Is store clutter bad? A Practical eCommerce article this week recommends that online retailers cut down the clutter. Keep the site neat and simple, so goes the advice. Supporting this idea, researchers at Nielsen Norman Group in Northern California found in their eye-tracking studies that people look at about 50% of online ads that contain just text, but only about 35% when text is superimposed on an image. If there’s animation to muddle up the ad further, the figure drops to 30%.
I agree that sales can be lost because of excess messiness—not only on ecommerce pages, but also with in-store sales. Still, on the other hand, we do need sufficient complexity—what some retailing consultants might call clutter—to engage the shopper. A classic and repeated finding in consumer psychology is that we want to introduce enough incongruity, enough surprise, so that the shopper slows down for a moment to appreciate the sales message. If the layout is overly sterile, the viewer processes it all immediately and then moves on—beyond the range of a possible add-on or upgrade that would benefit both the shopper and the retailer.
Interpreted simplistically, the Nielsen Norman Group findings mean we should have advertising and sales messages composed solely of text. No graphics. No animation. My guess is such advice doesn’t ring true for professional retailers, and when advice from a retailing consultant to a retailer doesn’t ring true, it’s a signal to consider the advice with suspicion.
A broader scope of research indicates the suspiciousness is justified. Researchers at University of Florida-Gainesville find that messages we see out of the corner of our eyes still influence us. For instance, when a customer walks briskly into your store, eyes straight ahead, any displays of featured product packages off to the left and, off to the right, brief statements of the featured products’ benefits increase the motivation to buy. In this case, the clutter helps keep the shopper’s mind from devising reasons not to buy.
And too little mess restrains purchases in another way as well: Retailing consultant Paco Underhill tells a story about an Einstein Bros. Bagels prototype store in Utah. The problem was the bags of bagel chips were being shelved with such precision that customers hesitated touching the bags, let alone buying one. The solution? Regularly checking that the shelves were sufficiently cluttered.
Click below for more:
Introduce Featured Products as Customers Enter
Interpret Brain Science Advice Cautiously
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