise the construction of the individual units. One practical aspect which elevates our retail design agency above most of our competitors is the fact that our shop in shop designs utilise a great degree of modular adaptability. For example, a system designed by our agency might feature interchangeable displays with fixtures to hold various different types of products. When creating display systems designed to be positioned according to the shop in shop concept in particular, it allows for changing the specific layout of the SiS system quite easily and seamlessly – and without harming the brand. This approach also has a number of practical benefits for your bottom line:

• Building modifiable displays instead of highly specialised ones lowers the cost of production.
• Since the number of required units for your shops decreases, storage costs also decrease.
• Modifiable displays can be produced more quickly to meet deadlines. 

Thus, our agency is able to minimise production and maintenance costs while simultaneously providing highly versatile retail furniture.

Once your shopfitting furniture has been manufactured, ARNO retail design agency can organise the entire shipping process for you. We organise storage, picking and shipping your displays to the locations of your choice. And thanks to our highly precise and efficient order picking process, you can be certain to receive exactly the fixtures you ordered, always on time. The benefits are significant:

• Deadlines are always met.
• Even very specific orders can be handled quickly.
• Pieces can be picked and shipped on short notice.
• The risk of being sent mismatched units is eliminated. 

To minimise the impact on your workforce after shipping, ARNO retail design agency can also install your new shopfitting furniture or SiS systems on-site, using our trusted partners worldwide. They are familiar with your regional infrastructure and know all the technical details of the displays, stands and gondolas making up your shop design. Likewise, our agency also provides you with the necessary documentation for installing and handling your products – and we can even train your workforce directly in handling them. This allows your staff to gain hands-on experience, supervised by experts provided by ARNO agency.

ARNO is the one-in-all agency for all your retail design and branding needs. Simply contact us with your project or brand briefing and we will provide you with an estimate. We will work with you, either independently or in constant contact with each other, to create the retail environment that will drive your sales. With ARNO retail design agency, you can be sure to get high-quality bespoke furniture at reasonable prices, anywhere in the world.