I was praising the owner/operator of a hardware store located in a San Francisco neighborhood which includes a large number of Spanish-speaking residents. “You put a lot of attention into ensuring that your sales staff are fluent in both English and Spanish,” I said. He nodded and then replied with a smile. “I also want them to be fluent in sign language.” “Oh, do you have lots of deaf customers?”
He pointed his two index fingers directly at me, the fingers about three inches apart. Then he began to rotate each finger in an up-and-down circle. “No, not a lot of deaf customers. But we do have a regular stream coming in and telling us things like, ‘I need a replacement part for my ceiling fan. It’s about this long and turns around like this.’ To work in a hardware store, you must understand sign language.”
Visual communications is a significant part of retailing. The obvious examples are from fashion. “Are these pants the right color to complement the shirt and tie I plan to wear?,” I might ask the salesperson. “Is the dress the right shape to flatter my figure?,” one young woman might ask herself.
But color and shape carry importance beyond fashion. And that can hold not only for the item, but also for the package. Researchers at University of Southern California found that when shoppers are presented with two unfamiliar products in a category—one of the products in an usually-shaped container and the other one not—most shoppers believe they’re getting more for their money with the product in the unusual container. The researchers say that’s because the unusual shape draws more attention, and the consumer’s brain subconsciously translates the extra attention into higher value. Other research finds that when purchasing a product associated with extra calories, there are shoppers who habitually prefer packages that have a hourglass shape to those that are short and squat.
Whatever the basis for the selection, when a customer purchases a product, suggest additional products that have a similar visual appearance. A recent posting on the Get Elastic ecommerce blog predicts that visual search software will come into increasing use for generating these sorts of suggestions.
Click below for more:
Advertise What Products Look Like
Exercise Cultural Sensitivity in Color Use
Spring Your Colors
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