If you're going to order signs for your retail business, here are some suggestions you should try to follow.

Be concise

Where possible, you should ensure that the message on each sign is as concise as it can be. You can do this by trying to use just one or two words, along with a symbol, to convey the sign's core message. For example, if your shop has stairs leading to a second-floor but that floor is used as a stockroom, you might want to put up a sign that explains this to customers and prevents them from mistaking it for another shopping area. In this instance, it would be better to put up a simple 'no entry' or 'staff only' sign at the bottom of the stairs, with a red circle that has a line through it, rather than one which states 'Stockroom upstairs. Only staff and cleaning personnel are permitted past this point'.

The reason for this is as follows: when presented with a sign that is covered in lots of text, most people won't read all of it and instead will just briefly scan it. This may then lead to them not following the instructions on the sign. As such, although it seems counterintuitive, the more explanation you provide in the form of text, the less likely your customers will be to understand the sign's main message. Because of this, if in the aforementioned situation, if you opted for the sign with the lengthier body of text, your staff would probably end up having to frequently guide lost shoppers down from the stockroom and onto the shop floor.

Opt for plain block letters

Although most sign companies offer a range of decorative fonts, these are not always suitable for a retail environment. Basic fonts consisting of plain block letters tend to work better in this setting. The reasons for this are as follows: if a sign has big, plain block letters, rather than curling, decorative ones that feature a mixture of intricately-formed upper and lowercase letters, shoppers should have no difficulty reading it from several metres away. This means that you won't have to deal with groups of customers congregating around a sign and interrupting the flow of foot traffic, because they can only read it when they're close to it.

Being able to read your shop's signs from a distance will also make shopping in your store less stressful for your customers, as they won't have to traipse all the way across the shop floor just to get a closer look at a sign that they think will tell them the location of the department they want to go to.