Stimulate Bragging Rights from Complexity

When shopping for products that feature technology, shoppers tend to be attracted to ones with multiple features. But if they purchase these products, they quite often end up frustrated with the complexity of what they chose. This “feature fatigue” can lead to your customers getting irritated at your store and staff for selling them more than they needed. It also can lead to a higher rate of product returns.
     On the other side, you’d like to sell more feature-rich products to your customers who will be able to benefit.

• The profit margins are usually higher on feature-rich than on feature-poor products.
• With feature-rich products, there are more opportunities for you to offer training as a profit center.
• Customers who find themselves enjoying possession of the fullest set of features are prime candidates for trading up as even greater technologies appear.

     Researchers at Georgetown University and Harvard University find that one way to overcome feature fatigue is to highlight the advantages of the complex products in impressing others. When people learned that someone they knew had selected an especially feature-rich product, they saw the person as more savvy and open to interesting experiences. Shoppers turn this around to say that if they are the one selecting the product, their friends will say good things about them.
     The Georgetown/Harvard researchers found this is most likely to occur when the shopper is with others who can see them trying out the product or if the shopper sees someone else in the store trying out the product. The interest in bragging rights fades when the shopper thinks carefully about what it will take to learn how to master all the product’s capabilities before feeling comfortable showing it off to people they don’t know well.
     Here are some steps for you take to make use of the findings:

• Encourage technology-oriented shoppers to bring their friends along. Offer group discounts and rewards for customer referrals.
• When your store is introducing a new technology-oriented product, hold special events that include demos and how-to sessions.
• In advertising and store displays, depict people confidently using the product’s various features.

     All this applies most directly to technology-oriented products that have many capabilities. This description does fit an increasingly broad range of products. For one thing, technology is creeping into almost every sort of merchandise. And for another, retailers who want to limit inventory are interested in multi-solution, multi-featured models.

Click below for more:
Compare Features to Ease Overload
Sell Ease of Use to Last-Minute Shoppers
Encourage Group Shopping
Stage Special Events to Build Sales