We might be in a world in which great numbers of people now shop online, but let’s face it – many of us are still highly appreciative of the “old-school” charms of the traditional brick-and-mortar retail outlet. 

And in an increasingly “phygital” world, in which there is much emphasis on combining physical and digital experiences in new and compelling ways, such “traditional” stores might well be on the verge of a resurgence in their importance. 

So, one thing that you can’t do in the early 2020s, is neglect cleaning routines at any retail store for which you are responsible. Below, we have detailed some of the other reasons why the utmost cleanliness is of the very greatest importance for a physical shop. 

There is so much scope for retail spaces to quickly become dirtied 

One reason why you should be arranging regular shop cleans, is the fact that high-street retail outlets are so vulnerable to having dirt dragged into them. 

If your store is a success, it will be attracting high levels of foot traffic. But in the process, customers entering and leaving the store are likely to leave behind visible footprints, chewing gum, and other sources of dirt and debris. 

This can be an especially unfortunate situation when it comes to your store’s entryway. A front door that looks dirty will be off-putting to potential customers, and could even be a major safety hazard (as we’ll touch on further below). 

Cleanliness is crucial to a retailer’s reputation, especially in the digital age 

A lack of cleanliness in a retail store can bring accumulating problems. Missing a few essential shop cleans because “everyone’s busy” might mean that, at least in the short term, certain areas of your store simply look a bit grubby or dusty. But that, in turn, could help encourage pests, and cause bad odour over time. 

Something else that could arise from dirtiness in your retail store, is reputational damage. We are in an era in which almost anyone has a smartphone, and almost anyone is able to take a few quick snaps for sharing across social media. 

There could be a particular risk of this happening in certain more “sensitive” areas of the store that customers expect to always be clean, such as changing rooms in a clothes shop. 

So, even if you merely cared about your store’s image and nothing else, you should still be investing in regular shop cleans to ensure there is minimal scope for a lack of cleanliness to cause reputational damage to your business. 

The health and safety of staff and customers is at stake 

As you will doubtless already know if you are responsible for a retail space, brick-and-mortar shops can be quite complex spaces. Not all buildings that house retail stores were necessarily designed for that purpose, or they may have been built many generations ago, long before the days of 21st-century health and safety standards. 

And all of that is before you consider how such spaces are typically used. Something as simple as a box that has been left in a less-than-sensible place, or a spill that has only been partly cleaned up, could present a risk of someone tripping, falling, and potentially injuring themselves. 

The broad point we’re making here, is that retail spaces can present certain health and safety risks anyway, and the absence of a proper and thorough cleaning regime could add even more to those risks. 

And if the worst was to happen, it could cost your business in quite a number of ways. You could effectively lose the services of valuable staff while they recover from injury, or have legal action taken against you. Again, these are potentially extremely serious risks, that you could do a lot to combat by simply having a sensible regime of regular shop cleans in place. 

If you are reading this as someone who is eager to implement such a regime for a retail store, you are in the right place. By requesting a quote through Nationwide Property Clean today, you can help ensure you take all the right steps to keep your retail setting clean, for the best possible price.