But there also are times you or a staff member will find it best to let the shoppers browse on their own. In those situations, you can learn a lot by listening to what shoppers say to each other or on their cell phones. The lessons can later be turned into merchandising pay dirt.
Do you hear comments like, "All brands are pretty much the same," and, "When you see packages with the store's name on it, it's the same contents as the big name brand, but only at a lower price"? If you are hearing lots of those kinds of comments, consider increasing shelf space devoted to house brands, which bring in extra margin.
Are you hearing comments like, "When a product first comes out, they'll charge more for it than they will after it's been out for a while," and "Don't buy products when they've first come out since it takes a while for the company to fix any manufacturing problems"? That's a signal you'll need to build extra trust with customers whenever introducing new products. For example, you might want to introduce new products that come as a natural extension under brand names the customer already knows well.
Those are two examples of the many where a retailer listened in and then took action which paid off big. Never make decisions based on only one or two comments. But when there's a trend, decide what actions to take to make best use of that trend to boost your profitability.
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