Experiential Shopping
Your store will be more shopper-friendly if the customer has the opportunity to touch and feel products. Does it need to be taken out of packaging (or placed in protective packaging) so the customer can handle it? Or perhaps you can consider a demo model to be stored on a shelf or at the service desk to encourage interaction.
It’s important to create different spaces in the outlet to appeal to different shoppers, especially if you are not targeting one specific demographic. As mentioned, experimenting with lighting or sound, particularly with music, can create a new mood, but so can more obvious design and fit-out tools. Make spaces appear bigger or smaller with the use of different coloured paints; experiment with the height of the ceiling-Freedom uses dropped ceilings well in its stores. Or use walls and partial walls to create spaces in the retail environment. And experiment with clustering related or different products-Bay Swiss use this form of visual merchandising.
Don’t be afraid to borrow from other retailers. If you sell clothes, ‘borrow’ jewellery from a jeweller in the centre, or shoes from shoe shops to allow the customer to see what the outfit can look like. It’s a win-win for the store you’re cross-promoting and for you. Some shopping centres encourage this process through personal shoppers. Work with your non-competitive but aligned retailers, for example if you sell plumbing supplies use tilers, mirror and even linen companies to create bathroom displays.
As well as playing up the positive aspects of your space, you need to hide or disguise the negative. Fragrance, for example, is used to disguise an unpleasant smell or to enhance an environment.
And show the production process. Presenting how the product is made can enhance shopper experience of the product. An example is in Boost Juice outlets where each drink is prepared individually and you can see all ingredients, and in Krispy Kreme donut factory stores, you can see (and smell) the donuts being made from start to finish.
Measuring Success
There are several methods for testing whether an activity is beneficial for your business. The most commonly used is pre- and post-measurement. Simply measure and record sales (units sold and/or dollar value) and customer interactions before the change is made, then instigate the experiential change and remeasure your results. Ideally, all aspects-advertising, pricing, seasonality-should remain stable and the only change is the experiential element. The differences over the two periods will give an indication of the impact of the experiential change.
In some cases the experiential interaction may increase customer interactions, and this the brings the potential of more sales. In this instance, a survey of customers may be a more appropriate way to obtain feedback. Either way, it’s important to gauge the success of any measure taken to increase customer traffic and sales.
Experiential shopping enhances the opportunity for your customers to interact with your product and this has the potential to lead to increased sales and customer loyalty.
* Philip Smith is qualitative researcher at Environmetrics, researching retail behaviours and trends. www.environmetrics.com.au