During the competitive holiday shopping season, strategic commercial landscape design in Marietta can be a powerful—and often overlooked—tool for attracting customers, enhancing curb appeal, and creating a welcoming atmosphere that encourages longer visits and increased spending. From festive seasonal plantings and elegant lighting displays to well-maintained walkways and inviting gathering spaces, a thoughtfully designed exterior can set your business apart and make a memorable first impression.
In this article, we’ll explore how investing in professional landscape design can directly influence foot traffic, improve the overall shopper experience, and drive holiday sales for Marietta retailers.
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Why Commercial Holiday Landscaping Matters For Marietta Retailers
For local shops and centers, commercial landscape design in Marietta is not just about looking nice in December. A polished exterior influences whether someone slows down, glances in the window, and decides to step inside or keeps walking toward the next storefront. Thoughtful seasonal landscaping creates clear visual cues with color, light, and defined paths that stand out to people on foot near Marietta Square as well as to drivers approaching from the street. Those visual signals make a storefront feel active, cared for, and safe, which naturally encourages longer visits and more confident spending.
Holiday displays also work with the rhythm of local events. Cooler winter evenings, Christmas parades, and downtown festivals all bring extra traffic to the area. When entrances are framed with planters, greenery, and warm lighting, it becomes easier for visitors to see where to go and more comfortable for them to linger outside while they decide where to shop or dine. In that sense, seasonal work is a focused extension of commercial landscape design in Marietta rather than a one-off decoration project. It creates a setting where shoppers feel welcome, which is exactly what retailers need during peak season.
How Seasonal Commercial Landscaping Increases Holiday Shopping Traffic
Seasonal commercial landscaping influences shopper behavior in a few straightforward ways. First, it draws the eye. Fresh plantings, winter-friendly greenery, and well-chosen containers tell people that a business is open, active, and prepared for the holidays. They signal that something is happening inside, which can be enough to turn a passerby into a customer. Second, good layout and lighting make it obvious how to approach the entrance. When pathways are clear, steps are visible, and doors are subtly highlighted, visitors are less likely to hesitate or walk past because they are unsure how to get in.
Safety and comfort are just as important as aesthetics. In the early evenings, when many people shop on their way home from work, well-lit sidewalks and tidy, ice-free walkways reduce trip hazards and make the property feel safer. That sense of security helps families, older shoppers, and solo visitors feel comfortable spending more time on site rather than rushing back to their cars. Over the course of the season, these small changes in behavior add up to more foot traffic, more browsing, and more impulse purchases that directly support holiday revenue for retailers.
Key Benefits Of Holiday Curb Appeal For Retail Properties
Holiday curb appeal delivers both short-term and long-term value for commercial properties. In the short term, an exterior that feels intentional and seasonal tends to attract more visitors, support higher average sale values, and leave a stronger first impression. Shoppers often decide where to go based on a quick visual scan of an entire block. Stores and centers that visibly invest in their exterior stand out in that instant comparison, which is exactly when many holiday decisions are made.
Over time, consistent seasonal presentation supports a stronger brand and healthier property performance. Retailers benefit when regular customers come to expect a welcoming, well-maintained exterior when the holidays roll around, and property owners benefit when that expectation translates into higher tenant satisfaction and easier leasing conversations. Prospective tenants can look at the site and see that the owner treats the exterior as a true marketing asset, not an afterthought. When holiday landscaping is planned as part of a broader strategy for commercial landscape design in Marietta, it becomes a repeatable tool that supports sales, reinforces identity, and helps the property stay competitive year after year.
What Makes An Effective Commercial Holiday Landscape Design?
For retail centers and storefronts, commercial landscape design in Marietta has the most impact when it feels intentional rather than cluttered. An effective holiday plan pulls together coordinated plantings, purposeful lighting, welcoming entry details, and hardscape accents that can stand up to heavy foot traffic. Each part has a specific job. Plants add seasonal color and structure, lighting keeps the space usable and inviting after dark, entry features frame the customer’s first impression, and hardscape elements guide movement while giving you stable locations for displays.
