Laying it Out

When I enter a store, do I turn right, or left?
Is it easy for a customer to navigate around, and find what the are looking for? Are there a lot of gondolas segregating the store into sections?

What works for your store?
1. A grid store layout ?
- Enter : Check out, cast till, cart area
- Corner : Fresh fruits & Veggies
- Aisles : Food, Hygiene, Disposables etc
- Back : Storage, inventory etc


Thoughts :
- Cash tills must never be the first thing you show a customer. You remind them of spending money, and trigger a negative experience.
- Why is the fresh fruit & veggie counter so far out of the entry. In my opinion, it should be the first thing you show a customer. Make them feel good about spending money. Make them see the fresh fruits and smell the vegetables, instantly trigger a happy emotion.


2. Racetrack layout?
- Multiple entry & exit points between sections
- One section looping onto another
- Encourages exploration (sometimes too much that it distracts)



Thoughts -
- Mostly used in department stores for bags, shoes, apparel etc
- Like stated earlier, encourages exploration, and switching from one brand to another while staying in the same category, but procrastinates purchase decisions on the flip side

3. Free form
- Fixtures and aisles are asymmetric



Thoughts -
- Inefficient use of space
- Weak, loosely defined navigation
- Dis organized, functioning more as a put off, than a relaxation fix (as originally intended)

Be my Hero

When I am stuck in a store, lost, crunched on time, looking for the cheapest yogurt, or for the right oil balance face wash, or for the gluten free cookies, I want the store/ sales team to be my hero and resolve my problems. I want clear demarcations, I want to be asked if I need help, I need suggestions on the cheapest product from the collection, and on the healthiest cereal. I want tags clearly highlighting the before and after discount price. I want per unit price for every product so I can compare between multiple brands.

Not that you're not already doing some of the things, but I need all actions to be harmonized, so I can go tell the world about how delighted I am.

Disgust # 2

Disgust.

I went grocery shopping today, and got really really upset as it took me a long time to find the 'right' product. I have a guest who is allergic to Gluten.
So I have to find the right product, that is not only good value for money, but is also Gluten-free.

Referring back to the problem of bad organization on shelves. I need a tag to clearly demarcate the gluten free products. If I were a retailer, I would take care of that the first thing. And not just gluten, but other common ingredients that could prove to trigger a reaction must be called out on a separate shelf.

Disgust # 1 -Tag it right

Disgust.

What happens when you buy a bunch of items after some contemplation on price and quality. Then you head to the cash till only to find that the prices at the shelf were all messed up!

An increasingly painful peeve of today's shoppers. With increasing sales, and promotions, changing from one day to the next, smooth logistics in updating price tags throughout the countless aisles can turn out to be a complex task. 

Say a store has 2000 shelves, with a 50 product categories on each shelf. Updating (manually) 100,000 price tags everyday, can lead to errors even from the best of us. I had one bad experience. and it was a price difference of 20 cents. But I think of it. Every time I step into the grocery store. Every time I pick a loaf of bread, I wonder if it actually costs that much. Every time I run through my bill, I try hard to remember if the price tags I saw on the shelves tally with the bill in my hand. And almost each time I get stuck on one or two items, sure that I have been ripped. 

Now even though the store did not rip me, the experience took a lot away from my shopping experience. And it will take a lot of fully satisfactory cycles, for me to 'trust' the store again.

A stitch in time, could have saved nine.

Delight or Disgust?

Shopping experiences either delight, or disgust. Today, it was a little bit of both. 

Key takeaways :

- Delight the customer every step of the way. 3/5 customers who are completely delighted will share their experience with 3-5 individuals.

- Engage the customer when they stare at an aisle longer than 2 minutes, without any activity. (Just like I did, when I was trying to decide a new cereal I wanted to try. I would have bought 'anything' with just a little nudge. No one nudged me.)

- Get better at organizing sub sections

- Get digital tags

Delight

·      1. Quick check-out line. The cashier was not only adept at quickly billing my purchase, but also bagged the items, and handed them over to me, while her assistant pulled out my used trolley out of my way, all in 5 seconds.

·      2. Quick problem resolution – I cannot find the face cleanser. I could if I tried, but it’s been 15 seconds, and that’s almost a year in retail clock. Before I realize an assistant walks up and solves my problem in 5 seconds.

Disgust

·      3. I am walking up and down the frozen vegetables aisle, since I need frozen peas. I also need them cheap. And I need a decent brand. But they are all spread across, with frozen carrots and beans cropping up in between. Multiple brands of peas mixed with multiple vegetable categories. 5 minutes to find the ‘right’ bag of peas. What did I say about retail clock?

