The right design of the shop and the right placing of goods on the shelves help the shop assistants to urge the consumer to make an impulse purchase by using the right selling techniques. This is an important chance for resellers and shop owners to increase their turnover, because, in some product categories, the unplanned purchases may even equal to as much as 80 percent.
The impulse purchase is a phenomenon complicated to define – its background is emotions and the emotions may occur in a very different form. However, it always means an unplanned purchase, where the contact with the incentives creating powerful reactions in the buyer plays a role – for making an impulse purchase, the customer's mood has to change quickly, which reflects in the customer's wish to buy the product. With an unexpected wish to buy, the customer experiences a provisional loss of control over him or herself. According to dotactiv.com, there are several marketing strategies to urge the customer to buy.
Strawberries and the whipped cream are an amazing combination
Impulse purchases are very important for the seller because they help to increase the customers' basket of goods and the company's turnover. In addition, it increases the loyalty of the customers due to the positive buying experience. The seller is assisted by simple things like placing of the goods and the design of the shop.
If you would like to influence the customer to act impulsively, it is worth knowing that the rationality of the consumers is disturbed by the unexpected contact with the incentive, which urges them unexpectedly to buy. It is possible to do a lot in order to urge the customer to buy, starting with the scent and the sounds at the shop and ending with the interior of the shop – a shop can be designed in a way that the consumer moves along the track created for them, so that the cadies and the magazines are offered near the checkout of the shop etc.
The impulse purchase means that the client buys a product that was not to be found in his or her shopping list when entering the shop. This conduct can be caused in many ways. If the client goes to the shop with an aim to buy strawberries, he might also put whipped cream in the basket (in case it is placed near to the strawberries), because whipped cream and strawberries are such a good combination that the people might get into the mood to eat them together. Similarly, the bread may be placed next to the peanut butter – as peanut butter is good to grease on the bread, both food products may make it to the basket.
Create a shop where people would spend hours!
The longer the customers stay at the shop, the bigger their basket of products normally is when going out. Therefore, it is smart to keep the customers in the shop as long as possible, writes marketingtecher.com. For example, the shelves could be placed so that the customers do not only see the product selection of the shelves situated near to them, but also one of the shelves situated further away – in this case, it is more probable that they get interested in further inspecting the other goods, as well. In the same way, customers can be influenced by making them move through the shop when moving the escalators or the toilet – they see a lot of products that they might be interested in buying. In order to make the product even more eye-catching, it is advisable to use bright colors – for the packages as well as for advertisements and campaign labels.
Is it possible to increase the number of impulse purchases also in the web? When selling online, it is more complicated to do, because there are not as many opportunities to influence the customers (video and visuals), but according to shopify.com, the result may be very good, once the attention of the customers has been caught.
The specificity of an online shop is that the company only has a few seconds to attract the attention of the consumers before they leave and probably never come back. Therefore, peoples' attention has to be caught with something interesting – later on, the customer probably also visits the online shop and the homepage of the company. One way to catch the eye of the customers is to share funny, interesting of – why not – shocking video clips that attract the attention of the people on YouTube.
The advantage of online selling is the possibility to follow the activities of the visitors or the web analytics that gives the providers of services information beyond price information about the buying behavior of the customer which enables to make him personal offers in addition to the goods that are already in the basket. It is normally easier to keep in touch with the customer online; for instance, it is possible to send the customer offers on associated products a week or a month after making the purchase.
Five strategies to increase the number of impulse purchases:
Placing of goods.
Place products that fit or belong together next to each other in the shop. For instance, if the customer visits a building supplies store to buy a wall paint and the products are placed suitably, he or she sees the other products needed for the work next to it – brushes, paint rollers, tapes etc., knowing that he or she also needs them to complete the work.
Upselling.
Do upselling if possible – in addition to an umbrella, offer the customer a raincoat that matches the color of his clothes; offer socks to the customer willing to buy sports shoes etc.
Buying experience.
Try and do your best in order to make the customers satisfied, giving them a positive buying emotion – a special offer or a product given free of charge to a certain customer makes him or she feel better.
Comfort.
Make buying easier – if the buying process is quick and comfortable, the consumers have much less time to consider, whether or not they need a certain product than in case they have to wait in a long line.
Campaign.
If you offer three products for the price of one, customers feel an urge to buy, because they sense that it is possible to get the product especially cheap, even though it actually might not be the case.