Painting storefronts is the type of service that only few commercial painters can do successfully. It could be because they are small jobs and seemingly not profitable. After all, painting storefronts demands the same planning and logistics as bigger projects do, with less return on investment. We don’t find that to be the case with our customers. Retail contracting is good business if you listen to the needs of the customer and work efficiently. For many years Ecopainting developed business relationships with several Toronto store owners. This beneficial relationship led us to more opportunities for interior work and repeat business.
The Importance of an Attractive Storefront
The saying “you can’t judge a book by it’s cover” was not written by a marketer. If a book cover doesn’t attract your attention you will never buy it or even open it. The same marketing principle applies to packaging and especially storefronts. We are exposed to an increasing amount of visual simulation requiring our attention. The retail customer is not any different, therefore capturing the customer’s attention is a key marketing endeavour. A beautifully decorated and attractive storefront will bring passerby traffic through the front door.
Branding and image. Customers experiences are carefully managed and affected by their perception of the brand. They are told a story and that’s exactly the narrative they should expect when approaching your stores. Branding takes time and monetary resources. Surprises at this stage arecertainly counterproductive. By continuing the story of your brand you can direct your customer’s actions towards a purchase.
Ecopainting understands the specific marketing needs of the retail customer. Being a Toronto painting company, we know the local streets and how busy they are. During store renovations you and your customers don’t want to be burdened by construction equipment and debris. Renovating is a hustle, therefore we stay out of the way and immediately clean up any construction mess. The well being of your customers and staff during a paint job is paramount.
Painting the Storefronts on Queen Street
There are a few streets in the world as busy as Queen Street. The arts and culture scene is evident everywhere and is enjoyed by thousands of Toronto residents. For contractors, painting the front of the stores is very challenging. The main problem is the small window of opportunity available to do the job, when the streets are quiet. Ecopainting has the experience to do this work without being a burden to the crowds enjoying the scene. That entails being careful with the ladders and constantly directing curious people away from wet paint.
Tori’s Bakeshop is an all natural bakery with delicious baked goods for the residents of the Beaches. We painted the interior walls and trim as well as the distinctive green door facing Queen Street East. Tori’s Bakeshop opened an additional location in the distillery district. We are currently in the process of helping them decorate in that location. First we sprayed primer and paint on the high ceilings before the renovations. We will be painting the walls and trim after the wallpaper installation. The main walls will be painted with green chalkboard paint. We can’t wait to see the finished look of the new store.
Nadège Patisserie is a retail painting client of Ecopainting and is located on Queen Street West. It first opened it’s doors in 2009 and has since grown to four locations in the city. We had the opportunity to paint the location a few times, including the entire interior.
The main colour of Nadège inside out is a clean white with highlights of fuschia. On the outside we painted the side patio area, the front facade below the signage as well as the entrance way. Keeping the outside as clean and white as the inside on a busy street location is a challenge and we are happy to help.
On Queen Street West we painted the entrance trim and the high areas over the Crocs and Brandy Melville stores. We painted this for the property manager who was facilitating the sale of the properties.
A few doors over, we painted at the Lululemon store. We used to take care of the interiors of all their locations in the GTA. The exterior wall of the store was vandalized by unsightly graffiti. We ended up cleaning and repainting it a few times until they found a permanent solution and protected the wall.
When walking down a few Toronto Streets, it is amazing to see how many stores still have our paint on them We must be doing something right. Painting a store is not so much about putting the paint on the wall. It is mostly about customer care.
If you are looking for painters for your Retail store, call Ecopainting and one of our representatives will discuss your needs and offer concrete solutions.