The Best Floor Plan for Grocery Stores: 5 Ways To Drive Sales

Grocery stores operate on tight margins, making every square foot count — which is why an effective floor plan matters so much. 

National grocery chains often achieve higher sales per square foot than the retail average, a testament to how thoughtful layouts encourage customer spending.

Many smaller stores, however, miss opportunities to arrange their space for similar gains.

Keep reading for five practical ways to improve the floor plan for grocery stores and create a better shopping experience for everyone.

1. Guide Customer Movement

While narrow aisles and more shelving might seem like a practical way to fit more products, it also makes your store feel claustrophobic and hard to navigate with shopping carts.

One of the key ways to boost profits in a grocery store is by encouraging customers to browse. If the space feels uncomfortable or confusing, they’ll grow frustrated or only buy the exact items they need. 

Your store layout isn’t just about making products fit — it’s about getting into the head of your shoppers. Is everything easy to find? Where are all the shopping staples? What will they pass along the way?

Here are some ideas to keep in mind when arranging your store:

• Avoid sudden bottlenecks: Arrange shelving and displays to prevent areas where traffic naturally slows down.
• Using directional signage: Use clear, attractive signage to guide customers and reduce hesitation in finding specific items, and to draw them towards sale items.
• Considering product grouping: Place related items together to reduce the need for customers to crisscross aisles repeatedly.
• Make popular aisles wider: Use the sales reports from your point of sale (POS) system to identify which areas of the store are driving the highest sales, and widen those areas first.
• Place food staples at the edges: Put staples like your meats, dairy, and bread at the back edges of the store to encourage customers to browse the aisles along the way.

(Image source: Shoppermotion)

If you’re considering making layout changes, don’t do everything at once. Try incrementally testing new layouts to avoid confusing customers. You can adjust small sections or a single aisle, then gauge your sales data before making larger changes. 

2. Make the Most of Displays & Shelving

In addition to simply arranging products, your shelving choices influence your grocery store’s overall look and functionality. Investing in proper displays helps you better present your full inventory more effectively, all while making shopping easier for customers. 

Different types of shelving and their applications include: 

• Gondola shelving: Use freestanding, adjustable units to form your main aisles and display packaged goods, canned items, and dry foods.
  • Use these to: Create central aisles, highlight complementary items, organize general merchandise, and hold high product volumes.
• Endcap displays: Place these at the ends of aisles to capture attention with high visibility.
  • Use these to: Promote seasonal items, sales, and new products, or encourage impulse buys with themed and holiday displays.

(Image source: LaunchPointRetail)

• Wall shelving: Mount these units to walls to maximize vertical space and highlight specific product categories.
  • Use these to: Showcase lighter or specialty products and define focused sections like health and beauty or household goods.
• Pegboard displays: Use perforated panels with hooks to hang smaller, lightweight items.
  • Use these to: Display snacks, school supplies, personal care items, or cleaning tools that hang easily.

(Image source: Hip2Save)

• Wire shelving: Install open metal racks for areas needing airflow and visibility, like coolers or storage.
  • Use these to: Stock produce, dairy, frozen items, or bulk goods in both sales and backroom areas.
• Specialty displays (e.g., wooden carts, bins): Add standalone displays that bring a market-style look and visual variety.
  • Use these to: Feature baked goods, fresh produce, or clearance items using bins, carts, or rustic-style units.

(Image source: AlcoDesigns)

Each shelving type offers distinct advantages, so be strategic about where and how you use them. Adjustable shelving offers flexibility for different product sizes and changing trends, and placing heavy items on lower shelves makes shopping easier for customers and stocking simpler for your team.

Also, while it’s tempting to have huge produce displays or tall shelves, make sure the size of the shelf makes sense for your stock and how your customers actually shop. Overly large displays for perishable goods can easily lead to more food waste and empty-looking departments. 

3. Design Department Zones for Sales

Beyond the general layout, how you choose to arrange specific departments significantly influences your customers’ overall shopping experience.

Ideally, your grocery store has a sensible layout where departments complement each other — grouping similar or related products makes navigation easier for shoppers and helps your store feel more organized. 

While specifics of your layout depend on your space and customer needs, here are some department-specific suggestions.

Produce Section Layout

Freshness sells — and nowhere is that more clear than in your produce section. Tips to design your produce area for maximum impact and customer flow include:

• Put your freshest items up front: Position produce near the entrance to create a sense of freshness and color the minute a customer walks through the door.
• Alternate colors: Alternating the colors of various fruits and vegetables gives a wider sense of variety and makes a produce section pop.
• Create helpful signage: Share product origin, preparation tips, or seasonal details to educate and engage customers. Signage is also a great way to highlight local or seasonal items.
• Cross-sell items: Leave space for standing displays to cross-sell complementary products. For example, set up a spot to sell salad dressings, healthy dips, and other snack items next to vegetables.
• Know temperature requirements: Produce sections are arranged to look nice and to maximize the shelf life of your fruits and vegetables. Keep your produce section out of direct sunlight, and ensure you know which items should be kept cool and which are best at room temperature.

(Image source: Solid Ground)

Maintaining fresh and fully-stocked produce displays encourages customer purchases and repeat visits. An efficient inventory management system, including a first in, first out (FIFO) approach for stocking, helps your displays look their best and reduces waste.

Related Read: Top 5 Grocery Store Software Options for Small Markets

Deli & Bakery Layout

Customers seeking freshly prepared items often browse the deli and bakery sections. To help shoppers find what they’re looking for as fast as possible, design this area to showcase freshness, provide convenience, and encourage repeat purchases. 

