For many times I have asked myself why some businesses are really successful whereas others hardly keep themselves on the water surface.
Consumers are not aware why they like to spend money in specific places. They are attracted magnetically by some shops whereas they avoid to enter other shops. Why is it this way? Simply, they search to stay in places where they feel good. A nice ambiance makes them to stay longer in a shop, to explore the shop more detailedly. They rate it and its employees, its product and the entire shopping experience in a better way and consequently to spend more money. Shopping has become an entertaining experience. At the bottom you find three parameters, which can be helpful in having a set of ideas about how to create a selling environment, which stimulates the consumers to buy more.
- Vendors: Try to train the selling personal to be as competent as possible in answering the consumers` questions. Selling personal should be not only have the knowledge to inform the consumers, but their role is to enhance the shopping experience. They have to be friendly and should not give the consumers the impression of pushing them to buy something. The key competence of selling personal is to be attentive in what the consumers wish and to try to fulfill their requirements by offering them the suitable products, but also in counseling them and building a relationship so that the consumers will come again.
- Rooms: Shopping has to be fun! For women shopping is a therapy when they feel down, they take their best friend and go to buy something new for their garderobe. The best way to create positive emotions for customers when they enter a shop is by the room design. Shopping experience is far better when the customers are surrounded by a phantasy atmosphere which makes them to escape daily troubles and to relax. Shopping has become an adventure, in which they discover a unknown territory… Rooms should be structured clearly – they should have a certain order and all elements should built an unity. Use natural materials like wood and textiles and avoid to exhibit technical supply systems. The more complex a room is organized, the more consumers get active and the more they explore and… the more they spend. Complexity is created by: Decoration with strong colors, music, and certain fragrances. Try to avoid a too high room temperature and hard seats, but try to have a certain noise level to activate shopping disposal.
- Buying Atmosphere: Different environments evoke not only emotional, but also cognitive and physiological reactions of customers. They look around and classify a shop according to what they see e.g. a restaurant is structured differently compared to a fast food chain. They build themselves an opinion in their vision about how is the personal dressed and how is the room designed. Therefore they know what to expect and how to react in the different situations. Therefore only customers who fit into the business avatar are going to frequent those places, whereas others are pushed away. Gender, age, expectations, consumers`moods, motives and aims influence the consumer shopping behavior.
If you want to find out more about this domain I recommend you to read the chapter in “Wirtschaftspychology” by Kirchler.