Encourage Stimulus-Based Shopping Lists

Wise retailers want their customers to have fun. At the same time, wise retailers want customers to make purchases the customers won’t later regret. Your profitability depends on your customers coming back to your store soon and often.
     Probably for as long as retailing has existed, shoppers have been advised to make a list before entering the store. The shopping list protects against unwise impulsive purchases, it’s said. With list in hand, the shopper can relax enough to have fun, knowing they’ll get what they need, but not much more.
     Does it work? Well, it turns out that the value of the shopping list for the shopper depends on how the list is made. Researchers at Duke University, University of California-Los Angeles, and University of Florida found that people who carry around the store shopping lists created from memory—the consumer trying to remember what they need and what the store carries—actually end up more likely to make purchases they will later regret.
     Results from the three studies conducted by the researchers indicate the reason is this: Making a shopping list from memory uses mental energy. Every shopper has a limited pool of mental energy, and when a great deal of it is consumed in making the list, there is less mental energy left to resist the foolish, unhealthy, even sinful items.
     How to have shopping lists work to benefit your customers? Encourage them to make what the researchers call “stimulus-based shopping lists,” since stimulus-based lists require less mental energy. Give them the tools to look at what they have on their shelves and in the cabinets at home before coming to your store.

• In your advertising pieces, include a checklist the customer can use at home while surveying their supplies, and then carry the list with them as they shop. Have copies of the checklist available in the store.
• Cook up recipes, suggesting combinations of foods or wardrobe items that fit well together. Prod the shopper to recognize that when they buy the beer, they’ll want the chips and when they buy the paint, they’ll want the primer. You’ll serve as their memory.

     Be sure to leave lots of blank lines on the shopping lists. This allows the customer to improvise beyond the rigidity of a list. Departing from the preplanning makes great sense for both you and the shopper when you are offering surprise in-store specials.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

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