To design your deli and bakery areas effectively:

• Display fresh products: Use glass cases to showcase fresh deli and bakery items, so customers can easily see what’s in stock. 
• Prioritize customer convenience: Position the deli and bakery close to a customer service area or have dedicated staff available within each section to answer any customer questions. 
• Couple complementary items: Encourage cross-selling by placing your deli and bakery section next to items like cheese, chips, or dips.
• Highlight homemade and unique items: Specialty retailers are thriving, even as prices rise, because they offer better quality and freshness. Use your signage and displays to put your best items front and center.

Fresh items will often surge and wane in popularity throughout the year. Use your sales data to see which items are selling out, and which might be ready to phase out for the season.

Frozen Foods Department Layout

An efficient frozen food section should strike the right balance between energy efficiency and customer accessibility. Shoppers should be able to easily navigate these aisles and quickly find what they need, so freezer doors don’t have to be left open long. 

To design your frozen foods area effectively:

• Strategically position freezers: Place frozen food cases along the back walls to help contain cold air and reduce energy costs.
• Ensure accessibility: Choose low shelving and upright cases to make frozen products easy to reach for all customers, regardless of height or mobility.
• Utilize signage: Install angled shelving and add clear, prominent signs to improve visibility and shorten browsing time.

Leverage POS data to identify peak demand for specific products. This information can then guide your stocking strategies and determine if any frozen food categories require more display space.

(Image source: TastingTable)

Meat & Seafood Layout

When designing your grocery store’s floor plan, the meat and seafood department stands out as a destination for specific shopping needs. This means its layout should prioritize freshness, expert assistance, and cross-selling opportunities to drive additional sales.

To design your meat and seafood areas effectively:

• Separate service areas: Create distinct counter sections for meat and seafood to maintain hygiene standards and prevent cross-contamination.
• Hire expert staff: Employ skilled butchers and fishmongers to assist customers, improve their shopping experience, and encourage higher-value purchases.
• Place complementary products nearby: Display marinades, rubs, seasonings, or cooking tools next to the meat and seafood department to increase convenience and encourage additional purchases.

These layout choices create an intuitive shopping experience, where product visibility, ease of service, and convenient access to related items all work together to satisfy customers and drive more sales.

4. Prioritize the Checkout Area

Your customers’ shopping experience ends at checkout, so it’s important to leave a good last impression.

When designing the floor plan for your grocery store, include staffed and self-checkout options. This combination helps reduce bottlenecks and caters to different customer preferences. That said, it depends on your business— self-checkout isn’t a perfect fit for every store.

If lines are slowing down, it might be a slow or unintuitive POS system, not the number of lanes, at fault.

Related Read: Self-Checkout vs. Cashier Lanes: What's Best for a Grocery Store?

(Image source: Building Design & Construction)

Additionally, you should leave at least 15 feet between staffed checkout lanes so there's enough room for queuing. You can also strategically stock small, high-margin impulse buys like candy, gum, magazines, or small snacks near the registers to increase the average basket size.

5. Base Your Layout on Store Performance, Not a Hunch

Creating an optimal floor plan for your grocery store is an ongoing process. However, the last thing you want to do is just make random changes and hope for the best. 

To measure the impact of any design changes, you need to select metrics to track and consistently check performance. 

Some key metrics to monitor include:

• Sales per square foot by department: Measure how much revenue each department generates relative to its space to guide layout changes or product placement. If a large department isn’t driving revenue, it might be time to downsize.
• Average transaction size: Track how much customers spend per visit to gauge cross-selling success and store appeal. You can also look at customer basket information to see if certain types of items are consistently bought together.
• Customer feedback: Collect input through surveys or comment cards to understand how shoppers feel about the layout and experience. Also, check your online reviews to see if there are any consistent complaints.
• Inventory turns by product category or department: Monitor how quickly products sell and restock to spot strong performers or underused shelf space.
• Shrinkage rate: Track inventory lost to theft or spoilage to identify layout areas that may need better security or rotation.

Related Read: What Is Inventory Shrinkage in Retail? 8 Ways To Prevent It

Your POS system can help you track these metrics, centralizing all the data by department into a convenient hub you can reference when designing your store’s floor plan.

Some of the ways your POS software can assist include:

• Sales reports: Review sales trends over time or by department to monitor performance shifts after layout updates.
• Mix and match promotions: Highlight specific products or areas after a redesign and track their performance through sales results.
• Inventory data: Manage inventory from the register and observe product movement to help you assess how layout influences stock turnover.

Armed with this information, you can make informed decisions about your grocery store’s floor plan, continuously adapting to customer needs and market trends for better sales.

Your Grocery Store Floor Plan Is Only the Beginning

Designing an effective floor plan for your grocery store gives your store more personality, helps you stand out from corporate competition, and, most importantly, makes the shopping experience better for your customers. 

Before you make any layout or store design changes, make sure to have a specific goal in mind — whether it’s boosting sales in a particular department, reducing food waste, or increasing seasonal sales. This way, you can use your sales data to see if your changes are having the desired effect.

But even the best, most welcoming floor plan won’t help your store if popular items are frequently out of stock, the checkout process is slow, or your staff is bogged down in admin.

That’s why independent grocery stores around the country trust industry-specific tools like IT Retail to make running their businesses easier and customers happier. To get an instant quote, try our free Build & Price tool.