Part I: Creating Happy Shoppers
In the ever-evolving, fast-paced world of retail, stagnation is not an option if your purpose is to both survive and thrive. I am frequently visiting stores that want to do things the way they have always done them, but the reality is that your shoppers are more savvy than ever. To keep their attention, you must step up your game, familiarize yourself with industry trends and educate yourself with ways to attract new shoppers, while retaining the loyalists. If you have found yourself stalling out, see that sales are flat, and you’re looking for ways to turn things around, a transformation might just be an order. Let’s take a look at some ways to rethink, revamp, and revitalize your business, starting with the most important element in the equation, your customers.
In his book, Retail Marketing Strategy, Constant Berkhout relays five proficiencies that retailers need for their future success. His book is, “laid out as a journey integrating shopper driven practices into the operational proficiencies of retail in five steps.”
•1. Shoppers are people
•2. Channel choices
•3. Fact- Driven decision making
•4. In- Store Execution
•5. Organizational development
Taking a look at the shoppers themselves seems the most logical place to start, as that is who we are targeting. Yet, many times, we have our own agenda for what we are selling and to whom, rather than taking a more customer-focused approach to it all.
According to Berkhout, “often I find that retailers focus on the financials and short – term actions. Consequently, they lose sight of what makes shoppers happy. Only by truthfully helping the shoppers can practitioners create a fair and sustainable business. Making the shopper happy is what differentiates a successful retailer from weaker counterparts.“
Retail Marketing Strategy
Lesson One: Shoppers Are People
Understanding and appreciating the emotional behaviors and thought processes of the shopper are key. Much of that information and understanding are now stemming from the field of Neuro-Marketing. This field, also known as Consumer Neuroscience, is the study of the brain in order to predict, and perhaps even manipulate, consumer behavior and decision making. It measures the physiological and neural signals of the brain to gather insight about consumer behavior. This assists in informing a retailer’s decisions for advertising and marketing, pricing structures, product placements, etc. In essence, it is how the body responds to the marketing stimuli. There’s more to come on that topic in a later article, but the bottom line is, to know the shoppers better is the key to success in supplying what they want and need, even if they are not aware of it. According to Harvard professor and author Gerald Zaltman, “95% of our purchasing decisions are subconscious.“
We make up our minds without even realizing we’ve done so.
By using the information available to us and applying the knowledge, research, and principles of the decision making process, we can better serve our customers, creating a better overall shopping experience.
While much of the planning is done ahead of the shopper’s trip and their tendency is to be creatures of habit, impulse shopping still has a relevant place in retail. According to Berkhout, the estimated 70% figure of impulse shopping is a myth, overestimating the amount of unplanned purchases. Yet he provides other facts in the following case study.
Research from 2009 by Inman, Winer and Ferrero in the United States shows in great detail the circumstances when a shopper is most likely to buy in an unplanned manner. In their data set of 34,000 products, in 61% of cases the category purchase was unplanned before entering the store. They explained that the level of planning depends on the type of category, the profile of the shopper and shopping behavior
Inman, J, Winer, R and Ferraro, R(2009)[assessed 22 July 2015] The interplay between category characteristics, customer characteristics, and customer activities in-store decision-making, Journal of Marketing [Online]
Here are some findings that Berkhout suggests for delivering shopper happiness:
• As shoppers are very habitual, they want to see the categories that they buy most often within easy reach, for example at the entrance of the store
• Shoppers like everything that establishes a link with their previous experiences and purchases, such as online lists of the purchases made at their last visit, a minimum of in-store assortment reviews and clear navigation and signposting.
• The shopping floor is not the ideal place to communicate anything too complicated to the shopper. Online reviews and magazines distributed before the shopping trip takes place have a higher chance of communicating complex messages
• Though overall impulse is low in-store, shoppers need a reminder for some categories. Certain categories benefit from being allocated to high impulse locations (for example, end of aisle gondolas benefit from a wide range of potential impulse items such as batteries, ice cream and snacks.)
He reveals in his study that unplanned purchases in stores occur more frequently if there are displays in the store and the category is “hedonic and indulgent, such as chocolate, ice cream or salty snacks.“ Shopper demographics have a large contribution to the impulse purchase variables, such as young adults with no children or households with above average incomes show 45% more unplanned category purchases.
Three more ways to encourage happy shopping?
•1. Improved store navigability •2. On-shelf labels •3. Structured planograms
How can you apply these principles to your specific situation?
Many times, as independent retailers, you do not have the expendable funds or access to big data sources like a large chain of stores does. But that does not eliminate your need to compete with a national chains. You need to think outside the box and tap into the resources that are available to you and that is where I, your wholesale supply partner, can help. There are simple ways to help you organize your space to be more efficient and inviting for your target audience. Don’t you want to provide an environment that sets the tone for “Happy Shoppers?“
Have you had an in-store assessment of ways to tidy up and make your store easier to navigate? Do you have drinks stacked in the aisles? Is your front and blocked with too many racks or messy displays? Is your deli case smudged with fingerprints and grime?
What about shelf tags and structured planograms? Do you have cookies in the salty section and household items with the candy? Is it disheveled and discombobulated? Those are easy tweaks that can make big improvements.
What about opportunities for impulse items at the front end? Have you partnered with us on our innovative Max 12 Program which encourages impulse shopping by featuring specially priced, high-demand snack items, displayed prominently at the front door? If you’re not, then you are missing out on a prime impulse opportunity.
Let our experienced Sales and Merchandising Teams do some makeover magic on your location. Transformation begins with an open mind and willingness to make a change. Step away from your fear of change and turn your profits around by creating the best environment for happy shoppers. Let me help!
