Habituate Customers to Quick Return Trips

Boomerang retailing. When customers return soon and often to your store, the total of sales revenues for those customers averages a higher amount than that for customers who come infrequently. This is true even when the customer is making a large purchase on an infrequent visit and smaller purchases when shopping with you frequently.
     Two reasons for this are:

• Coming in often increases the likelihood the shopper will have family or friends along. The shopping is combined with socializing. And somebody shopping with a group tends to spend more. Customers are more willing to tolerate the inevitable nuisances of shopping when they are with a group. This “misery loves company” effect has been noted by social psychologists at Vanderbilt University.
• According to University of Pittsburgh and Baylor University research, more than 75% of shoppers plan to make purchases beyond what they came in for. However, there is a limit for each shopping trip. The more shopping trips, the more often the customer stumbles across needs they’d forgotten to include on their shopping list and items they didn’t realize they wanted until the items were in front of them or in their hands.

     High fuel prices and limited shopper time can cause consumers to shop with you less often. The type of merchandise you sell also affects the frequency of visits. If you’re running a shop that sells only large appliances, you might get concerned if you’re seeing the same faces coming in week after week. The merchandise mix also affects visit frequency in general merchandise stores. A recent St. Louis Post-Dispatch article points out that as the demand for tobacco products has faded, this important—even if deadly—daily draw into the store can no longer be counted on.
     According to the article, the solution for many retailers is to feature consumables—food in particular. You can buy soy milk at Dollar Tree and rice at Walgreens.

• What items do you have now in your store and can you add to your merchandise mix which consumers need frequently?
• How can you price those items to reflect the value of your giving shoppers the option of convenience while also recognizing you can guide the shoppers toward additional items for increased profitability?
• How will you configure the displays of those frequently needed items so that the shopper’s eyes and minds are primed for buying your stock-in-trade merchandise and services?

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