With online stores, there are a lot of ways to attract and retain customers to your business. It is even possible to use ‘behavioral marketing’ techniques to reach out to customers who have left your store without making a purchase. Such luxuries are not often not available to conventional retail stores. Conversions need to happen right when your customer walks into you store. Here are some tips to help your business appeal better to in-store customers and convert them better.
Showcase Products Eye-Level:
Studies have shown that customers purchase more products that are at eye-level compared to those that are not. This is because of two reasons: First, as a customer you tend to notice products showcased more at eye-view than those at the bottom or on the top of the rack. Secondly, customers tend to avoid the “butt-brush effect” that often happens when they bend down to pick a product up.
Besides these two factors, if you want to store products for kids – like chocolates and toys, it is often a good idea to place these products at the lower racks that kids can see at eye-level. Not only does it influence higher conversions due to the reasons mentioned above, it also helps increases purchases due to “pester power”. By letting kids pick out products for themselves instead of having to ask their parents to do so, retailers can hope for better sales on these products.
Visual Stimulation:
Studies have shown that merely viewing pictures of delicious food can stimulate the secretion of protein hormone ghrelin that triggers consumption. If you are in the food business, invest in refrigerated Deli cases to showcase your products. Showcasing real food through these visually appealing cases tend to have better conversions that mere images of food on your store through impulse buying.
Visual stimulation is a thing not just for the food business though. Attractive images of the product can also be used to stimulate aspirational purchases and to alleviate safety/usability concerns. A business selling high-end technology gadgets could use visually appealing pictures of rich men using the product to create aspiration. At the same time, if you are selling utilitarian gadgets for home, you could create appeal through pictures of old people using the gadget to drive home the point that “even your grandma can use this without trouble”.
Chart A Walk-Through Layout For Your Customers:
When designing your store layout, build it in such a way that customers want to walk-through the entire stretch of the aisle before reaching the billing counter. This helps in two ways. Firstly, the customers can now pick up products that they may have missed or not had in their list already. This is a win-win for the customer and the retail store. Secondly, it helps the store showcase their in-store promotional banners to all their customers. This could drive further sales. Here is a typical customer walkthrough in an Ikea store. They are an extreme example of how customers are made to walk through the entire store before they can exit.
