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Book
Summary: Why
We Buy - The Science of Shopping
Printed
with permission from TCI
Management Consultants. A group of senior-level management
consultants, offering strategic planning and marketing services
to a wide range of public and private sector clients.
Why
We Buy - The Science of Shopping
by Paco Underhill
Simon & Schuster, New York, 1999
ISBN 0-684-84913-5
Paco
Underhill describes himself as an urban geographer and retail
anthropologist. He is the founder of Envirosell, a research
and consulting firm that specializes in improving retail
environments in order to sell more product. His fundamental
research methodology is to track customers as they move
through stores; observe (unobtrusively) their browsing and
purchasing patterns; and take detailed notes of how long
they spend in each area of the store, what they touch and
look at, what they buy, how much they spend, etc. etc. After
more than twenty years of doing this, he has compiled a
hugely detailed data base of shopper behavior patterns.
He can tell you, for example, that 65% of males who take
jeans into a fitting room will buy them, as opposed to 25%
of women. Or that 4% of browsers will buy a computer on
Saturday at noon, compared to 21% of browsers on the same
day at 5 o'clock. Why We Buy is a summary of some of the
important findings coming out of that research.
The
book is divided into three parts. The first part considers
the mechanics of shopping: how people physically react to
the layout of space, other people in the store, etc. The
second part deals with the demographics of purchasing: the
different behaviours of men, women, seniors, and kids. The
third section of the book tackles the dynamics of shopping:
in other words how shoppers respond psychologically to the
placement of merchandise, packaging, and other features
of the merchandise itself.
The
book is filled with fascinating insights and statistics
that come from this 'unobtrusive observation' method of
analyzing consumer behaviour, and they are written up in
a very readable and entertaining manner. As an example,
in the first part of the book Underhill talks about how
most retailers do not realize that the 'transition zone'
between the outside and the inside of the store - that space
just inside the door, where shoppers are adjusting to the
interior of the place - is very ineffective selling space:
"Boom.
We hit the doors and we're inside. Still got that momentum
going, too. Have you ever seen anyone cross the threshold
of a store and then screech to a dead stop the instant they're
inside? Neither have I. Good way to cause a pileup. Come
over here, stand with me now and watch the doors. What happens
once the customers get inside? You can't see it, but they're
busy making adjustments - simultaneously they're slowing
down their pace, adjusting their eyes to the change in light
and scale, and craning their necks to begin taking in all
there is to see. Meanwhile their ears and noses and nerve
endings are sorting out the rest of the stimuli - analyzing
the sounds and smells, judging whether the store is warm
or cold. There's a lot going on, in other words, and I can
pretty much promise you this: These people are not truly
in the store yet. You can see them, but it will be a few
seconds before they're actually here. If you watch long
enough, you'll be able to predict exactly where most shoppers
slow down and make the transition from being outside to
being inside. It's at just about the same place for everybody,
depending on the layout of the store.
All
of which means that whatever's in the zone they cross before
making that transition is pretty much lost on them. If there's
a display of merchandise, they're not going to take it in.
If there's a sign, they'll probably be moving too fast to
absorb what it says. If the sales staff hits them with a
hearty "Can I help you?" the answer's going to
be "No, thanks". I guarantee it. Put a pile of
flyers or a stack of shopping baskets just inside the door:
Shoppers will barely see them, and will almost never pick
them up. Move them ten feet in and the flyers and baskets
will disappear. It's a law of nature - shoppers need a landing
strip." (pp. 46.47)
One
fundamental (and probably not too surprising) result of
Underhill's research into shopper behaviour is that the
amount of money spent in a store is positively correlated
with the amount of time spent. (Simply: keep 'em in the
store longer and they'll spend more dough.) Accordingly,
much of Envirosell's research on the mechanics of shopping
deals with strategies to do this. Some insights dealing
with the mechanics of shopping that bear on this include:
the
"butt brush" effect - if aisles are too narrow
or crowded, and shoppers have to bend over to reach merchandise,
they are exposed to being brushed or touched by other shoppers
as they pass by - this is a definite turn-off to shoppers
(especially women), and will reduce the amount of time spent
in the store and thus the total amount of money spent
shoppers
need the use of their hands to touch, feel, pick up and
examine merchandise - if they are burdened down with a coat,
several other items that they have picked up, a toddler,
etc., they will spend less time in the store than if they
had a shopping cart, access to a coat check, strollers,
baskets (placed inside the sore interior where they could
actually be useful to someone who has already accumulated
a few items), etc.
