Even the plainest truths can get lost in all the details of planning and stocking a store.

The obvious isnt always apparent. You Need hands Study of a newspaper store showed that people juggling things in their hand buy less due to the hassle Shopping experience needs to be comfortable , easy and practical so that the customers buy more HARD TO READ A SIGN

A. Name of Book: Why We Buy

B. Author: Paco Underhill C. Background of Author: (Education, work experience, other books that he has written): Paco Underhill is an environmental psychologist, the author of the books Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping and Call of the Mall: The Geography of Shopping, and the founder of a market research and consulting company called Envirosell. He employs the basic idea of environmental psychology, that our surroundings influence our behavior, to find ways of structuring man-made environments to make them conducive to retail purposes. A highly regarded speaker, Underhill has delivered keynote speeches at conferences, universities and corporations spanning the globe for over a decade. From buying behavior to consumerism in the modern world, Underhill's "insightful" and "entertaining" presentations have been lauded worldwide. Packed with surprising details, anecdotes, important lessons and groundbreaking observations on shopping and corporate behavior, Underhill's speeches give those in attendance a peek into the mind that set a new standard in the industry nearly 30 years ago, and who is the guiding visionary for Envirosell and its approach to research. Today, he is known as one of the era's forefront shopping anthropologists, with offices in Tokyo, Milan, Moscow, Mexico City, Sao Paulo and New Delhi. Paco has presented on such topics as The Global State of Retail; The Science of Shopping; The State of Luxury Goods; Cross-Channel Convergence (Online, Mobile Phone, Bricks-and-Mortar); The Future of Travel; Retail Banking in the 21st Century; The Evolution of the Mobile Phone; Trends in Global Shopping Malls; The Future of Bread and Food Service; Getting to the Modern Airport; What Women Want; and others. Paco's new book, What Women Want (Simon & Schuster 2010), focuses on how the changing status of women affects the physical world we live in.

D. Summary of Each chapter (100 words each): Mention each chapter summarize in 100 words. 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 1 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 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.

E. 3 key learnings from the book: 1. Purchasing behaviors can be studied: Underhill and his team opened the eyes of CEO and retail managers everywhere with their unique approach of meticulously observing people as they shopped. They brought techniques from anthropology and merged them with economics to create a new science. 2. Retailers still have much to learn about why people buy: Most CEOs that Underhill spoke with knew a whole lot about how store revenues but very little about what actually made customer purchase. For example, one CEO he spoke with believed that about 99% of people who visited their stores made purchase. When Underhill revealed that the correct statistic was only 48%, the CEO was needless to say enthralled with the possibilities. 3. Sellers can benefit from understanding buyer behavior: Buyers have a certain way of walking through a store. A specific way of using their hands, looking at signs, taking breaks while shopping. Sellers who understand these behaviors can gain a huge competitive advantage.

F. How would you apply this in your personal life? Underhill's book certainly opened my eyes to what retailers know and do not know about what makes people buy. My only problem with his book is the writing format. Underhill's writing is actually pretty good, but it lacks periodic summaries of main points to really drive home the reader's understanding. By reading "Why We Buy," you will get an informative, if sometimes wandering, read through the psychology of buying. Suppose if I go for a shopping, this book enables me the psychology behind the objects that I shop for. It is obvious that sellers use tactics to grab attention of buyer and make it an impulse purchase, there may be a time that the fascination towards a product is not practically a usable product and this enables me to understand the gag and shop wisely. Also the different behavior displayed by different gender while shopping can help effectively managing shopping phenomenon on personal level.

G. How could you apply these learnings in your professional life? 1. Purchasing behaviors can be studied: Underhill and his team opened the eyes of CEO and retail managers everywhere with their unique approach of meticulously observing people as they shopped. They brought techniques from anthropology and merged them with economics to create a new science. 2. Retailers still have much to learn about why people buy: Most CEOs that Underhill spoke with knew a whole lot about how store revenues but very little about what actually made customer purchase. For example, one CEO he spoke with believed that about 99% of people who visited their stores made purchase. When Underhill revealed that the correct statistic was only 48%, the CEO was needless to say enthralled with the possibilities. 3. Sellers can benefit from understanding buyer behavior: Buyers have a certain way of walking through a store. A specific way of using their hands, looking at signs, taking breaks while shopping. Sellers who understand these behaviors can gain a huge competitive advantage. 4. You can always sell more: Your best customers are your current customers. Find ways to upsell. Entice them to the back of the store. Keep them in the store longer. 5. Women and men shop differently: For example, men tend to go into a store, look at a large shelf of items, pick one, and quickly leave. Meanwhile, women are actually more information-intensive, reading the label for each possibility before making a purchase. 6. People use all five senses to decide on a purchase: The more of the five senses to which a seller

can appeal, the better. People want verification with their whole body before buying a product. 7. Shopping on the Internet is different: Okay, this one is a "well, duhhh, Mr. Underhill" today, but remember this book was written in the late 1990s. Underhill does list some truisms about the advantages of shopping on the Internet which are helpful reminders.