The best merchandising plans are built on knowledge of customer behavior.
Shoppers don’t just wander aimlessly around the store. They have preferences, paths, associations, reactions to visual cues, and decision-making processes based on both rational and irrational considerations. By knowing these behaviors, you can design better merchandising plans.
Why is customer behavior important?
Shoppers encounter hundreds or even thousands of products in any given retail location. Yet they cannot pay attention to each and every item. They filter the world around them and look only at what is interesting, convenient, appealing, or familiar. Good merchandising can help organize that information, making it easier for shoppers to get around and make choices.
The customer journey
The customer journey starts long before a transaction is completed. It typically includes the following steps:
- Entering or accessing the store
- Looking around the available merchandise
- Spotting something they want
- Checking out alternatives
- Assessing price and value
- Deciding whether to buy
- Buying the product
There are plenty of opportunities for merchandising at each step along this journey.
Creating a good first impression
Shoppers form their first impressions rapidly.
Their perceptions of a brand and the quality of its merchandise are heavily influenced by the entrance, the first things they see, how the store is organized, and how it looks overall.
If the environment is open, inviting, and well-organized, shoppers will feel free to explore. If it is cramped, crowded, or cluttered, they might struggle to make their way around the store.
Catching the shopper’s eye
Not all products attract the attention of shoppers equally. Some items catch the shopper’s eye because of their:
- Location
- Color
- Size
- Packaging
- Lighting
- Contrast
- Advertising
Still, simply catching the shopper’s eye is not enough to win their business. The product must also seem relevant, giving the shopper a reason to take it into consideration.
The importance of product groupings
Shoppers often assume that products that belong together are grouped together. A logical arrangement makes it easy for shoppers to compare different products and spot complementary items. For example, you might place products that are usually used together in the same location. This makes life easier for shoppers who are looking for those items.
Product groupings also help shoppers understand your assortment structure.
Dealing with choice
A common complaint shoppers make about modern retailing is “too much choice.” When there are dozens or even hundreds of identical or very similar products available, shoppers can get overwhelmed. They might spend lots of time comparing products, or they might defer their decision altogether.
Good merchandising can reduce the burden on the shopper by defining useful categories, emphasizing meaningful distinctions, and presenting items in a logical fashion.
The importance of convenience
Shoppers appreciate convenience.
They like products that are easy to locate, retrieve, compare, and understand. Therefore, a merchandiser needs to think about how usable the display is, not just how pretty it looks. A nice display that hides a product is not likely to sell.
Impulse Purchases
Some purchases don’t require a lot of thought or planning.
Merchandising can help with these kinds of purchases. By placing the right product in the right place, you increase the chances of a customer seeing a product that they didn’t plan to buy. This can happen near the checkout, at a special sale display, or even next to a related product. However, the product still needs to be relevant to the customer.
Online Shopping
Shopping behavior isn’t just about physical stores.
An online shopper responds to a product image, category name, recommendation, search result, price, review, page design, and more. Many of the rules for merchandising apply to e-commerce too. For instance, keeping your online product catalog neatly organized might be similar to keeping a store aisle tidy.
Asking the Customer
Customers can tell you things you wouldn’t know otherwise. They can point out where they had trouble finding a product, or where the store was confusing. Questions, complaints, reviews, and observations from customers can give you insight into how they shop. You can then use this feedback to adjust your merchandising, including product placement, signage, categories, etc.
Watching Customers
Observing customers can be helpful. You can see:
- Which areas get the most traffic
- Where customers pause
- What catches their eye
- What they ignore
- Where they seem confused
Looking at customer movement in-store can help you understand what merchandising changes might improve the shopping experience.
Don’t Assume
Assuming you know how a customer will react to your merchandising can lead to mistakes. A display may look great from behind the counter, but not catch the eye of the shopper. By testing different ideas and looking at how customers respond, you’ll learn more than if you just guess.
Merchandising and Customer Experience
Merchandising should make the customer’s shopping trip easier. It shouldn’t just be about selling more. If customers have a hard time finding the products they want, or don’t know what’s available, that’s not a good experience. Good merchandising should make the customer feel that their needs are being met. This means that the goals of merchandising and customer experience can align.
Summary
Understanding how customers behave is a big part of how a merchandiser works. Merchandisers study how customers walk through a store, what attracts their attention, how they choose products, and why they decide to buy. MerchCrest helps students learn about customer behavior, product presentation, store layout, and assortment planning to create a better understanding of merchandising.
Good merchandising starts with the customer, not the product.