Why Custom Metal Fabrication is Important to Create High-End Retail Fixtures

Even with the continued growth of ecommerce, today’s consumers still rely on in-store shopping for purchasing their goods and services. In fact, a recent survey found that 72% of consumers still rely on brick-and-mortar stores as their primary shopping method. For retailers, this makes high-quality, visually appealing displays, fixtures, and point-of-purchase signage an important component of a satisfying in-store experience, especially when it comes to positioning new or innovative products. 

While brands have a wide variety of construction materials at their disposal to create engaging retail fixtures, metals like mild, stainless, and pre-galvanized steel can help brands create high-quality, custom retail displays that turn heads and turn browsers into customers. Here, we’ll look at why custom metal fabrication is important to create high-end retail fixtures, and how Franklin Display Group can help you experience the power of next-level retail fixtures.

Custom metal fabrication can help create durable retail fixture that demonstrate ROI.

The range of construction materials available to create retail fixtures can be both exciting and confusing. 

For example, mild steel — also known as low-carbon steel — is more ductile and easier to form, shape, and weld, especially compared to other types of steel. The low carbon composition of mild steel makes it easy to machine holes, shapes, or cutouts, which makes it ideal for highly custom projects or applications. 

The composition and qualities of stainless steel can help brands create retail fixtures that can withstand heat and cold, as well as high levels of humidity. Not only does this make stainless steel retail fixtures ideal for outdoor applications, it also increases durability and reduces the amount of required maintenance. The result is a retail fixture with a long, reliable service life that maximizes your ROI. 

Custom metal fabrication can help create more versatile retail fixtures with consistent branding.

Retail fixtures and displays need to be versatile. They need to be used in a variety of locations or applications throughout the retail space, but these displays also need to provide consistent branding no matter how they’re configured — after all, what good is your display if it doesn’t drive brand recognition with consumers? 

Retail fixtures that leverage mobility via a simplified set up, breakdown, or movement process have more value than static displays, and custom metal fabrication can help brands create modular retail fixtures that use more intricate, specialized components to help them adapt to space constraints or unique set up requirements. 

Plus, metal fabrication creates a retail fixture that is more compatible with different kinds of finishings to enhance the visual appeal and branding of the display. For example, a retail fixture fabricated using custom carbon steel can be powder coated in a variety of stock and custom colors, or with a range of techniques to help ensure your custom display accurately reflects your branding.

Custom metal fabrication can help you create more sustainable retail displays without sacrificing performance or reliability.

Whereas some materials commonly used in the construction of retail displays and fixtures either cannot be recycled or require a large amount of processing — some of which includes harsh or hazardous chemicals — steel is a 100% recyclable metal. Because about 93% of new steel is recycled annually in the U.S., choosing steel for your display helps create what's called a “closed-loop” production cycle where nothing is wasted, 

But that’s just the beginning. Not only can steel be recycled multiple times without reducing its structural integrity, steel is one of the most common construction materials recycled in the U.S. each year. This helps ensure a consistent pipeline of reliable products for custom fabrication work, and it also helps ensure scrap steel does not go to waste. 

Choosing custom metal fabrication for retail displays helps ensure compatibility with other materials.

Choosing custom metal fabrication as the base for your retail display or fixture opens up more possibilities for incorporating other materials that can help enhance the visual appeal or configuration flexibility of the piece. Using some form of custom fabricated metal for the base of your display not only helps create a more sturdy, reliable foundation for components like wood and plastic elements, custom fabricated metal can make it easier to integrate graphics, colors, or other branding pieces. 

For example, our retail display for Nature Sweet tomatoes utilized custom metal fabrication for the frame, but it also included other construction materials like wire rings and a flexed styrene header to help make the display functional, flexible, and recognizable to shoppers. 

At Franklin Display Group, we have the custom metal fabrication expertise, tools, and resources to create retail fixtures and displays using the kind of metal that best suits your application. Our custom metal fabrication program uses high-quality steel and state-of-the-art technology to produce high-end retail fixtures and displays that help differentiate your brand from your competitors.

Learn more about how our custom steel fabrication capabilities can help you take your displays and fixtures to the next level.