very
often, signs in retail environments contain too many words
to be scanned quickly, and are placed in locations where
they will never be noticed - "Putting a sign that requires
twelve seconds to read in a place where customers spend
four seconds is just slightly more effective than putting
it in your garage." (p.63)
the
typical movement and flow patterns of people are important
to know in designing retail environments - for example,
individuals tend to turn to the right when moving through
a store - another tidbit: people tend to slow down when
they approach reflective surfaces - Chapter 6 of the book
is filled with little pointers like this
providing
convenient and strategically located seating areas for customers
will, again, keep them in the store longer and thus increase
the amount sold
adjacencies
can be very important in the placement of merchandise in
order to maximize sales - for example, the salsa should
be next to the chips, not in the condiments section - the
pasta sauce should be in the pasta section, not next to
the salsa
The
second part of the Why We Buy is devoted to a discussion
of the demographics of shopping - how different types of
customers vary in their attitudes and approaches to shopping.
Four main segments are considered: men, women, seniors and
kids. Some of the more interesting observations that Underhill
makes here include:
Regarding
men:
only 72% of men read price tags on items, as compared to
86% of women - for a man, ignoring the price tag is a measure
of his virility
when
a man accompanies a woman shopping, her time in the store
is drastically cut down (women accompanying other women
while shopping spend almost twice as much time in a store
as a woman and a man)
women
generally take pleasure and pride in the shopping experience
(as opposed to men, who generally just want to get in and
get out, unless they are shopping for specific male-oriented
items such as power tools, stereos or computers) - accordingly,
the shopping environment for women should be relaxing, pleasant,
featuring all of the positive layout factors previously
discussed that will keep them in the store for a longer
period of time
as
women take on more of the responsibilities of shopping for
all items (as a result of more single family households
and a general breaking down of the traditional sex-oriented
shopping roles in the family) the traditional male retail
preserves (such as Joe's Hardware) will become more oriented
towards women's shopping preferences (the demise of Joe's
hardware in favour of places like Home Depot attest to this
trend)
Underhill
makes the sobering point that many of us will spend more
time being old that the time we had being young. It follows
then that store layouts and packaging design will have to
change in order to accommodate us aging baby boomers. This
will include larger print on packages (older eyes have difficultly
reading anything less than 12 point type); better lighting
in stores (older eyes at age 50 receive about 25% less light
than eyes at age 20 due to discolouration of the cornea);
and sharper colour distinction on signs and certain store
areas (for example, on stairs, where it is critical that
older patrons be able to easily distinguish the rise from
the run part of the step, to avoid tripping).
Store
layout, too, will need to be redesigned with larger aisles
and ramps to accommodate walkers and motorized wheelchairs.
Most
of this section is devoted to really young kids, and there
are some fairly predictable suggestions and points raised.
He says, for example, that merchandise oriented towards
kids has got to be placed at eye level for those kids -
that is, about three feet off the floor. He also makes the
point that retailers have got to provide for parents who
are shopping with kids in tow by providing safe distractions
and diversions for those kids, leaving the parents free
for a few minutes of uninterrupted shopping. Again, the
principle that the longer the shopper spends in the store
the more they will spend comes into play.
The
final third of the book is devoted to a discussion of how
shoppers psychologically react to shopping environments.
Much of this discussion covers and reinforces ground that
he dealt with in earlier sections of the book, but there
is some additional material introduced. A couple of points
he makes here are:
many
stores do not provide opportunities for shoppers to touch
and feel the merchandise, and yet this sensual experience
can be very influential in making the sale in fact,
Underhill devotes an entire chapter (Chapter 12) to the
'sensual shopper', where he emphasizes the importance
of engaging the senses in the shopping experience (a prime
example he uses here is the smell of freshly baked bread
that greets one upon entering some supermarkets, which
he can correlate directly with increased spending)
lines
and time spent waiting at the checkout can ruin the entire
shopping experience even if the overall shopping expedition
has been wonderful, the perception that too much time is
being spent in line can ruin the entire experience for many
customers. Underhill estimates that about two minutes is
the limit of most people's tolerance - after that, they
do the slow burn. He recommends a variety of distractions
that can be place strategically in order to change the perception
of how much time is being spent waiting.
Why
We Buy makes for interesting reading if you're a marketer,
and probably fascinating (and likely essential) reading
if you're a retailer. Either way, it's an interesting and
enjoyable book.
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