Sweeten Treat Sales by Being a Sweet Thing

When consumers feel a retailer has been sweet to them, they’re more likely to buy sweets from the retailer.
     Participants in the University of Washington study were assessed for the emotions of general happiness, pride, and gratitude. All the participants were then offered regular salted pretzels and sweet chocolate-covered pretzels. As predicted, those who felt grateful were substantially more likely to eat the sweets than those who were proud or generally happy.
     The researcher’s explanation is that when salespeople treat consumers sweetly, the consumers say to themselves, “That happened because I’m deserving of sweetness,” and the internal talk relaxes resistances to indulgences.
     It’s not only sweet treatment by salespeople which has this effect in a store. When shoppers perceive sweet closeness with the people around them, they also are more likely to succumb to sweet treats. Gratitude draws us closer to others, and the closeness influences us. Researchers at Erasmus University-Rotterdam, Aston University, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven report that when a consumer pulls their arm toward themselves, the consumer becomes more likely to desire short-term pleasure, such as purchasing candy, over longer-term benefits, such as weight control. From infancy on, we subconsciously associate pulling our arms toward ourselves with acquiring pleasurable objects.
     All this works the other way around, too. Pushing an object away from ourselves, such as when navigating a large shopping cart through an aisle, subconsciously potentiates the brain traces of rejecting items which are not immediately pleasurable. This pushing effect is nowhere near as strong as the pulling effect. Sugar has a substantial power of attraction. Still, the Erasmus /Loughborough / KI Leuven researchers hypothesize that requiring a customer to shove open a door to enter a business lowers the likelihood of the purchase of pleasure oriented items.
     Although bringing sensual pleasure, you selling sugary sweets probably isn’t in the best health interests of your customers. So it’s nice to know that the University of Washington researchers concluded that dried fruit with no added sugar could satisfy the urge.
     The greater the extent to which customers say they’re grateful to the retailer for helping to solve a problem or satisfy a need, the more likely the customers are to praise the retailer to others and say they intended to shop with that retailer again. Treat your shoppers in ways which elicit their gratitude. Then be sure you have for sale a selection of treats, including healthy sweet things.

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

Click below for more: 
Go for Customer Gratitude and Guilt 
Infect Your Store with Enthusiasm
Stop the Nagging Among Shoppers
Push Shopping Baskets’ Pull for Sweet Items