Book Summary: Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping - Paco Underhill
This book is for anyone who has ever shopped for anything or tried to sell something. It is not an easy book to summarize because so many details are worth reading. The book covers retail products - not services. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to make an impact in retailing.
Chapter 1 - Background
Stores would not survive without impulse shopping.
We are over retailed.
New stores are trying to steal existing market share because there is no new market.
Brand names are being eroded. ("
Selling the Invisible" says the opposite.)
Chapter 2 - The Mechanics
In some stores, buyers spend three to four times longer than non-buyers. Get them to shop longer - talking to employees helps.
As shoppers ourselves, you would think we could organize our own stores properly.
We can determine where shoppers will walk in a store.
Amenability and profitability are inextricably linked.
Chapter 3 - The Approach and Entryway
While walking through parking lots people, are not looking at the store windows.
Chapter 4
Keep the customers' hands free to touch and browse.
One store gives you a bag to gather stuff in and then tries to sell you the bag at the check out.
Chapter 5 - Signs
People don't see signs. They are focused on other things, or signs are badly laid out and placed in the wrong places.
Put signs where people are waiting. Give them something to look at.
In 1½ seconds, we can only read 3 or 4 words.
Chapter 6
Shoppers move like people - they want to see stuff face on, not sideways. This applies to window displays & store displays.
American shoppers move to the right the same way they drive.
Chapter 7 - Dynamics
Provide seating for support people: husbands shopping with wives, etc.
More than 50% of fast food is served in Drive-Thru Windows. Ten percent of those people park in the parking lot to eat (primarily women).
Chapter 8 - Shop like a man
Men are easier to up sell than women.
Men are more likely to ignore price tags.
Sell to the woman - close to the man.
Open a women's store next to a store that will keep the men happy, e.g., computers etc.
Women's stores are not organized for men to buy.
Men's Health magazine sells more than 1.5 million copies per month.
Chapter 9 - What women want
Hardware stores now make it much easier for women to shop.
Very few coupons are used anymore - Safeway card is the new style.
Stores selling cosmetics.
Stuff for older people on the lowest shelf. We can't get down there with any comfort.
Will I get jostled if I stand here?
Fast food restaurants: men tend to sit at front, women in rear.
Women focus on results, not processes when computer shopping.
Gas station for women: the cleanest washrooms anywhere.
Chapter 10 - We're getting older
We can't read labels and signs. They must make it easier for us. Eyes start to falter at age 40. Also, blues and greens blend so are not good for contrast. At 50, we get 1/4 less light in our retinas than a 20-year-old does.
The lighting is too dull.
Put a magnifying glass on a chain near medicine bottles.
ATM's should talk to us.
How can you make your store more senior citizen friendly?
Over 60's wheel chair accessible!
Mattresses will become quasi medical and less furniture-focused.
Chapter 11 - Kids
Kids go shopping with parents. If you cater to families, is your store stroller accessible?
Even McDonalds make it difficult for kids to order. Kids can't see menus, can't see over counter.
How smart booksellers stack their shelves. Very good section about bookstores.
Toys: Adults select and buy but the kids are the decision makers. Stores need kid appeal.
Wells Fargo: 15% of traffic was under 7 years of age.
Help keep the kids amused.
Chapter 12 - The Sensual shopper
We buy more than ever based on trial & touch.
Close to 90% of new products fail mainly because people don't try them.
In 1960. 35% of a Sears store was storage, now it is 15%.
23% of Asian-American shoppers tore open packages to check the product.
Dressing rooms: Very good section in the book. It's got great potential. They are underutilized.
Testing products: Three types of pencil sharpener: hand, battery, electric. Can I test them? No way. Not set up and no pencils to sharpen.
Gel deodorants for men from Gillette: How can we distinguish one from another. They are all sealed, we can't smell them or touch anything. We have to be able to explore the product.
Chapter 13 - The Big Three
Design, Merchandising, Operations. Often these don't work well together.
Chapter 14 - Time
Bad time is when the customer is made to wait.
Chapter 15 - Cash/Wrap
Many things go wrong here. Reduce theft and other good ideas: combining the two is frustrating for the customer.
Chapter 16 - Magic Acts
Layout of stores
Add-ons - up selling
Linking products: in book store, put the kid's books & health books near the women's books.
Chapter 17 - Cyberspace: advantages and disadvantages
Difficult to find your way around.
You can't touch the products.
No social interaction, no immediate gratification.
Catalogues account for less than 10% of shopping.
Chapter 18 - Self exam
Book gives a great example for bookstore.
Examine your business: start ½ block away; look outside the store and inside the store.
Put signs where people linger.
Americans don't list banks among their top five sources of information and advice on finance. In the US which bank employee has the most interaction with customer? The security guard, and he doesn't work for the bank.
Chapter 19 - Final thoughts
In the old days, the right price/location/product was success. Now that is what's necessary to survive.
Where is the art, the presentation, the romance, the seduction in shopping?
