When a customer walks into a modern supermarket in the United States, a combination of factors are at play, all with one goal: to win that shopper’s attention – and ultimately, encourage them to spend.
Getting a patron’s attention is the job not only of the store, but of the product manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, says Yuechen Wu, an associate professor in Oklahoma State University’s School of Marketing, and an expert on consumer behavior. The store is the primary and final player, but other facets are involved, including the psychology of buying – figuring out how consumers decide what to buy.
Researchers who study human behavior have long known that the placement of products inside grocery stores is influenced to some degree by psychology. The trick for casual observers is to figure out the extent to which a supermarket’s layout is based on customer behavior, and how much is based on what the supplier requests … and is willing to pay for.
Wu says that much of a store’s layout is driven by the goal of grabbing the shopper’s attention. In a place where thousands of products compete for a person’s notice, even a few extra seconds of attention can influence a purchase. To that end, “shelf facing” – the number of times a shopper sees an individual brand – matters a lot.
“The more they see of that brand, the more they are apt to buy it,” Wu says.
Placement of brand choices horizontally, for instance, rather than vertically, can matter, too. To help in the efforts, many stores employ category managers, who balance supplier payments, expected sales and inventory history when deciding where products appear.
End caps – display shelves located at the end of a store aisle – and promotional islands are treated differently, Wu adds.
“End caps are more expensive. They pay the retailer for their placement,”
she says.
Likewise, suppliers pay more to have items placed near the store’s checkout, where “impulse buying” comes into play.
“They put them there because the consumer is more likely to buy it [while waiting],” she says.
Some items are even grouped together – placed in a way that they will be purchased as a pair – like tortilla chips and salsa.
The placement of refrigerated items around the edges of most stores is sometimes governed by location of the store’s plumbing and proximity to the storage area. But Wu says psychology might be involved there as well.
For products such as milk and eggs, convenience is a factor. The store, Wu says, “wants to create a very convenient experience. They want to make it easier [for the customer.] People are used to finding it there.”
One thing stores tend to guard against is “choice overload,” Wu mentions. Having choices can increase traffic throughout the store, but “at the same time, there’s a risk of lowering satisfaction. So stores have to be organized in a way that makes it easy for the consumer.”
Aromas, music and lighting can influence a shopper’s decision-making, too. Wu cites some studies, for instance, that determined that slow, relaxing music might entice a consumer to spend more time in the store, increasing the chance that they’ll buy. The same goes for pleasing aromas from a store’s bakery or delicattessen.
Overall, she says, stores balance cost against the larger question of “how to compete for the consumer’s attention.” That’s a tall order, indeed.
