design:retail - January 2018 - 28

style made simple

028

The Impulse
Factor

F YOU ARE IN the retail industry,

you are most likely familiar with
acronyms like ADT (average dollar
per transaction) and UPT (units per
transaction). Retailers are consistently looking to optimize each sale-and
one of the most time-tested strategies is capitalizing on impulsive consumer behavior.
Take, for example, the pack of gum you
grab at the grocery store checkout counter or
the pair of socks you didn't realize you needed
until you saw it on your way to the cashier at a
clothing store. These perfectly placed, usually
low-cost items are called "impulse products,"
and they drive significant volume for retailers.
In fact, 84 percent of Americans admit to
having made an unplanned purchase while
shopping, and a third of offline shoppers do
so at least once a week. People simply can't ignore
their unconscious urges to take advantage of a good
deal, especially when it's convenient.
Brands like H&M, Sephora and Target routinely
encourage impulse shopping by strategically positioning a wide range of products near checkout
lines. But when it comes to increasing the number
of impulse buys in your own store, it's possible to
go even further.
Look beyond the checkout line and create
impulsive shopping zones in the following unconventional areas:

STOREFRONT WINDOW
The primary purpose of your window display
is to drive traffic into the store, and there's no better place to entice customers. While at Cole Haan,
we created dual-sided window display units that
allowed customers to shop products placed in front
of the window.
The movement of customers shopping inside
the store window not only created live theater for
passersby outside, but reinforced the desirability of
JANUARY 2018

DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM

ERIC SAMUEL GREEN
VICE PRESIDENT,
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Charming Charlie
ericsamuelgreen.com

The key to pulling this off is to use complementary colors for a sense of cohesiveness and
appeal to shoppers' emotions by featuring items
that invite them to touch, smell and interact.

IN GOOD COMPANY

our product. It also subconsciously told them that
availability could be limited, which caused them to
make an impulsive visit to the store and purchase
an unplanned item.
We were essentially playing on what Millennials
call FOMO or "fear of missing out," which is an
important concept to understand if you want to
influence consumer behavior.

TABLETOP DISPLAY
Smaller tabletop displays are another great way
to increase UPT while getting creative. The conventional retail merchandising strategy is to place
complementary products together-like putting
peanut butter next to the bread in a grocery store.
But you can also use this opportunity to be disruptive. We surprise and delight our customers at
Charming Charlie by updating jewelry displays
with a stack of quirky coffee mugs or pretty bottles
of perfume, for example. Pairing slightly different
product categories together introduces just enough
unexpectedness to catch your customer's attention
and make them want to investigate further.

GLOBALSHOP.ORG

You also can let your customers' preferences guide you when creating a display strategy
by placing impulse products next to already
popular items or in the most highly trafficked
areas of your store. This allows you to take advantage of the visibility that your bestsellers
already receive.
Let's say you are a clothing retailer and
you realize men's shirts are flying off the
shelves. A natural next step would be to add
accessories, like cufflinks or ties, to a nearby
display to encourage customers to make an
impulse purchase while buying something they
already need. Inexpensive, low-risk and frequently consumed items are key when selecting
products to merchandise next to bestsellers for
impulsive shopping.
If you want to entice your customers to make
more unplanned purchases, then be sure to look
for opportunities to provide value. You can start by
studying your customers' behaviors and understanding their needs. Then, by suggesting helpful
product combinations and displaying them in highimpact areas, you'll not only make your shoppers'
experience more pleasant, but you will see a significant increase in sales.
ERIC SAMUEL GREEN HAS WORKED WITH TOP BRANDS SUCH AS
C. WONDER, BURBERRY, GAP, COLE HAAN, NEIMAN MARCUS,
LIMITED BRANDS AND THE NORTH FACE. HE CURRENTLY IS THE
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR FOR CHARMING CHARLIE. HIS
LIFE MISSION IS TO CHANGE THE INTIMIDATION AND STRESS
ASSOCIATED WITH DESIGN, WHICH HE IS DOING THROUGH HIS
NEW BOOK, "STYLE MADE SIMPLE: THE 10 STEPS TO DECORATING
WITH STYLE."

Photo by ERIC SAMUEL GREEN

http://www.ericsamuelgreen.com http://www.DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM http://www.GLOBALSHOP.ORG

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