Consumer Behaviour in Supermarkets
When you visit a supermarket you probably think you know exactly what you are going to buy, but the truth is you are very easily persuaded. Over half the decisions you make are made suddenly, on impulse, while you are inside the store, so it is important that a product is displayed in an eye-catching position if it is to have any chance of success.
Today's supermarkets invest millions of pounds in powerful computers which tell them what product sells best and where. "Space management" is the name given to a highly complicated way of influencing the way we shop to make sure that stores make the maximum profit.
You walk into a supermarket. You pull out a trolley and stare up and down row after row of packed shelves. You step out into the aisles. You are faced with possibly the widest choice of food and drink in the world. But over the next hour or so, you will shop in a completely predictable way. This is what the space management teams who work for supermarkets have found out. They believe that everything depends on the following rules about our behaviour in supermarkets:
The modern supermarket offers too many images for our brains to absorb so we switch off and notice only parts of the goods on display. A product will be more noticeable in some parts of the store than others, so manufacturers and retailers must work hard to attract our attention.
In general, products sell best when they are placed at eye level.
Products placed at the beginnings of aisles don't sell well. In tests, secret fixed cameras have filmed shoppers' movements around a store over a seven-day period. When the film is speeded up, it clearly shows that we walk straight past these areas on our way to the centre of the aisle. These early shelves are known as "the graveyard".
When we finally stop to consider in the centre of an aisle, we look along the length of it. And because we read from left to right, we look from left to right too. So, we see products displayed on the left side of the aisle first. As a result, more products are taken from those shelves.
Any spot where the supermarket can be sure we are going to stand still and concentrate for more than a few seconds is good for sales. That is why the shelves at the check-out have long been a favourite for manufacturers of sweets, perhaps the most popular "impulse" buy of all.