Shoppers in today’s post-recession marketplace are on a mission. Armed with their research, they head to stores, quickly find what they need and get out.
And this is a huge challenge for retailers who are trying to squeeze more money out of these so-called “mission shoppers.”
Now retailers are focused on keeping savvy shoppers in the store longer. And how do they plan to do it? Impulse buys.
So they’re tweaking the layout of their stores to encourage more browsing and, hopefully, buying.
A top clothing retailer has remodeled about a third of its 1,000 stores, installing a “racetrack” layout to compel shoppers to travel through the entire store and see more merchandise, according to a Businessweek article. The clothing chain reports that it’s making $2 more per customer in the revamped outlets.
Other retailers are looking to boost sales by integrating the Web into the shopping experience. At a teen clothier, sales associates use iPads to create outfits and place orders for out-of-stock items. And at a high-end electronics and gift store, employees demonstrate pricey toys with mobile tablets.
Retailers need to work hard to “get more out of every person that walks through the door,” according to David Maddocks, a former chief marketing officer for a national athletics brand. The “mission shoppers” not only spend less time in the store, research firm ShopperTrak reports that they visit fewer stores per trip — three compared to five before the recession.
Source: Businessweek, November 2011
