The Science Of Shopping - Section 2


    Section two of this essay deals with the tactics that stores employ to entice buyers not only to buy the items they are looking for, but to buy additional items as they shop. Paco Underhill has spent much of his career video taping shoppers and is a bit of an expert on this subject.  Some of the techniques and observations he discusses are:

1) Most people scan a store from left to right, when they enter and tend to fix on the object at a 45 degree angle to the right.

2) Supermarkets are designed with produce on the side of the store, meats at the back, and dairy products on the left side of the store. This causes customers to have to make a full sweep of the store to buy the essentials, thus being enticed by all the other merchandise the store has to offer.

3) Some stores place their goods out on tables. There are a few reasons for this. One people like to touch what they are buying and secondly, tables create a “home-like” atmosphere and makes the articles more inviting to be touched, in turn more likely to be purchased.

4) Women generally do not like their behinds touched while looking at an item in the store. If something happens to brush against them while shopping, they will leave.

    This section continues with discussion of  other approaches that stores use to draw you deeper into the store, and keep you there longer. Both playing on the idea that the farther into the store you go and the longer you stay, the more products you will buy. This is important in today’s retail market, as store owners have come to realize that it is not probable that they are going to increase the number people that shop in their stores. Therefore, the idea is to get those that do come in to buy more items. For example, if a customer comes in to buy a pair of pants attempt to sell them the belt, the socks, the shirt, the complete outfit. All of this is much more than I ever thought to put into the act of shopping.