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PACO UNDERHILL
ERDEM BOSTAN
WHY WE BUY?
But time is relative, most customers misjudge the time theyve spend in a
store
INTERCEPTION RATE &
WAITING TIME
Interception rate is the
percentage of customers
who have some contact
with an employee.
MORE CONTACT = MORE
SALES
Another measure for a
stores performance is the
waiting time
If buyers come across a
long line in a store, they
may even leave the store
without buying anything.
Underhill argues that businessperson often don't really know who their
shoppers are.
Because no one had ever bothered to count the size of dining groups.
THE BIOLOGICAL
CONSTANTS
Paco Underhill argues that most stores dont consider the simple
biological constants that are common among all human beings:
We only have two hands, and if we have a bag in one of our hands, we
need a basket to shop with the other.
Wed rather look at people than objects.
If you watch people coming from the parking lot and going into a store, we
can see that they move FAST. Because a parking lot is not a pleasant
place to walk slowly through.
SO, If you put important things on the windows facing the parking lot, people
will miss it. And if the objects on the windows are small, or not well lit, they
cannot be seen from distance.
TRANSITION
(DECOMPRESSION) ZONE
Do you ever go into a store and immediately stop to check your surroundings? NO!
People need time to adjust when they go into a store. Their eyes focus, they slow
down gradually and even if you see them go into the store, theyre not actually
there for quite some time.
Retailers think that if you put some important object in the entrance zone, it will be
more effective, but actually this is not the case.
Theres a transitions zone in stores, where shoppers get in and get adapted to the
new environment.
The ads on the doors are often not being read. People look for door handles there,
not ads. They only stop and look at whats written on the door when the store is
closed.
You have to slow down the shoppers to keep them in the store for longer.
Think about a woman in a cold day carrying a handbag. She has to take off
her coat and carry her bag through the entire shopping process.
You have to give them baskets or shopping carts.
If you put the baskets too close to the door (in the transition zone), most
people would not notice them.
Dont use plastic baskets, theyre ugly. Use bigger baskets, as people tend
to shop more if theres empty space in the basket.
Baskets should be scattered throughout the store, wherever shoppers
might need them.
HOW TO READ A SIGN
To say whether a sign or any in-store media works or not, there's only one way to really
assess it-in place. On the floor of the store.
If they're not reading it, even the best sign won't work.
If you put a sign that you can read in 10 seconds to a place where you stop
for 3 or 4 seconds at most, its going to fail.
McDonald's found that 75 percent of customers read the menu board after
they order, while they wait for their food-during the"meal prep" period. So
if you want to give them a message for the next time they visit, its the
perfect time to do it.
WHERE TO PUT THE SIGNS?
Shoe stores where Its smarter to
people often wait for put the ads on
the clerk to find the the way
right size. back from
the bathroom.
Escalators.
Inside of the bathroom
stalls
SHOPPERS MOVE LIKE
PEOPLE
Underhill tells us that by a huge majority, most of the people head right
when they go into a store.
So if the majority of your customers are women, you should not place the
menswear category to the rand hand side, because when they go into the
store and to the right, they see that its the menswear side and come back
to the right side again.
Shoppers not only walk right, they also reach right. Because most of the
people are right-handed
People walk forward and they see forward, but most of the time in stores,
the products are on your right or left. You have to either walk sideways or
turn your head to see them. This makes us see less. Get distracted.
This is why its always effective
to use endcaps (on the right)
Theyre very effective to display
goods.
Architects must design the stores
keeping sight lines in mind. You
need to be able to see the
displays from a distance.
You can use the pinball effect,
which is when a shopper looks at
a product and then look up, see
another appealing product, go
and examine that too.
Slightly above eye level to knee
level is usually the area we can
see clearly.
BOOMERANG RATE
It shows how many times a shopper walks down an aisle and as soon as he
finds what hes looking for, he turns back without even looking at other
products.
You have to put the most important products on the back of the aisle so
they see more products on the way and have a chance to see something
interesting and stop.
THE IMPORTANCE OF
SEATING
Underhill emphasizes the importance of seating in stores.
A chair says We care because people often want to sit down and rest.
In most of the stores, even adding one chair to the store considerably boosts the sales.
For example, a man whos waiting for his wife shopping for underwear would want to sit
down while hes waiting. So the woman may shop more freely, spend more time in the
store and simply buy more.
MEN VS. WOMEN
MEN
Men move faster in a store than
women.
They dont usually look at something
theyre not going to buy.
They dont like to ask questions.
These three factors are intertwined, you should not separate them from each
other.
You need balance among these three factors. If one is weak, the others carry a
great burden.
TIME
One of the most important factors in a
store is waiting times.
Customers see a corellation between
waiting times and service quality.
If they wait for longer, they think the
service quality is poor.
Peoples perception of time distorts
after 90 seconds. They tend to
exaggerate if they wait longer than
that.
If you solve their problems in 2
minutes, its a success, if its more
than 3, its failure.
TIME
There are some ways to bend their perception of time:
Placing one item next to another that creates some spark and sell more of one, or
even both of them. In other words: ADJACENCIES.
There are no new customers, the population isnt booming, we have more stores
than we need. So you should sell more to the existing customers.
They buy a new mouse? Put a mousepad there. A new car? Put a floor mat.
Belts near trousers, socks near shoes, tomato sauce near pasta.
You can figure out intelligent adjacencies just by standing near one thing and
asking yourself, what else is on my mind here?
THE INTERNET
Underhill questions the accuracy of the information we find
on the Internet, giving an example in which he is listed as
the co-author of a book on Amazon he had nothing to do
with.
Price we pay for convenience, one-click shopping and a
ritualized retail experience is that no one recognizably
human sits at the other end of our Amazon transactions-just
a seamlessly calibrated database of e-mails that roll toward
our in-boxes.
THE ADVANTAGES:
Pre-shopping: You can get information online, before going
to the store and buying what you need.
Having the confort of your home while shopping with no
lines, no waiting for the checkout etc.
Time savings, Access to more products.
THE INTERNET -
CONVERGENCE
Underhill describes convergence as the merging of the physical store and
the internet.
QR Codes, online brochures and manuals are very effective.
The Ability to Replace Our Wallets with internet enabled mobile
phones.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I enjoyed the book more than I expected. As its more about what happens
in the real world instead of just theories.
Underhill uses many, many, many real-life examples, tells us many
experiences about past clients and it keeps the tone of the book lighter
and that makes the book easy to read, while being very informative.
Its amazing how little changes in a store can boost sales and performance
so well.
And it showed me how one can get creative in a store environment, or how
business-people can be so blind to obvious issues in their stores.
I sensed that Underhill is a little sceptical about the Internet and online
sales, but its probably because the book is a little outdated. Even the
revised and updated version is almost 10 years old.
I would love to see re-revised and updated version of this book.
ERDEM BOSTAN