Creating and maintaining an effective and excellent store display area in your business can be challenging, especially if you have limited space and a lot of items to display. By purchasing the right shelving unit, it can take your store outlook to new heights. Unfortunately (and fortunately), there are all kinds of shelves, materials, components, and accessories to choose from when looking into buying a shelving unit. Today, we will explain 3 different types of shelving, their advantages & disadvantages, type of items you can use them with and inform you on how to pick the perfect shelving unit for your store!
First, let me explain about Glass Shelving
Advantages:
1. Glass shelving disappears into the wall allowing the customer’s eyes to FOCUS on the product
2. Light comes through for the shelf below
3. Easy to clean
Disadvantages:
1. Dust and fingerprints are more noticeable, so, it must be cleaned often
2. Made of glass, so, they might break (see below)
For customer safety, you should have use Tempered Glass. As you know Tempered is much harder to break and if it does break, most likely it will break into pieces that are not sharp. We always suggest the appropriate shelf rests with glass shelves. This helps protect the glass and prevent it from slipping on the brackets.
Second type of shelving, is Bullnose Shelving
Bullnose is made of a molded plastic that comes in 13" and 15" depths. They are strong, easy to clean, look great and come in many solid colors (also, in clear/ frosted). With a 13" bullnose shelf, a 12" bracket is used. The front of the shelf will help hide the bracket.
Advantages:
1. Durable, resists chipping and scratching
2. Holds roughly 50 pounds per shelf
3. Rounded front to hide the bracket
Disadvantages:
1. Only comes in 2 sizes
2. Limited color options
Finally, the last kind of shelving, I will explain here is Melamine Shelving
Melamine is a heavy-duty option which is manufactured from articleboard/composite.
It does block the light from the shelf above and when the eyes look at the wall of product they will tend to focus on the shelf and the product, arguably taking away a bit from the product.
Advantages:
1. Smooth Surface
2. Resists Stains
3. Easier to work with
Disadvantages
1. Weighs more than most shelving (can be an advantage for displaying heavier merchandise)
2. Limited sizes and color options
Now that you understand the difference in these 3 types of shelving, are you using the correct type of shelving?
