Split Your Pants for Hedonic Shoppers

Should a retailer who sells shirts and pants display all available pants in one area and all available shirts in another area, or should the pants be split into groups, with each group having an accompanying assortment of complementary shirts? Should a grocery store stock all yogurt choices in one area and things people might like to have with their yogurt in another area? Or should the yogurts be shelved in groups interspersed with fitting accompaniments?

• Researchers at University of Southern California, University of Pittsburgh, and Wageningen University say it depends on whether shoppers are seeking practical utility or hedonic pleasure. Complement-based store arrangements—each set of pants with a fitting set of shirts, for instance—appeal to hedonic shoppers. Substitute-based store arrangements—all the pants in one area and all the shirts close by, but not intermixed with the pants—appeal to utilitarian shoppers. 
• Study results from University of Washington, University of Iowa, and University of Technology-Sydney indicate that the perceived relative quality of the items matters. With items seen as having only adequate, but not luxury, quality, shoppers are drawn by substantial variety to select from. It’s better to have all available alternatives of a particular item category displayed together. However, with the luxury yogurt brands in the study, the shoppers demanded less variety. Profitability per square foot of shelf space is likely to be greater when promising add-on items are positioned with a limited selection of yogurts. 
• Both these findings hold when the shopper’s concentrating on item selection. With routine or habitual purchases, a shopper often wants an assortment in which items have different brand personalities from each other. An exciting pick after a sincere pick. A rugged one after a sophisticated one. It would fulfill both customers’ and your objectives to have the personality of each category stand out from the personalities of the adjacent ones. Surround the sincere, competent brand with exciting, sophisticated brands say researchers at University of North Carolina, University of Pennsylvania, and Duke University. 
• Still another consideration concerns discounts on bundled purchases. If you set your promotional pricing such that an increased quantity sale of each will produce a greater profit, then feature the discounts on the two categories during the same time period. Otherwise, offer a discount on one of the categories and keep the other at full price, then at a later period, do it the other way around. 

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

Click below for more: 
Note Familiarity for Adjacency Effects 
Organize Shelves & Racks to Portray Variety 
Discount Partner Items Simultaneously or Not?