Steer Shoppers Away from Settling

When consumers learn that an item you carry is in scarce supply, they get emotionally aroused. Researchers at American University and University of Arizona found that one result of this is that the difference in preference between a sought item and the other alternatives grows. Therefore, the degree of disappointment if the item ends up out-of-stock (OOS) is more keen.
     You don’t want disappointment generating irritation directed at your store. To head this off, take personal responsibility for the OOS. University of Bologna research indicates that outrage about the outage will be less if the salesperson says, “I didn’t adequately anticipate….,” rather than, “We didn’t adequately anticipate….”
     Then be ready to steer the shopper toward a wholly different product category than the one they came in for. It should be a product category addressed to meeting the same need, such as bringing joy to the recipient of an intended gift. But because the news of scarcity had led to the second-best being devalued, don’t encourage the consumer to settle for that one. There’s more likely to be buyer’s regret.
      The American University / Arizona researchers explain their results using an example, which I’ll adapt here: A shopper comes into your store looking for an expensive pen to give as a gift to a friend. After evaluating the available alternatives, the shopper narrows the choices to two, both of which have an extra-fine felt tip. The only difference between the two is the ink color, which the shopper says is not that important.
     But when the shopper decides on the pen with the blue ink, he’s told it is temporarily out of stock. He’s asked if he’d like to place an order, and he’ll be notified when the pen arrives. He replies that he can’t wait that long. The salesperson—knowing the value of selling substitutability—offers the shopper the extra-fine felt tip pen with the black ink.
     However, like a majority of the participants in the American University / Arizona study, the shopper goes off in a different direction, such as purchasing a fancy ballpoint pen with blue ink. Because of the out-of-stock, the blue ink color becomes more important than the felt tip.

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

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Control Out-of-Stock Irritation
Take Personal Responsibility for OOSs
Offer Late Alphabet Customers Head Starts

Ease Purchasers’ Worry About Explaining

Why is it that a shopper will select an item from your store that both they and you know is not the best one for them? In answering that question, we’ll want to exercise some humility. We may think we know what’s best for the customer when, in fact, we don’t. We may think that the shopper agrees with us as to what’s the superior item when, in fact, they don’t.
     There are instances in which consumers buy a unsuitable item in order to push back against what they perceive as excessive sales pressure. It’s called reactance. But there are many other instances in which reactance isn’t the motivating force.
     Researchers at University of Cologne and Jacobs University found that one of those motivations is a need to have something to talk about. Participants in their studies sometimes preferred an objectively inferior alternative because the purchase enabled them to form an opinion, with both positives and negatives. The near-perfect alternative didn’t allow for as much conversation. We’re social animals, so we’re more comfortable when we can discuss our choices with others.
     We also worry about social risk. People will hesitate buying a product or service when they fear what others will think of them if the purchase becomes known. They’ll be called on to explain themselves.
     Ease the concerns by giving purchasers easily remembered explanations for why the choice is best.
     Not that those explanations will always be accurate even when coming from experts. Researchers at University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign, New York University, and University of British Columbia found that product and service experts don’t stay sufficiently familiar with details of their logic. They’re accustomed to giving advice from habit rather than tracing out the details each time. If pinned down by requests for those details, experts often make up reasons for their conclusions.
     What’s worse is that the experts tend to consider the false reasons as genuine. They’ll create memories on the spot and then accept those memories as real. They don’t know they’re lying.
     Staff members identified as experts are proud of the designation and feel accountable for advice they give. When they can’t recall details in their reasoning, they assume it must have slipped from mind. They dig deeper to fill in the gaps, not realizing the deep digging leads their brains to subconsciously create phony recollections.
     The alibi for purchase could be interesting to talk about with others, but phony.

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

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React When Faced with Reactance
Ease Social Risk by Accommodating Shyness
Articulate the Reasoning Experts Use
Appeal to the Heart

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.
     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

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

Abandon Abundance After Attracting

In running your retail business, you expect decisive advice. If I throw you too many “On the one hand…, but on the other hand….” tactics, you’ll get irritated. That’s why I’ve been clear in the past in advising you that presenting an abundance of choices to the shopper who is ready to buy can sabotage the sale. The shopper gets confused.
     But the truth is that behind the curtain, I’ve encountered over the years a number of research studies saying that the more choices you give the shopper, the better the selling probability. Now a report in Journal of Consumer Psychology says that those studies’ conclusions were misleading.
     This report from Northwestern University and Compass Lexecon was a meta-analysis of almost 100 studies of possible choice overload involving a total of more than 7,200 consumers. The evidence is clear that choice overload does happen. Moreover, the new report uses the abundance of study data to say when the phenomenon is most likely:

• The shopper lacks clear decision criteria 
• There’s high time pressure 
• Comparing the items requires mental effort 
• The shopper wants the choice to be easy 

     You might consider this list of four as no more than glorified common sense—another danger I must avoid in giving you advice. But together, those four support advice from other researchers: Studies at Yale University, University of New South Wales, and Peking University indicate that you can avoid choice overload 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 the features in mind, the person can start rating each alternative until coming to a decision.
     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. Nagged by indecision, they might leave the store.
     In your marketing, point out how you offer a large number of choices. When a browser starts the shopping with you, display categories within categories to highlight the abundance of alternatives.
     Then stay alert to evidence of choice overload. If you spot the evidence, abandon the appeal of abundance.

