Stimulate Shopper Search

The consumer comes into your shop, announces precisely what he wants to purchase, and when you present it to the consumer, the consumer instantly turns into a customer and then immediately leaves your shop.
     A quick profit’s good. Still, there are situations in which you’d prefer to have consumers search around before completing their purchases. In searching, they’re more likely to buy ancillary items on that visit and they’re better able to appreciate all your store carries when considering future visits.

• Create the itch for a search. Researchers at Tulane University talk about “single-choice aversion.” The shopper describes to the retailer a problem in need of a solution. The retailer responds by suggesting one offering and then stops. Often, the shopper’s reaction to this is to ask about other options, opening up an orientation to search. The researchers found that this orientation generalized beyond the one choice. For the other items on the shopper’s list, there will be more searching before settling on a choice. You’ve created a searcher. 
• Remind the shopper of trial-and-error. In a continuing set of studies at MIT, shopper search has been stimulated by asking what the person has tried out in the past and then either accepted or rejected. Such questions are helpful for lots of reasons. You can use the answers to decide what to offer next. Anticipate what the customer will be searching for by considering what she’s selected, what she’s rejected, and why. But it turns out that another benefit of these kinds of questions is to move the shopper into search mode. 
• Progressively narrow down searches. Some customers resist opening up searches for fear they’ll be overwhelmed by the alternatives. This resistance is more likely when the customer has already struggled with a choice while shopping with you that day. To overcome this fear, from the start, guide shoppers toward filtering what’s available to them. 
• Encourage collaborative searches. Ecommerce experiences have created a mentality about shopping, a set of expectations that when met well by bricks-and-mortar stores gives those stores a retailer’s edge. One shopping function where this is true is the search for the right product. Item selection has become more of a social task in which we consider the experiences and opinions of others. When wanting to open up the focused shopper to other possibilities, you could ask what friends and family members would think of the choices. 

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

Click below for more: 
Ease Maximizing by Using Choice Overload 
Set Store Searches for Ecommerce Mentalities 
Reflect Carefully on Marketing to the Mirror