THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON SHOPPING

...and it's not very smart.

Most people who shop know the silliness of some pricing.  From BOGO deals to the .9 cents on every gallon of gasoline we buy, we know that pricing plays many roles: it implies value, it encourages behavior ("Buy me!"), it provides context.

The Atlantic's Derek Thompson shows us some of the ways in which we as shoppers are led - and sometimes misled - by pricing tactics.  http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/07/the-11-ways-that-consumers-are-hopeless-at-math/259479/

STORES CAN DO BETTER

   According to a Motorola Solutions survey released in June, 75% of US retailers believe that developing a more engaging in-store customer experience will be critical to their business in the next five years. A significant proportion of them expect to provide personalized product details, based on previous behavior, to a shopper’s smartphone.  In fact, retailers believe that 42% of sales will come from online, mobile, and social commerce sites in the next five years, says the report.

   Though retailers appear to understand the need to customize the in-store experience to better appeal to shoppers, a high proportion seems unable to do so. Three-quarters of retailers said they don’t know when a specific customer is in the store and 85% cannot customize a store visit. Additionally, 89% are unable to connect customers’ activities online with what they do in the store today.  This is a problem – and an opportunity.

  Big box stores, for instance, wring their virtual hands about showrooming and the like but in fact have tech tools increasingly available to make the shopping experience more powerful, more relevant and more successful. Here's a link to a nifty example.

   Our clients continue to make the shopping experience more effective and satisfying for shoppers, sometimes with some stunning technologies.  At Tusco Display, we love the challenge of helping them accomplish this.

CONSUMER INTERACTION AT THE POINT OF PURCHASE IS ALIVE AND WELL

Despite the fact that internet sales are way up over this time last year or even in the last three years, people are still attracted to and interact with point of sale and are willing to do so even at the expense of their own pride and dignity. Australian snack maker Fantastic Delites prove that human interaction at the point of sale can be accomplished with nothing more than a big red button, a video screen, and some music.

Obviously I am over simplifying things and if this experiment wasn’t a staged publicity stunt it further underscores the notion that point of purchase advertising and displays are not going away or even on their death bed. Watch the video and let me know if you think bricks and mortar retail are going to dry up and go away anytime soon in the comments section.

 

Here at Tusco Display we continue to see hands on innovations and ingenious customer interactions as an evolving trend in consumer behaviors and continue to create point of purchase displays that excite, inform, and compel shoppers to buy your products today, not Next Day Air or 2nd Day Ground shipping.