Space Out Large Assortment Displays

When a store display includes a large number of alternatives for the shopper to consider, items in a different category displayed just adjacent are less likely to be carefully considered for purchase. The University of California-San Diego, London Business School, and Bocconi University scientists who verified this say it happens because of shoppers’ limited attention. Selecting from among a large assortment consumes mental energy, and the customer who does choose will want a brief break for the brain afterwards. Using eye-tracking cameras, the scientists saw how customers look away from adjacent merchandise after picking an item from among many suitable alternatives.
     Arrange merchandise in your store so that product categories containing many different stock keeping units are buffered from each other. The buffer could be time. Items which are often purchased together, such as spaghetti and sauce or flashlights and batteries, are each stocked in different parts of the store. An advantage of this is how the shopper will cover more ground during the shopping trip, hopefully spotting more items to buy. However, the need to bounce all around your store could aggravate customers, particularly those in a hurry. Another way to maintain a buffer between large-alternative categories is with thick borders on shelves and empty areas on racks.
     Even the physical barrier method can be challenging when the available display space is constrained, such as on endcaps, in a freezer case, or at the checkout area. If you find it otherwise advantageous to have a large-assortment category display adjacent to another merchandise category in these settings, shelve categories appealing to different consumer target markets.
     Some years ago, researchers at University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University found that large product assortments attract shoppers to a store, but once there, many of the shoppers avoid making a purchase because they’re not sure what’s best. Because of indecision, they might leave the store.
     Then studies at Yale University, University of New South Wales, and Peking University indicated you can avoid this problem by encouraging the shopper to think in more abstract ways, such as about features the items have in common rather than considering each item in the choice as unique. Similarly, researchers at University of Delaware and University of Pennsylvania discovered that a way to keep shoppers engaged is to encourage them to focus on product features rather than item alternatives. With features in mind, shoppers rate alternatives until deciding.

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

Click below for more: 
Discount Partner Items Simultaneously or Not?
Escort Shoppers on In-Store Travel
Abstract Shoppers to Avoid Choice Overload