Speed Bumps Into Store Aisles

We want to arouse the shoppers’ interest from many directions in the store. Draw the consumers in and toward the prime merchandise and services. Attract them to areas of the store they haven’t yet explored.
     We want to arouse multiple sensory modalities. Interesting sights. Provocative fragrances. Intriguing sounds. Invitations to touch or maybe taste. The right blend energizes the shopper and helps make the store experience one the shopper wants to prolong and to repeat soon.
     Yet we also want the shopper to stop long enough to select an item from the shelf or rack. And then move to the next item and stop there. Here, too, we can use a variety of sensory experiences. What we seek is something different from the surrounding items. A distinctive color on a product, package, or sign will catch the consumer’s attention long enough for them to look at the surroundings.
     Placing merchandise on end caps can serve the same function. Much of what shoppers see is out of the sides of their eyes as they stroll down the store aisles. This provides nice opportunities for implanting subconscious suggestions. However, we also want each shopper to look straight on at prospective purchases, as happens when walking toward the end cap, those shelves set up at the entry to the aisle.
     Then there are what Dollar General refers to as “virtual speed bumps.” These are items which do not completely block the shopper’s path, but do oblige the shopper to navigate, and therefore to hesitate. A tower of cardboard boxes sitting in the middle of the floor requiring you to negotiate with the cart rushing toward you. A flashing sign protruding out from a shelf. A gaggle of gewgaws hanging from the ceiling.
     Consumers need sufficient complexity to stay engaged. A classic and repeated finding in consumer psychology is that we want to introduce enough incongruity, enough surprise, so that the shopper slows down for a moment to appreciate the sales message. If the layout is overly sterile, the viewer processes it all immediately and then moves on—beyond the range of a possible add-on or upgrade that would benefit both the shopper and the retailer.
     You know, perhaps one of those items hanging from the ceiling will drop into the shopper’s basket as she navigates through and perhaps, just perhaps, she’ll proclaim, “Wow, this must be fate! I think I’ll buy it!”

Click below for more:
Use Fragrances to Pace Shoppers
Use Sound Effects to Sell
Clear Up Clutter Ambiguities