What we like: touch; mirrors; discovery; talking; recognition; bargains
What we hate: too many mirrors; lines; asking dumb questions; goods out of stock; obscure price tags; intimidating service
Demands of anatomy must be obeyed. Gender and ages must be accommodated.
Research and Consulting (Retail)
Category Management projects are designed to:
- Understand how consumers actually shop the product category.
This information may be used to make design and marketing decisions, based on customer needs and behaviors in the store. - Determine how shopping patterns vary between retail channels and key accounts.
Given this understanding, we may suggest how the merchandising strategy be improved or tailored to each channel or account. - Identify which factors at the point of sale (benefit, brand, variant, size, price, merchandising, shelf positioning, etc.) influence the purchase decision.
How can we both facilitate and influence the decision process?
Research is often structured to test and compare shopping behavior in the product category at multiple retail channels. Key accounts within each channel are selected for research. Research is conducted in at least two stores per account for two days at each store
Data collected measures the following
- Shopper Index: demographics of store vs. section shoppers
- Group composition
- Time Spent shopping the category
- Average Number of products shopped and bought
- First brand shopped
- Ease of finding category and products within category
- Breakdown of brands shopped in each category
- How does merchandising interaction correlate with purchase?
- How are products handled, e.g. do shoppers touch or pick up packages?
- Reasons for not purchasing
- What factors or information are most influential in the purchase decision?
- Cross-category shopping incidence
- Percent of “grab and go” purchase
- Degree to which product category and brand purchased was planned
- Aisle entrance and exit patterns
- Shelf hot spots
- Shopper Conversion Ratio
- Interaction vs. Conversion
Retail projects are designed to gain an understanding of the dynamics of consumer shopping behavior in stores. This information may be used to make design and layout decisions, based on customer needs and behaviors in the store. By analyzing the relationship between store layout, operations, and merchandising, store design may be improved to achieve better performance.
Research is often structured to test and compare shopping behavior in several stores.
Research is conducted for at least two days per store.Data collected measures the following:
- Average time spent in the store overall
- Average time spent in each section of the store
- Average traffic flow into the store
- Percentage of passers-by noticing and entering
- Percent of shoppers who purchase
- Capture power of each category
- Interaction vs. conversion
- Percent of shoppers assisted by region
- Average time spent with sales associate
- Conversion ratio of Assisted shoppers
- Shopping group composition
- Percent of time each section is shopped first
- Average number of sections visited
- Age and gender breakdowns of shoppers
- Average amount spent
- Average cash wrap wait and transaction times
- Store traffic patterns
- Store coverage
- First location shopped
- Percent of time each section is shopped (Hot Spots)
- Average number of products shopped
- Average number of products bought
- Reasons for visiting the store
- Frequency of shopping the store
- Satisfaction with and availability of sales assistance
- How do customers rate the store on specific criteria?
Food service projects are designed to understand customer behavior and traffic patterns throughout the restaurant. Research results may be used to improve:
- design to facilitate the sales process
- merchandising messaging to optimize effectiveness
- merchandising placement to increase exposures
Research is often structured to test and compare shopping behavior either inside the restaurant or at the drive-thru. Research is conducted for at least two days at each site.The following analyses are calculated in each restaurant zone:
- Traffic flow into the store
- Average order line wait time
- Demographics of Customers
- Customer group sizes
- Percent of Take out vs. Eat In Customers
- Percent of Customers in each Zone
- Average Time Spent in store
- Percent of Customers Viewing Signs
- Average Number of Signs Viewed
- Total Time Viewing Signs
- Exposure Percentages and Exposure Lengths for Signs Viewed
- Percent of Customers Confused
- Percent of customers who “walk-out” of line
- Percent of customers viewing each merchandising element
- Seating density
- Menu board exposure
- Activities of customers during meal prep
Mad Cow offers consulting services to satisfy certain client needs that a full scale research project would otherwise not be able to meet, such as:
- Analyzing categories with limited shopping volume which would result in insufficient sample sizes
- Providing a lower cost option
- Allowing for a faster reporting turnaround
customer experience analysis
In order to help retailers and developers with specific design planning, MadCow conducts a site visit/photo audit process that sends experienced researchers into select locations to observe and report on customer behaviors.
- A sample of stores or other point of sale venues are visited by different members of the MadCow management team, each of whom observe shopper behavior in the environment.
- Information is gathered through observation only; there is no communication or interaction with customers. MadCow researchers take digital photographs of the location and speak informally with associates to better understand their views and ideas.
- The focus is on qualitative information about the customer/visitor experience as well as the relationship of that experience to layout, operations and design.
retail analysis
We work on problems in store planning, prototype development, package design, category management and merchandising. We can save you time, energy and money.
Our approach is customized to meet your needs. Some of our recent consulting engagements involved the following:
- Reviewing designs, floor plans and artist renderings for new stores
- Walking through client’s stores/sales environments to identify and discuss good and bad practices on-site
- Touring stores to share our unique and broad knowledge of what's new and interesting in Indian Retailing