·      4. Bread. Very important on my list. Again, walking up and down the aisle, coz you know there are So many types. But the 2 associates have blocked my view as they are manually updating price tags. And they take 5 minutes just to cover half of it. I don’t blame them; they are doing their best, but what about my clock?

Opportunity – Let’s get the digital tags

What next?

What will happen once we have a beauty gadget for everything? Research suggests "Do It Yourself" gadgets in hair removal, wrinkle eraser, acne fixer is the next big thing.

What will happen to Salons? Will it become just a heightened experiential zone? How will it continue to keep the customers coming, once the core services cease to be a necessity?

What will happen to retail in the coming years? We already hear big retailers complain about how continuously revising price tags along bays and aisles is exhausting the store staff. With electronic tags in the pipeline, that problem will be resolved. With scanners attached to shopping carts, queues at cash tills will cease to exist. With constant exchange of information between retail databases & social media, customers will receive updates on the best deal, best produce on their mobile, as they cross aisles in real time.

QR codes. If we can know everything about a product just by scanning a code, why do we even need a physical store. Imagine a store with empty shelves lined up with a code. Scan the code, read about it, purchase it electronically should you like it. Why add unnecessary inventory? In fact, why then do we even need a store?

How will we stop technology from controlling our lives? How much will we benefit from the seamless shopping experience? Is that what we really want? 

Milk and?

I open my fridge. Oh! I finished the milk last night. Hence, no cereal, and therefore no breakfast. I rush to the local supermarket. I need milk, and I need it now. I am starving. Wait, I smell bread. Freshly baked. I give it a look. I have an entire loaf lying in the fridge. I don’t need more, I tell myself. But the smell. The bread is fresh, and still warm from the oven. Smells SO good. I walk to the next aisle. Now I have deprived of myself. I did the right thing. I must treat myself for having such good will power. I end up picking a pack of pancakes. Oh wait, where is the milk? I head to the milk section. It’s so far away. On my way, I pick a box of cookies ('only' coz it’s on sale). I feel good about doing the ‘wise’ thing. I move on. I probably need the hazelnut coffee, you know, for change from the regular coffee I have. It’s good if I fulfill my food tantrums in the supermarket, coz they won’t go away. And I will end up buying stuff from a convenience store at twice the price, I justify. After another 3 stops, I finally get to the milk section. Contempt with my half full trolley, I proceed to the cash counter. I settle the bill. It’s 30 USD. I thought I just wanted milk? How did 3 become 30?

Happens to ALL of us. Everyday. Supermarkets are designed to increase your dwell time, the time you spend in a store. You enter with a list, and leave with the list plus 5 extra items, on an average. Take Dominick’s for instance. On entering you see the fresh fruit section. One would think it’s a necessity, and you would buy it anyway, so why not put it right in the back? Well, it’s sitting in the front so that you start your purchase cycle feeling guilt free. You’re buying whats healthy, and thus already feeling happy. That’s a good way to start. Not for you though.

The eggs, the milk, the yogurt is always at the end, so you go all the way to the end, and make numerous stops on your way, just like I did.

The bread is freshly baked, and sometimes it smells divine. Sometimes it does not. Supermarkets in general use fragrances inside the store that make us hungry. Its all by design. Nothing is by default. Another research suggested retailers these days, scent the produce section with smell of freshly cut grass to create illusion of freshness.

The tea is lying with cereal so that you buy associated items even if you came in to buy just tea, or just cereal. Cheese + crackers. Candles + matches. Chips + dip.

The lighting is strong. The discount tags are catchy but confusing. $2.99 for 2. Wait, does that mean I get the discount only if I buy 2? Or can I buy 1 for $1.5?

Small size candies line the cash till. Just in case you were strong enough to say no to the Mars family pack, we will get you to pick the pocket size bar. And you tell yourself, “how much damage will that tiny bar do!”

Baskets are getting bigger, trolleys are getting wider. Research says people subconsciously try to ‘fill’ empty space. There you go.

One way doors, that allow you to enter but not exit.

Yesterday I saw tiny cream jars stacked together with a tag – ‘only 3 per customer’. Creating scarcity of supply for something with limited demand.

Another study says people buy more and more expensive options when surrounded by people to subconsciously maintain self image. 

A simple solution for people like us is to carefully review the list at hand. And each time you go beyond the list - give yourself 5 seconds to think if it really adds value.