What Shoppers Want

Customer waiting time isn't the only thing businesses are ignorant of. Manufacturers and store owners often don't really know who their shoppers are. When we did a supermarket study for a dog-food manufacturer, we noticed that dog treats--liver-flavored biscuits and the like--were often being picked out by children and senior citizens. But the treats were typically stocked near the top of the supermarket shelves, out of easy reach of their main buyers. Our cameras caught children climbing the shelving to reach the treats. We witnessed one elderly woman using a box of aluminum foil to knock down her brand of dog biscuits. Once the pet treats were moved, sales went up overnight. The matter of retailers' not knowing who shops in their stores comes up all the time.

Retailing 101
Retailing 101 starts with the notion that a store has three distinct aspects: design (meaning the premises), merchandising (whatever you put in it), and operations (whatever employees do). These Big Three, while seemingly separate, are in fact completely and totally intertwined, interrelated, and interdependent, meaning that when somebody makes a decision regarding one, a decision has been made about the other two as well. Another, larger lesson is that if one of the Big Three is strengthened, it takes some of the pressure off the other two. If one is weakened, it shifts a burden onto the remaining two. This is not a good thing or a bad thing--it just is. It's the geometry that rules the shopping universe.

Here's an example. The trademark of Gap and many other clothing stores is that you can easily touch, stroke, unfold, and otherwise examine at close range everything on the selling floor. A lot of sweaters and shirts are sold thanks to the decision to foster intimate contact between shopper and goods. That merchandising policy dictates the display scheme (wide, flat tabletops, which are easier to shop than racks or shelves). That display scheme in turn determines how and where employees will spend their time; all that touching means that sweaters and shirts constantly need to be refolded and straightened and neatened. That translates into the need for lots of clerks roaming the floor rather than standing behind the counter ringing up sales. Which is a big expense, but for Gap and others, it's a sound investment--the cost of doing business. The main point is that Gap's policy was a conscious decision.

Sometimes it's not a decision so much as a response to a fact of life. Revlon's merchandising must work in a variety of settings--mass merchandisers, specialty stores, and drugstores. In drugstores, typically, the aisles are narrow. Because of that design reality, the dreaded "butt-brush factor"--the fact that women don't like to be brushed or touched from behind while shopping and will even move away from merchandise they're interested in to avoid such touching--comes into play. Revlon's drugstore merchandising must be clear, bold, and direct, so that women can spot the brand name, find what they're looking for, and be on their way as quickly as possible. If the signage and displays were more subtle or oblique, those women would be butt-brushed out of the aisle before they chose a single thing. That issue comes up all the time because the people who design packaging and merchandising materials don't spend enough time in stores, visiting their creations where they're sold. The point here is that whenever a decision is made regarding design, merchandising, or operations, it should be examined closely for its furthest-reaching implications.

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