How Design of Your Store Can Help You Maximize Your Profits
Is the only question that a retailer should be interested in “what merchandise customers are buying”? Turns out, it is not. Smartest retailers of today’s digital world started asking other important questions: How do people shop? How can I get to know my customers better in my brick and mortar stores as well?
Heatmap analysis technology enables retailers to access a very important set of data on consumer behavior. With the help of heatmap analysis tools, retailers are able to see which zones of their stores majority of customers are naturally gravitated towards, which merchandise they are interested in and which zones and products they completely ignore. Managers who use this data are able to change the design of the stores according to the consumer behavior and increase their sales.
Design is Everything
Experimenting to find the optimal store layout is not a new concept. Retailers have been experimenting to find out the ideal store design to boost sales for a long time. Placing promotional items at checkouts to trigger impulse purchases is one of the oldest methods that retailers use. Checkouts are the zones that have the heaviest traffic because every customer who makes a purchase inevitably has to stop by. By placing low cost promotional items at these areas, retailers increase the number of conversions and revenues. Also, research shows that the items placed on the right side of the aisles tend to be purchased more than items placed on the left. Information like this helps retailers design the layout of their stores to boost sales.
However, with the introduction of heatmap analysis technology, they are now able to make strategic and operational decisions based on solid data instead of their gut feelings. By analyzing heatmap data, a retail manager will be able to distinguish the “hottest” and “less engaging” zones of their store and place the merchandise accordingly.
Pricing
Heatmap analysis information shows not only where customers visit in the store most but also which items they tend to interact with. This data is important because research shows that touching a merchandise increases the chance of making a purchase according to “Please Touch The Merchandise” article published by Harvard Business Review. However, if a lot of people are interacting with a specific item but not making a purchase, the price may be too high. By making necessary pricing alterations, it is possible to increase the number of conversions of that specific merchandise dramatically.
Delisting Unattractive Products
Heatmap analysis helps to determine which products are possibly unattractive, too. If a specific item is not sold despite being placed at a high traffic zone in the store, then this item is not very attractive to the majority of the customers. By delisting these kinds of products, retailers can open space for new, more attractive products which hopefully will result in a boost in sales!
It is no surprise that heatmap analysis technology supplies retailers with such an important data set about their customer’s behavior. If used wisely, it is certain that this data will give today’s retailers an enormous strategic advantage especially in a business as competitive as retail!
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