By Maintaining your flooring in high-traffic areas for retail stores is always challenging. The retail store sees lots of foot traffic and thus requires extensive cleaning.
Renowned author Retrosun Designs states, ’’Cleaning & Organizing Is a Practice, Not a Project. ‘’. For any retail store, managing a clean and pristine environment requires routine practice to provide an optimum shopping experience for customers.
For every store, the higher-traffic areas require extra attention beyond regular scheduling. From the entrance zone to the aisle, check-out counters to fitting rooms, promotional displays to sitting areas, these floors or walkways of the store require special attention since they encounter the highest foot traffic.
In this article, we outline 6 tips for keeping the floors of your retail store pristine in high-traffic areas.
1. Regular Cleaning Practice
Regular cleaning practices are crucial in maintaining a pristine environment for retail stores in high-traffic areas. Daily cleaning not only makes your retail space clean but also aids in maintaining its top-notch quality and longevity.
Below, we have outlined some daily activities that you must perform to make a sparkling cleaning higher traffic areas in your retail store:
- Morning sweeping – When you open your store in the morning, cleaning and sweeping all the standard and high-traffic areas is best practice. In the freshness of the day’s beginning, you must dust and mop and remove all the loose dirt and debris.
- Removing Trash and Debris—Regular trash removal throughout the day prevents unpleasant smells. You should also pay close attention to the door and cash registers so that no debris remains in your commercial retail shop.
- Spill Response– Unpleasant spilling and staining are everyday things in high-traffic areas of any store. These spills and stains can leave a permanent mark on your premises. Thus, to prevent this permanent stain, you should address this spill immediately. This will help you keep your retail space in natural condition for a long time.
- Entrance Space– The entrance space of any store is the most foot-traffic area of the premises. A dirty store entrance mat makes the wrong impression on customers. This mat also works as the first line of defence against dirt and debris. Therefore, you must regularly clean the entrance floor mat and its sugaring area.
2. Protective Measures
Maintaining cleanliness in high-traffic areas of rental stores is always a challenging task. There are multiple approaches to addressing this concern to create an everlasting and long-lasting cleaning environment in your store. There are a few protective measures you must take to maintain an optimum shopping experience for your customers:
- Use Mats: Try to use mats at the entrance and the inside part of the floor. These mats act as filters to trap dirt, dust, and moisture from shoes.
- Clear floor marking: Implement clear and line marking so customers are cautious when shopping in your commercial space.
- One-way system: implement a one-way shopping system throughout the store and design entry and exit points to manage traffic flow.
- Sweeping and vacuuming: Schedule vacuuming and sweeping regularly in high-foot-traffic areas. This practice removes loose dirt and debris before they cause scratches.
- Schedule deep cleaning: Deep cleaning is another important preventive measure that retail store owners must take to keep their premises clean.
3. Care for Different Flooring Types
Choosing the right floor types for different areas of your retail store’s foot traffic is essential to making the right impression on customers and maintaining your floor space.
Tile Floor: These floors are the most popular choice for maintaining high-foot-traffic areas due to their durability and ease of maintenance. You can conduct regular sweeping and vacuuming to loosen dirt and debris.
Vinyl and Laminated Floor: This floor offers a wood-like appearance and gives an aesthetic feel to your retail store on a budget. You need to vacuum and sweep this type of floor clean with a specially formulated cleaner to avoid damaging the protective coating. You also need to avoid accessing water.
Hardwood floors: Hardwood floors add a touch of elegance but require more care in high-traffic areas. To maintain this flooring, you should use a microfiber mop with wood floor cleaner.
4. Preventive Maintenance
To maintain a clean and hygienic floor space in retail stores with high foot traffic, you must conduct preventive maintenance on your furniture, rags, and other high-traffic areas. Implementing these preventive maintenance strategies can significantly reduce dirt and debris tracked into your high-traffic areas. Below, we have outlined some preventive measures:
- Invest in easy-to-use and durable flooring materials
- Use a high-quality entrance mat
- Using non-acidic cleaning products to prevent corrosion
- Practice daily cleaning schedule
- Use eco-friendly cleaning products
- Use naphthalene and other products to prevent fungus in certain areas
5. Repair and Maintenance
Repairing and maintaining high-foot-traffic areas in your retail store is crucial for an optimum shopping experience. Regularly inspecting these areas for signs of wear and tear would help maintain an optimum atmosphere in higher foot traffic areas.
Richard Whately once said, ‘’It is the neglect of timely repair that makes rebuilding necessary.’’ Thus, it is crucial to promptly address minor issues like loose floor tiles or damaged grout lines to prevent further damage. It is also important to conduct timely maintenance so not you may not have to rebuild your store’s higher traffic section.
6. Hire Professionals
It is essential to hire a professional to maintain pristine and extraordinary flooring in areas with higher foot traffic. Regular cleaning is essential, but professional deep cleaning goes one step ahead. As a store owner, you may not have the necessary expertise to conduct deep cleaning. In such circumstances, you can always hire expert professionals who are well-versed in providing commercial cleaning and janitorial services for retail stores.
Choosing the right cleaning professionals is always challenging. To find a reliable commercial cleaning service provider, contact All City Cleaners. With their years of experience in providing quality cleaning services for retail shops. They have become the number 1 cleaning service provider in the United States.
