Are You Getting Your Fair Share of Visibility and Traffic?

Retail sales in the United States have surged significantly since last year, sparking fierce competition among retailers to capture their share and boost foot traffic. To shout, “shop here,” many are covering their windows with promotional offers, price cuts, new product launches and seasonal deals.

Yet, these messages add to an already overwhelming flood of 10,000 marketing impressions consumers face daily. In this scramble to say more, one key to driving traffic is often missed: 80% of purchase decisions happen in the blink of an eye—driven by emotion, not logic.

More is not necessarily better

In an increasingly crowded retail landscape with new stores opening everywhere from high streets and strip malls to power centres and shopping malls, standing out and driving traffic remains a challenge even for the best. Relying solely on promotions won’t deliver sustainable, profitable growth.

To truly differentiate, retailers must forge an emotional connection with customers in the split second it takes to decide which store to enter. Understanding the key drivers behind visitation and repeat visits is essential to securing a fair share of sales. These insights form the foundation of the BlinkFactor principles, built on three decades of consumer behavior analysis and real-world research.

Why emotions matter for retailers

We know that humans process visual information, such as store exteriors and product displays 6,000 times faster than text. More importantly, we also retain 65% of what we see compared to just 10% of what we hear, and color can boost brand recognition by as much as 80%.

It’s no coincidence that category leaders like Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and McDonald’s all own a memorable color and shape. Emotions, meanwhile, are processed five times faster than rational thought, which means brands should spend less time appealing to logic and more time tapping into the emotional desires of their customers.

While the mechanics of the emotional brain are complex, one truth is clear: the right emotional triggers can decisively nudge shoppers toward your brand over the competition.

Give your store the blink test

For customers wishing to visit your store, you must stand out, connect with them on an emotional level and ensure there are no friction points that would cause them to think critically, namely, answering these three key questions:

1. Is your storefront distinctive and memorable?

According to the “ThinkBlink Manifesto,” your storefront is far more than an entry point, it’s your brand’s split-second chance to spark an emotional connection, what we call the “Blink Factor.” Humans process visuals 6,000 times faster than text, meaning you have only milliseconds to make customers feel something before their rational mind kicks in. Owning a distinctive color and shape can instantly set you apart from the competition.

Our work with Tip Top in Canada and WSS in the U.S. proves the impact of this approach. By crafting bold, recognizable exteriors, we created store experiences that shouted a welcoming, “Come inside”.

A unique and memorable storefront should trigger an immediate emotional response, allow customers to identify your brand from across the street, ensure the visual language aligns with your brand’s emotional territory, and compete on feelings rather than just displaying products.

Ultimately, if I put my thumb over your store sign, do I recognize your brand from competitors, since, pending the pedestrian traffic, your storefront sign may not be visible. When you consider that visuals are a direct link to your customers’ emotions, you need to ensure your visual language aligns with your brand’s emotional territory.

2. What’s your 10-foot story?

Your 10-foot story is about your brand narrative being straightforward from ten feet away, before customers can read any text or see detailed products. In that moment, your store should instantly communicate your brand’s emotional promise through color, shape, and design. It should tell customers what kind of experience they’ll have, rather than just what you sell, while creating a sense of belonging that makes them want to step inside.

Having a distinctive visual language is key to standing apart from competitors. Ask yourself: If someone walked past your store with their “sound off” and only caught a glimpse from the corner of their eye, what would they understand about your brand? For Tip Top, floor-to-ceiling digital signage showcasing the latest arrivals was visible from the entrance, enticing customers to enter further into the store. WSS featured a central, high-impact display at the front, creating an immediate draw.

Your 10-foot story isn’t just about attraction; it’s about removing friction. Cluttered entrances, aisles unfriendly to strollers, or poor wayfinding all heighten customer anxiety, putting emotional connection out of reach. Simply put, it’s hard for customers to love your brand if you frustrate them before they’ve even stepped inside.

3. Are you getting in the way of your success?

Many retailers undermine their own success by overcomplicating their message, breaking the ThinkBlink principle that “simplification is the ultimate sophistication.”

Common pitfalls include feature overload by cramming too many messages into window displays, rational-only appeals that focus on price and features instead of emotions, generic aesthetics that look like every other store in their category and inconsistent emotional territory through mixed visual signals that confuse the subconscious.

We recently conducted a study to determine which promotional and marketing signs customers read. The answer is very few, if any, and many act as visual clutter to what is truly important, the product.

The solution is to step back and ask yourself: What single emotion do we want customers to feel when they see our storefront? Then, design everything to trigger that feeling in the blink of an eye. Your storefront and first ten feet should stand out, create a split-second pause, and pull customers inside through emotional cues like intrigue, discovery, or inspiration.

It follows the natural behavior of shoppers: first notice, drive interest, and then act. Ironically, these are the same behaviors when we shop online or in a physical store. So why fight the flow?

The Retail Reality: Your Store Has Milliseconds to Win

In today’s hyper-competitive retail landscape, success isn’t determined by how many promotional messages you display, it’s won or lost in the blink of an eye through emotional connection.

With humans processing visual information 6,000 times faster than text and making 80% of buying decisions driven emotion, not logic, your storefront must create an instant emotional bond before rational thinking begins.

The best retailers know how to stand out. They own a distinctive color and shape, tell a clear ten-foot story that conveys experience over product, and remove friction points that create customer anxiety.

Yet too many fall into the traps of feature overload, purely rational messaging and generic aesthetics that fail to create the emotional pause needed to drive store visitation.

Jean-Pierre Lacroix is President of Shikatani Lacroix Design (SLD.com), a global branding and design agency specializing in bold, future-forward customer experiences. For more than 45 years—35 at SLD’s helm—he has led brand transformations for major retailers, consumer brands and financial institutions. A pioneer in experiential branding, Lacroix coined the term “Blink Factor” to describe the critical first impression that drives customer engagement, and was among the first to introduce digital signage, virtual reality and neuroscience testing to retail design. He is the author of “The Belonging Experience,” “Desire by Design” and “ThinkBlink Manifesto.”