In practice, that might mean evergreen container plantings flanking the door, winter-hardy color in beds, and a clear, well lit path from parking to entrance. Lighting that washes the facade, outlines key architectural features, and gently marks steps or grade changes extends shopping hours into the evening and makes the property feel safer. Entry treatments such as paired planters, simple wreaths, and visible, well-maintained mats signal that the business is open, cared for, and ready for holiday traffic. Hardscape details, from decorative bollards to small platforms or risers, give you sturdy staging for seasonal pieces without blocking circulation.
You can see how these elements work together in a typical layout:
| Element | Typical Implementation | Business Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Seasonal plantings | Evergreens, holly, and winter pansies in beds and pots | Instant color and a festive look with modest maintenance |
| Lighting | LED strings, path fixtures, and facade uplighting | Longer evening hours and improved sense of safety |
| Entryway treatments | Paired planters, wreaths, clear steps and mats | Higher entry rates and more impulse visits |
| Hardscape accents | Stable display platforms and decorative bollards | Durable staging for promotions and easier seasonal changeovers |
When these pieces are planned as one system, commercial landscape design in Marietta does more than decorate. It shapes how customers move, how long they stay, and how they feel about the businesses on site.
Which Seasonal Plants And Decorations Work Best For Marietta Businesses?
Local climate should guide plant and decor choices. For most Marietta properties, low-maintenance evergreens, holly, and winter pansies provide reliable color and structure through colder spells without constant attention. Ornamental grasses that hold their form in winter can add height and texture, especially in larger beds or along parking edges. The goal is to select varieties that tolerate occasional cold snaps, wind, and uneven holiday watering while still looking fresh during key shopping weeks.
Decor should follow the same practical logic. Weather-rated wreaths, sturdy ribbons, and commercial-grade planters stand up better to repeated use and make it easier to keep a consistent look across multiple storefronts or buildings. Concentrating plantings and decor near entrances, along main pedestrian routes, and at key corners gives you the most visibility for the investment. A simple maintenance plan for refreshing pansies, straightening decor, and clearing fallen leaves keeps the presentation sharp through the full holiday season rather than just the first weekend after installation.
How Holiday Lighting Installation Improves Visibility And Safety
Thoughtful lighting is often what turns a nice daytime display into a truly effective holiday environment. Once the sun sets, shoppers and diners rely on light to read signage, navigate steps, and judge whether a space feels safe enough to enter. Well-planned holiday lighting makes facades, walkways, and gathering areas easy to read from the street and from the sidewalk, which encourages people to stop rather than drive past.
Energy-efficient LED fixtures and strings are useful here because they combine lower operating costs with consistent color and brightness. Wrapping select trees, outlining rooflines, and adding gentle path lighting can guide customers naturally toward entrances without creating glare. Uplighting on key architectural elements or feature plantings adds depth and reinforces the overall design. When lighting also reveals potential trip hazards such as curbs or changes in grade, it reduces risk and makes evening visits more comfortable for families and older guests.
By pairing durable seasonal plantings with well-considered lighting, Marietta retailers can create exteriors that look intentional, feel safe, and work hard throughout the holidays. This approach turns seasonal decor into a strategic extension of the property’s overall landscape plan and supports both customer experience and long-term curb appeal.
How Retailers Can Measure ROI From Holiday Landscape Enhancements
For retailers, the value of commercial landscape design in Marietta becomes much clearer when it is tied to simple, trackable numbers. Rather than guessing whether holiday planters and lighting are worth the expense, you can measure how the exterior changes affect shopper behavior. The easiest approach is to establish a baseline before any seasonal work goes in, then compare that to matched periods after the displays are installed.
Start by recording foot traffic, total sales, and average transaction values during a typical week or during a comparable promotion from the previous year. Once holiday landscaping is in place, use people counters, manual door tallies, or even consistent parking observations to monitor entries at the same times of day and on similar days of the week. Link these counts to point of sale data so you can calculate sales per visitor, not just overall volume. When possible, ask staff to note customer comments about lighting, wayfinding, and general ambiance. Those qualitative notes help explain why the numbers move.
