Stein Mart opened its new store at Tanglewood Mall last week, showing off an assortment of fall offerings and a larger layout with entrances leading from inside and outside of the mall.

Near the side and back of the store, however, the stars are the dressing rooms.

The 15 rooms in the ladies and boutique departments are larger and situated in a triangular formation, surrounding one other, rather than lined up in a hallway as they were in the previous store. Other new elements include a three-angle mirror inside the dressing room area and brighter lights throughout.

Stein Mart, a retailer based in Florida, is changing the look of its fitting rooms in stores nationwide.

Dressing rooms long have been forgotten next to eye-catching displays of apparel and exquisite jewelry. However, retailers increasingly are dressing up fitting rooms, where a customer's experience essentially can make or break a sale.

Some Roanoke-area stores are sizing up fitting rooms to shoppers' desires and ultimately spending patterns. The changes may be subtle, such as new carpet or paint. Others are more dramatic, such as creating larger spaces and adding mirrors.

It's an effort that retailers expect will pay off. Fitting-room upgrades "have a clear return on investment," said Ken Nisch, chairman of JGA, a brand strategy and retail design firm in Michigan.

"If someone goes in there [dressing room] and looks good in the lighting ... they will convert that to a sale," he said.

Increased technology also is finding its way into dressing rooms on a national level. Earlier this year, at the National Retail Federation's annual conference in New York, companies rolled out models of fitting rooms of the future.

Want to get a friend to weigh in on your outfit? A device will transmit images from the dressing room to a friend's computer or mobile device. Machines also were tested to allow customers to signal sales clerks from inside a fitting room. These new devices haven't yet made their way to Roanoke-area retailers.

Traditionally, though, retailers have not invested large amounts of money in fitting-room design. The more upscale the retailer, the more attractive the dressing rooms.

That is changing. Nisch said some customer "touch points" suddenly are receiving more attention by all kinds of retailers. That includes dressing rooms, rest rooms and even the design of a grocery cart, he said.

Check out what's new

A transformation happened a year ago inside all the fitting rooms at J.C. Penney at Tanglewood Mall in Roanoke County.

Store manager Rick Bessette said he often heard from unhappy shoppers about the drab, partition-like metal walls that once separated each room.

"I used to get a lot of complaints about our fitting rooms because they were old, the doors were falling off," he said. "We had to keep repairing them."

Now the rooms have full walls, painted in a soft tan shade. The carpet is dark purple.

Framed pictures hang inside the women's fitting rooms showing figures of females in long dresses, while there are prints of male silhouettes inside the men's dressing rooms.

The children's fitting room truly is a kid-friendly space. The trim around the doors is painted bright yellow and the doors are purple. Inside the girls' area, labeled "Try It On," there's a carnival-like mirror in which people's images appear shorter and wider than normal.

Though not in Roanoke's Tanglewood store, there's a new look inside the lingerie department fitting rooms at some J.C. Penney locations nationwide. The rooms have heavy drapes over the doors and darker colors to create a romantic aura.

The retailer also has installed flat screen televisions and more seating spots for people who are waiting for customers while they try on apparel.

"If you're in an attractive environment or an inviting environment, it has an impact on the overall feeling that you leave the store with," said Tim Lyons, a spokesman for J.C. Penney, based in Texas.

Bliss, a women's boutique in Roanoke County, didn't skimp on fitting-room upgrades when it moved into its new location at West Village in December.

The owners installed a mirror across the entire wall of the dressing rooms. It makes the spaces appear larger, said Whitney Clemens, co-owner of Bliss.

The lighting inside is the same. Fixtures that hang from the ceiling shine a soft light inside the fitting rooms.

"How you look in clothes is determined by the lighting," Clemens said.

Retailers make choices

Still many retailers underestimate the amount of space that a customer wants inside a fitting room. According to Mary Lou Andre, a wardrobe consultant in Massachusetts, the typical size of a dressing room is 3 feet by 4 feet. That's barely room enough to move around and to step away from a mirror to study its reflection, she said.

And the placement of the mirror often determines whether shoppers will try on apparel and make a purchase.

The mirror is a selling point at Talbots' Roanoke County store, Lela Bennett of Roanoke County said as she walked into the retailer at The Forum to do some shopping.

Bennett said she likes the large mirror that's inside the store's dressing area. She doesn't have to walk into the main store to study her appearance.

Inside Stein Mart's new store, the retailer positioned a three-angle mirror inside the dressing-room area for that same purpose, to keep customers from having to leave the space to admire an outfit, said Stein Mart spokeswoman Kathy Lussier.

Nisch said customers often welcome this approach, because "chances are they are going to try on less clothing" if they have to venture outside the dressing room.

In some upscale boutiques, however, putting mirrors outside the dressing area is a strategic move.

Store employees can offer customers an opinion on their outfits. From there, some retail clerks are trained to close the sale, Andre said.

What shoppers say

But changes to the physical design of a fitting room might not woo all shoppers.

Some people judge a retailer by the cleanliness of its dressing rooms and whether sales associates are pleasant.

Sherry Robertson of Roanoke County can't stand it when already-tried-on clothes are strewn across the floor of some fitting rooms. She said she expects the clothing to be picked up and the appearance to be kept neat and orderly.

And while she said she likes certain design aspects of Talbots' dressing rooms, Bennett raved about the helpfulness of the store's associates. They put her clothes in the dressing room for her and bring her new sizes.

She said she craves personal attention rather than upgrades.