We've all experienced this: we go to Walmart or Target for that one thing we really need
and then walk out with a cart full of stuff.
Even if we tell ourselves "All i'm gonna do today is get that one toothpaste and leave"
it just never happens.
Retail stores nowadays have much more effective ways of convincing you to buy ten more rolls of paper towels.
It is all thanks to science and psychology.
So in today’s list, we are counting down to the 10 sneaky scientific ways that retail
stores use to make you spend a little more money!
How you ever walked into a store and noticed just how good the place smells?
Well, that's by design because researchers have found that certain warm scents like cinnamon
So called “warm” scents like cinnamon, researchers have discovered, turns on a switch
at the back of unsuspecting customers’ heads as it creates a welcoming environment where
they can feel safe and relaxed and thus dropping down their guard and ending up with a brand
new purchase from the shop.
Another study has also shown that the specific scent of Lavender can create the feeling of
trust.
According to the study made by Leiden University, “smelling the aroma of lavender may help
a seller to establish more easily a trusting negotiation… it may induce customers to
spend more money buying products.”
So the next time you smell freshly baked cinnamon buns at a Crate and Barrel or the aroma of
lavender at a designer clothing store and you are on a tight budget, turn the other
way.
9.
Tugging at Your Heartstrings The best way to a consumer’s wallet is through
their memories.
Nostalgia plays a large role in the retail industry because it is a concept that always
hits a home run when it comes to bringing people into stores.
Several studies on the topic has shown that people are more likely to make a purchase
because they value money less the moment something clicks in their memory like a family gathering
or their first time to ride a bike.
Nostalgia makes them feel that they should be paying more than what is advertised.
8.
Big Carts, Big Purchases It is second nature to human beings that we
tend to fill in gaps or make sure that a space is properly filled.
In 1938, this natural human compulsion was put to good use when the first shopping cart
was invented and introduced to the public.
Less burdensome than shopping baskets, shopping carts make going through store aisles easy.
However the main feature of the cart is in its size.
While its inventors may have opted to create something in a much more conservative scale,
the shopping cart was intentionally designed for people to make larger purchases.
Today, that trend seems to keep on going as shopping carts seem to get bigger and bigger
to make people buy more and more things.
7.
Intentionally Rude Salespeople Hiring someone to be rude to customers seems
counter-intuitive.
If you are a store owner, you would want to hire people with the most magnetic personalities
in order to make a sale at the end of the day.
However, hiring people and telling them to be rude to potential customers has its merits
in a much more “reverse psychological” kind of way.
Human beings are social creatures and nothing draws us more than belonging in a group and
nothing says that you belong in this consumerist society than a shiny new Prada bag.
Rude sales people are normally employed by stores on the higher, much more luxurious
end of the spectrum.
In fact, a study made by the University of British Columbia discovered that customers
who interacted with snobbish sales people were more likely to buy something from that
store.
It is the similar effect to a clique or the “popular table” in school that you aspire
to be part of and the reward of being able to walk out of a luxury store with a purchase
seems to validate that feeling.
6.
The Labyrinth Large retail stores like Ikea, Costco, and
Forever 21 tend to have massive spaces that seem to try to keep you inside.
This is not bad planning or a terrible architectural layout: this is all intentional.
By actively confusing customers by having them turn from one corner to the next looking
for a way out, stores are increasing their chances of having individuals spend more on
impulse purchases as they weave through shelves and aisles of different products that may
pique their interest.
According to UC San Diego Marketing professor Wendy Liu who co-authored a research on the
subject, “Getting interrupted during shopping also makes you less price-sensitive”.
Moreover, your brain is tricked into having already vetted a product when you return to
look at them after a convenient distraction of getting lost in a store.
5.
Test and Play “When you touch something, you instantly
feel more of a connection to it,” explains Suzanne Shu, co-author of a study on the subject
and a marketing professor at UCLA.
She continues on saying that “…That emotion can cause you to buy something you never would
have bought if you hadn’t touched it.”
Driving the point home even more, the research claims that consumers who touch and test a
product will even pay more for it than consumers who just look at them.
The idea that we can interact with a product like hand creams, make-up, or even test driving
a car gives us that fleeting sense of accomplishment of having owned something even for the briefest
of moments.
That feeling then grows into a urge that needs to be subconsciously satisfied so we end up
swiping that card even though we only intended to browse when we walked into a store.
This also extends to trying out food in supermarkets.
Somehow we just can’t get enough.
4.
The Smaller the Item, the Bigger the Buy It is misleading to think that you are saving
more money if you buy smaller sizes of items in bigger packaging.
Most especially when it comes to food and drinks, buying in bulk tends to be the logical
option.
After all, it saves us the time of having to go back to the supermarket more than once
a week.
However, research shows that having to buy multi-packs of small items encourage us to
consume more.
It is the idea that there is so much of it that your brain is sending a signal to your
body that you need to consume it all as if it were a competition.
The most frugal and reasonable way to go about this is to simply buy and consume what is
only needed.
I mean, who needs to buy a year’s worth of soda if your barbecue is just going to
be for one weekend?
3.
Eye to Eye If you have a product nothing will please
you more than to see it at a store’s top shelf.
Being on the topmost part of a display gives off the idea that you are the best brand there
is offering the best product that money can buy.
This is a fallacy.
Whenever a store, especially supermarkets, would really like you to buy a specific product,
they place it at a customer’s eye level because you really can’t bother consumers
to look up and down for the “best deals”.
It’s much better to show it to them off the bat.
This also applies to expensive and branded items.
If you are a lesser known brand, you are relegated to the topmost shelf or at the very bottom
with products that are sold in bulk.
Another prime real estate in stores is having favoured products located at the end of the
aisle where customers are most likely to see them the moment they make a turn.
2.
The Music in You Music is perhaps one of the most influential
forces in the universe.
A song can instantly brighten up a mood or turn it sour and sulky.
Retail stores have been employing the use of music in order to generate more sales and
influence customers to go with their impulse and buy things.
Several studies have shown that the type of music greatly affects traffic in stores as
well as sales.
Essentially, the slower and mellower the piped in music is the more likely people are going
to slow down, take their time and spend their money.
Fast, upbeat tunes tend to dial up people’s excitement that they simply just zip through
aisles without looking back or making a single purchase.
Also, if a store would like you to splurge on something more luxurious, all they have
to do is play some classical music; maybe a little bit of Chopin, Vivaldi, or Bach.
1.
Check-Out Counters are Cash Cows It’s the Devil’s Playground.
Imagine yourself stuck behind a queue that is moving slowly and having no other option
but to stare at the items by the check-out counter.
Chances are, you have ended up leafing through a magazine or reading the nutrition label
of a candy bar.
By the time you ring up your purchases, you have already tossed in a few baubles at the
last minute from the rack while waiting in line.
Check-out counters are the most profitable spaces in the entire store – especially
in supermarkets.
What they pretty much do is to tempt you to make a last minute impulse buy that will just
add up to what you should be spending.
The tactic is to use your boredom in line and the lack of things to do to keep you preoccupied
while waiting your turn; and if you have a kid with you, the chance of you buying something
on impulse is doubled and you may not even know it.