Retail renderings: show the foot traffic before the stores open

A retail rendering is a photorealistic image of storefronts, a shopping arcade, a strip mall or a building's ground floor up and running before it opens: lit windows, people walking by, businesses at work. Retailers don't lease square footage, they lease foot traffic and visibility, and the rendering is how you show them that before the first store opens its doors.

What is a retailer really buying?

Someone leasing a store isn't picturing a home. They're picturing their business: whether customers will walk in, whether people will see the window from the street, whether the neighbors will help or hurt. Their questions are concrete:

• Do people walk past? Where do shoppers come in, and what can they see from the street?
• How will my storefront look? Is the frontage wide, is the ceiling high, is there room for a sign?
• Who'll be next to me? What kind of businesses would bring customers to mine?
• Is there parking, or a place to load and unload?
• Will this place feel alive, or will it sit half empty?

An empty shell answers none of these. A rendering of the place working answers almost all of them.

How do you show the activity?

The view from the street

The most important image is the one a passerby sees: the storefronts from the sidewalk or across the street, with signage, lighting and people. It should show the real street, with its real width and its real neighbors, because retailers know the area and will check. The facade rendering logic applies here, with the ground floor as the star.

Inside an arcade or mall

If the project is a shopping arcade or a mall with an interior walkway, show it from the shopper's point of view: walking in from the street, seeing storefronts on both sides, finding the café at the back. That's the view that tells a retailer whether a unit in the middle of the walkway will get traffic.

Real types of business, no real brands

The stores in the rendering should have believable businesses: a café, a pharmacy, a clothing store, a bakery. That helps retailers imagine the mix. But they shouldn't carry real brand names. Putting a well-known chain in the image suggests a deal that doesn't exist and can cause problems. Invented, neutral names do the job.

Day and night

Many retail projects live in the evening: restaurants, bars, extended-hours shops. A night or dusk rendering, with the windows lit and people at the tables outside, sells a different side of the place. More in night and sunset renderings.

The store from the inside

Some tenants also want to see the inside of a unit: the ceiling height, the depth, where the restroom and back area are. A rendering of a store fitted out for a typical business, like a café with its counter or a shop with its racks, helps them picture how they'd use it. If the units are flexible, showing the same space fitted out for two different types of business widens the range of tenants it speaks to.

Selling retail units to investors

When retail units are sold to investors who will lease them out, the rendering has a double job. The investor needs to believe a tenant will want the space, so the image should show it the way a tenant would see it: busy, visible and well located. It's the same reasoning as for offices, covered in how to sell offices and retail units off the plan.

Retail as part of the building

In mixed-use buildings, the ground-floor retail is part of what sells the apartments above, and vice versa. A busy ground floor tells residential buyers they'll have services downstairs. Showing both in the same building view helps each side of the sale.

In the Maconda XXIV demo, an unofficial working demo based on a building in Quilmes, near Buenos Aires, the building sits on its real block with floors you can tap and each unit to explore on a phone. In a mixed-use project, the ground floor can be one more level to tap, with each retail unit and its availability. See the interactive unit selector.

Common mistakes

• Showing the stores empty. You understand the architecture, but not the business. Retailers need to see life.
• Using real brands. It puts companies in the image that have nothing to do with the project and can lead to complaints.
• Inventing the surroundings. An avenue that isn't the real one, or crowds that are impossible for the area. Retailers know the block and will notice.
• Ignoring loading and deliveries. For large stores or restaurants, showing how deliveries work is reassuring.
• Exaggerating the frontage. If the storefront is four meters wide, it should look four meters wide.

Where is the material used?

• The site sign: a busy commercial front attracts retailers who pass through the area.
• A leasing brochure: with the renderings, each unit's plan and its dimensions.
• Listing sites and social media: to reach retailers and investors looking for space. See renderings for social media and listing sites.
• Meetings with prospects: the broker shows the place in operation and where each unit sits on the plan.

What do you need to send?

The plans of the ground floor or the arcade, the facade, the dimensions of each unit and an idea of the tenant mix you're aiming for. Photos of the real street help a lot. You approve the views and the businesses shown, and you get the images ready to use. The general list is in what you need to order a rendering.

If you're leasing or selling retail space that isn't built yet, message me on WhatsApp at +54 9 11 6193-3176 or email facundocampo100@gmail.com. I work remotely from Buenos Aires (UTC−3) and answer in English and Spanish.

Frequently asked questions

What is a retail rendering for?

It shows storefronts or a shopping center up and running before they open, so retailers and investors can picture the foot traffic, visibility and tenant mix. That's what they're really evaluating when they lease or buy.

Should you put well-known brands in the rendering?

No. Real brands suggest agreements that don't exist and can cause problems. Believable types of business with invented names give the same sense of activity.

Can a store be shown fitted out for different businesses?

Yes. Showing the same unit as a café and as a shop, for example, helps more types of tenant picture themselves there.

Do retail renderings help sell to investors?

Yes. Investors want to believe a tenant will lease the space, and seeing it busy and visible makes that much easier to imagine.