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

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Take Occam’s Razor to Your Shoppers
Abstract Shoppers to Avoid Choice Overload
Ease Maximizing by Using Choice Overload
Dissolve Decision Paralysis

Resolve to Leave with Resolution

Two charities have asked your store to participate with them in a fund-raising campaign. One is named “Feed the Children,” the other, “Stop Child Hunger.” You’d prefer to collaborate with a charity that will be around for a while so the personality of the partnership will strengthen in your customers’ minds. Considering just the names alone, which of those two charities has better prospects for longevity?
     Before reading on in this blog posting, please make your guess and think about why you chose that one. Is it “Feed the Children” or “Stop Child Hunger”?
     University of Utah researchers, before formulating their answer to that question, analyzed ten years’ worth of financial data from a group of nonprofits and tracked actual donation behavior for a couple nonprofits.
     The results indicated that “Feed the Children” would last longer. The reason is that consumers prefer to spend their money on supporting the positive than on fighting against the negative. Consumers seek an uplifting denouement—an end to the story which draws together the threads of the plot.
      Still, “Stop Child Hunger” does tug at the emotions more than does the promise of a positive resolution. Of the two alternatives in the short term, it’s likely to draw more money from consumers. Shock is powerful.
     Researchers at Bangor University, Glyndwr University, and Loughborough University say they were shocked, absolutely shocked. The cause was the use of shock itself, specifically the broad consumer acceptance of shocking images and descriptions in advertising. A TV ad from the early 2000’s for a product called X-cite employed shockvertising to convince the viewer that using the product would eliminate what the ad referred to as “dog breath.” The ad starts with a disheveled man awakening on a couch. The man opens his mouth and, via special effects magic, regurgitates a dog.
     Shocking images and descriptions trigger storytelling in the consumer’s mind. Once having been stopped in their tracks, the viewers ask themselves questions like “What is happening here?,” “What led up to this scene?,” and “What’s likely to happen next?” They spend more time contemplating the situation and, we hope, thinking about the product.
     But to close the sale, remember to give potential donors and purchasers a positive, morally correct resolution to the story they’re telling themselves. The X-cite ad ends with the man quickly swallowing a tablet before being happily kissed by a woman who’s entered the room.

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

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Double Down on Cause Marketing 
Devise a Denouement for Departed Brands 
Collapse to Soles When Asking for Money
Shock Consumers, But Morally
Magnetize the Consumer with Mystery

Realize the Dream

I look for the dream before I look at the merchandise. That’s where I start when I come into a store as a retail consultant.
     My Amazon.com bio sketch says I’m a “nosy shopper.” Yes, I do have limitless curiosity about why people buy and don’t. But my inquisitiveness extends to seeking what the retailer has in mind for their store and how they define success for themselves.
     Making money is up there at the top, as it should be. There must be adequate profitability if the business or professional practice is to survive. With the best of the retailers I’ve seen, also at the top is the drive to serve the community with competence. Central to the dream is pride in performance.
     Achieving the dream requires perseverance. In fact, the dream will probably never be fully achieved. The richest, most satisfying dreams evolve rather than end. The gossamer coalesces into concrete form, which soon gets gauzy again for a while.
     To muster and maintain that perseverance, avoid continuous monitoring of how far we need to go to achieve those long-term, somewhat fuzzy goals. When a retailer carefully monitors results toward achieving long-term goals they’ve set, one consequence is that time seems to pass more slowly for the retailer. And that, in turn, makes the goal seem more distant. The best solution is to regularly monitor how far we’ve already progressed toward each clearly defined business objective.
     Realizing what the dream is can be tougher if you’re taking over the family business. It doesn’t work well to live out somebody else’s dream, especially when the somebody else drops by regularly. Investigators at Boston Consulting Group and Cambridge Advisors to Family Enterprise say that only about one out of every ten privately-held businesses makes it through to the third generation.
     The sentiment transcends languages and cultures, as evidenced in the English-language versions of these maxims:

• “Father merchant, son gentleman, grandson beggar” (Mexico) 
• “Rich father, noble son, poor grandson” (Brazil) 
• “From the stables to the stars and back to the stables” (Italy) 
• “Wealth never survives three generations” (China) 

     Family-founded business or not, every store comes with a history. Regularly check that if I come to visit your place, the dream I’ll see is yours. Recognize what it is and achieve it. Realize your dream.

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

Click below for more: 
Monitor Your Progress Toward Objectives
Prolong Opportunities for Family-Owned Stores
Honor Salesmanship