When commercial landscape design in Marietta is done well, many retailers see changes in a few key metrics. Foot traffic may rise by 5 to 25 percent as more people choose to enter. Sales during the activation period can lift 3 to 15 percent, especially if displays are coordinated with promotions or events. Average dwell time often increases by 1 to 6 minutes, and parking turnover or curbside use can climb by 10 to 30 percent during peak windows as more visitors stop in rather than driving past. Even simple, spreadsheet-level tracking of these figures can show whether holiday enhancements are delivering a positive return.
Which Metrics Best Show Increased Traffic And Sales From Landscape Design?
The metrics that most clearly show impact are the ones that connect exterior changes to in store behavior. Foot traffic counts are the first piece. Whether you use an automated counter or a staff tally at regular intervals, consistent entry data reveals how many people the storefront is attracting. On its own, however, foot traffic does not tell you whether visitors are buying.
To understand that, pair traffic numbers with sales per visitor and conversion rate. Sales per visitor is total sales divided by the number of people who came through the door. If that figure climbs while the landscaping is in place, it suggests that visitors are more engaged and more comfortable staying to browse. Conversion rate, or the percentage of visitors who make a purchase, offers another layer of insight. Comparing these values year over year for similar weeks, or week over week when only the exterior has changed, helps isolate what the holiday environment is doing for you.
It also helps to compare event days to non-event days. If holiday landscaping is installed and you run a sidewalk event, track how far those numbers move above normal seasonal trade. Then watch what happens on quieter days with the same displays. Together, these comparisons give you a realistic picture of how design decisions at the curb are shaping results at the register.
How Professional Landscaping Raises Property Value And Boosts Brand Image
Beyond immediate sales, professional holiday landscaping supports property value and brand perception. Well-planned commercial landscape design in Marietta typically includes durable plantings, code-aware lighting, and hardscape details that improve curb appeal long after seasonal decor is removed. These upgrades make the property feel more polished and well-managed, which influences how tenants, customers, and potential buyers view the site.
Seasonal displays are part of that story. When they are refreshed on a dependable schedule and maintained through the season, they send a clear signal about operational standards. Tenants see that the owner treats the exterior as a shared asset that supports their business, not just a backdrop. Customers notice that walkways are clear, lighting is reliable, and spaces feel cared for, which feeds into their overall impression of safety and quality.
Maintenance agreements and consistent presentation also protect the investment you have made in fixtures and plant material. Regular inspections, timely replacements, and thoughtful rotation of seasonal elements prevent the property from slipping into a tired look that undercuts leasing efforts. In this way, professional holiday landscaping functions as both a near-term marketing tool and a long-term asset preservation strategy, helping retail centers and individual storefronts stay attractive, competitive, and aligned with their brand goals.
How Glover Landscapes Helps Marietta Businesses Transform Holiday Exteriors
For many local retailers, the holidays are the busiest and most visible time of year, which is exactly when commercial landscape design in Marietta has the most impact. Glover Landscapes focuses on helping businesses turn everyday exteriors into seasonal storefronts that feel coordinated, inviting, and easy to maintain. As a family-owned, Marietta-based firm, the team understands local traffic patterns, event calendars, and the way weather actually behaves on busy corners and near Marietta Square. That local knowledge shapes every design, from the placement of planters at an entrance to the way lighting guides customers from parking to the front door.
Projects typically begin with a site assessment that looks at existing plant material, hardscape, visibility from the street, and access to power for lighting. From there, Glover Landscapes develops design proposals that balance seasonal color, durable greenery, and commercial-grade lighting so the space looks festive without creating maintenance headaches for staff. Installation is scheduled to minimize disruption, with crews handling setup, wiring, and adjustments so retailers can stay focused on day-to-day operations while the exterior is updated.
During the season, Glover Landscapes can provide maintenance visits to refresh plantings, adjust timers, and keep displays tidy through busy weekends and changing weather. Once peak shopping has passed, the same team manages removal and post-season care, which helps protect underlying plantings and hardscape. For multi-tenant centers and standalone shops, this end-to-end support makes commercial landscape design in Marietta feel more like a reliable routine than a last-minute scramble.
