Hang In There for Impulse Buying on Budget

Shoppers on a tight budget who make an unplanned purchase will immediately become less likely to make another unplanned purchase. That finding in studies at University of Notre Dame, University of Pittsburgh, and Market Rise Consulting isn’t at all surprising. But the researchers hung in there and did find something retailers might not expect: After a while, the resistance fades. The tight-budget shopper who made an impulse purchase earlier becomes more likely to make another one than does the tight-budget shopper who hadn’t already made an impulse purchase.
     So, in the spirit of those researchers, you should hang in there, too. Encourage shoppers to make an unplanned purchase early in their store visit, create a store experience which tempts shoppers to stay for a while, and then, later, encourage another unplanned purchase.
     Be sure those unplanned purchases will benefit the shopper. But realize that researchers at University of Pittsburgh and Baylor University say most shoppers make plans to make impulse purchases. The study was conducted at several Texas grocery stores. Before starting their shopping, participants were asked to estimate how much they planned to spend. For more than 75% of the shoppers, the amount they thought they’d spend altogether was more than the amount they estimated to be the cost of items they planned to buy. These shoppers had prepared themselves to come across both needs they’d forgotten to include on their shopping list and items they wouldn’t realize they wanted until the items were in front of them or in their hands. Some of the study participants even explicitly said they intended to make impulse purchases.
     Then the researchers found even more evidence that shoppers carefully plan to do the unplanned: Shoppers were quite accurate in predicting how much they’d end up spending. The average overall difference between predicted spending and actual spending was 47¢.
     Most of your customers intend to spend a certain amount of money on impulse items. Accommodate them by stocking the right sorts of items in the right places and offering the items in ways that carry an impression of service, not trickery.
     Also, to maintain impulse sale revenues, stock package designs and use signage which stimulate quick thinking. Bright colors. Animation. Uniform sizes and prices. Easy access to the items. Waiting times long enough for shoppers to grab items, but not so long as to encourage prolonged deliberation.

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

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Sell Impulse Items to Serve
Stimulate Quick Thinking for Impulse Sales