Eye, Robot

When you enter Book Shop Benicia, your eyes are drawn to the neatly chevroned shelves. Unless you’re a three-year old boy, that is. The eyes of those consumers are often drawn to what sits on top of the tall shelving along the outside walls. Robots. All kinds of toy robots. Dozens of toy robots.
     As shoppers enter your store, where do their eyes go? That’s where to consider placing a store directory, to position your staff member who welcomes the shopper to the store, to display a preview of products you’re featuring, or to have whatever else it is you’d like the customer to see right away.
     People who make a habit of shopping with you are familiar with the store layout, so they’re not depending on seeing a store directory. And your experienced shoppers might miss not being greeted the moment they enter, but they’re coming back to shop again because they already feel welcome, and they probably have figured out where to go to return an item. So it’s okay if they wait for their greeting until they see a salesperson.
     Does that mean you don’t need to notice where your repeat customers are looking as they enter your store? Well, no. Once you make your observations, you might decide to reconfigure the entry area. As soon as you do that, your long-term shoppers will become as bewildered as customers coming into your store for the first time. Know where all your customers are likely to look for guidance.
     Different types of shoppers in different sorts of retail stores have different habits. The shopper who comes to a familiar sporting goods store for one specific item will promptly start looking for information about how to get to that item. On the other hand, the husband and wife walking into a furniture store with the intent of setting up a bedroom, dining room, and family room, will be looking around in a number of different directions.
     This is why you’ll want to observe your particular shoppers and make store layout decisions based on your particular observations.
     Where they look might not be where you’d first predict. Watching those three-year-olds serves as a reminder of this. You might think they’d be looking at what’s a foot or two off the floor. In fact, though, any three-year-old worth his salt realizes the really interesting stuff requires looking up. Way up.

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Notice Where Your Shoppers Look as They Enter

(My thanks to Christine Mayall, owner of Book Shop Benicia in historic, artistic Benicia, California, for telling me the tale behind this posting.)