Holiday work is also coordinated with local retail events whenever possible. Designs can be planned to complement parade routes, evening festivals, or extended shopping hours so lighting and entry treatments reinforce what is happening inside. Because the firm works with a range of commercial properties, it can adapt the level of decoration from subtle, brand-forward displays to more traditional, family-friendly presentations that suit neighborhood expectations.
Year-Round Commercial Landscape Support For Marietta Properties
Holiday displays are only one part of a broader approach to commercial landscape design in Marietta. Glover Landscapes also helps businesses and property managers plan year-round planting schemes, update foundation beds, and add features that extend the life of an exterior beyond a single season. That might include low-maintenance water features, refreshed entry beds that look good in every quarter, or simple hardscape accents that make signage and storefronts easier to see from the street.
Routine services such as seasonal cleanups, pruning, and bed maintenance keep commercial sites looking neat between major projects. For retailers, this consistency supports brand image and makes it easier to roll into holiday enhancements without first catching up on basic upkeep. For centers with multiple tenants, a unified landscape plan helps the property read as one well-managed destination rather than a collection of unrelated storefronts.
New clients usually start with a consultation that clarifies goals, peak event dates, and a realistic budget. From that conversation, Glover Landscapes can outline a phased plan that covers immediate seasonal needs and longer-term upgrades. The result is a more intentional exterior, one that supports daily business, highlights key sales periods, and protects the investment owners have made in their property.
Frequently Asked Questions
What seasonal plants work best in Marietta’s winter weather?
In Marietta’s winter, hardy, low-maintenance choices like evergreens, holly, and winter pansies perform well. These selections provide color and texture while tolerating colder temperatures and minimal watering. Adding ornamental grasses offers seasonal contrast and movement. Choosing resilient plants helps displays stay attractive through holiday events with predictable maintenance needs.
How can retailers measure the impact of holiday landscape design?
Track KPIs such as foot traffic, sales-per-visitor, and dwell time. Set baseline measurements before changes, then use people counters or manual tallies during matched promotional windows. Correlate pedestrian counts with POS sales for clearer attribution. This data-driven approach shows whether landscaping investments are delivering the expected returns.
What role does lighting play in the holiday shopping experience?
Lighting improves visibility and creates an inviting atmosphere. Proper LED placement highlights entrances, pathways, and seasonal displays, making storefronts more attractive and safer after dark. Good lighting can extend shopping hours, guide customers through the site, and boost overall satisfaction.
How does holiday landscape design affect customer behavior?
Holiday landscaping shapes behavior by making exteriors welcoming and easy to navigate. Bright plantings, clear entry treatments, and well-lit walkways act as visual cues that draw attention and increase perceived safety. Together these elements encourage longer visits and higher spend during the season.
What long-term advantages come from professional holiday landscaping?
Professional holiday landscaping increases property value, strengthens brand image, and reduces operational headaches. A consistent, attractive exterior draws customers and tenants while protecting investments in fixtures and plantings. Ongoing maintenance keeps the site competitive and reduces vacancy risk.
How can Glover Landscapes help create a successful holiday display?
Glover Landscapes offers full-service holiday solutions — design, installation, lighting, and seasonal maintenance — tailored to Marietta businesses. Our local experience ensures displays match community events and retail goals. With end-to-end project management, we make the seasonal transformation simple and reliable for busy retailers.
Conclusion
Strategic commercial landscape design in Marietta businesses does more than beautify your property—it creates an inviting holiday atmosphere that draws shoppers in and encourages them to stay longer. From festive seasonal planters and elegant lighting to welcoming entranceways, a well-designed landscape can significantly boost foot traffic and sales during the most profitable time of the year. At Glover Landscapes, we specialize in creating custom commercial landscaping designs that capture the holiday spirit and drive business results. Ready to transform your property into a holiday destination? Call (404) 510-6437 or visit our website for a free estimate on your commercial landscaping project. Let’s make this your most successful holiday season yet.
