Seeing It From The Shopper's Point Of View: Six Common Retail Tactics That Drive Customers Crazy

| Sunday, December 4, 2011
By Frank Lucer


For generations, retailers - small and big - have been using quite a few approaches to boost the quantity of goods every single customer purchases. Such as, supermarkets frequently carry chewing gum, candy bars, and consumer-specific publications near the checkout lines. That is purposefully done to tempt those waiting in line to buy a lot more than they had planned; these techniques are actually successful for increasing the retailer's revenue

The problem is, more customers than ever are aware of them, and most importantly, irritated by them.

The challenge for modest retailers is to constantly boost their earnings at the same time steering clear of irritating their customers. That said, it is well worth reviewing the retail tactics customers find most annoying. Listed here are six of them:

#1 - The Traditional Upsell Or Cross-Sell

Retailers frequently train their employees to offer shoppers additional products at the checkout register. Occasionally, the tactic is a cross-sell (e.g. "Would you enjoy fries with that?"). Other times, it's in the form of an upsell (e.g. "Would you like to super-size that?"). Customers tend to detest both strategies. Many of them empathize with the staff, who are coached and expected to employ them; the shoppers' irritation is often directed at the merchant.

#2 - Products With The Wrong Prices

At most of the retail stores, items with the wrong prices attached indicate an innocent mistake. The shop's workers may have misapplied the incorrect price tag by accident, or are simply behind in their work. From time to time, however, a store may deliberately use the wrong price in the hope that shoppers may fail to notice; this is clearly a bad approach. It erodes the trust customers have in the shop.

#3 - Monitoring "Savings"

The intent of this tactic is clear: By telling the customer how much money he or she ended up saving on their purchase, the retailer intends to encourage them to return. Sometimes, the worker at the cash register is required to inform the customer. In other cases, the savings are printed on the receipt.

The trouble is, many shoppers happen to be conscious of their savings when they arrive at the checkout queue. Telling them the sum they ended up saving is needless.

#4 - Don't Change Your Store Around

This strategy is dangerous. The retailer may occasionally - and at times, often - change the locations of various goods. The objective is to pressure customers to look for the products in the desire they will stumble across others that they decide to add to their baskets.

The good reason this approach is risky is because shoppers may become agitated to the point that they abandon the store. And this only hurts the retailer's sales and profits.

#5 - Putting The Most Popular Items In The Back

This is a typical technique employed in food markets. The products that customers consider to be necessary can be found at the back of the shop. Here, the objective is to force customers to walk past items on their way to pick up the "necessities." By doing this, the retailer hopes to persuade them to buy extra goods.

This strategy will probably go on for the foreseeable future because it has demonstrated to be so successful. However it's really worth noting since it irritates many customers.

#6 - Picking Poor Product Placement When Setting Up Shop

This includes large end caps as well as little stickers and signs. The displays notify the customer that she or he may take advantage of a sale that's active for a specific item. The shopper picks up the item close to the display, and takes it to the checkout counter to purchase it; there, she or he is told the item they have brought to the cashier is in fact not on sale; the customer grabbed the wrong item.

This usually occurs accidently as racks grow to be congested with products; but occasionally, retailers do this for the exact same reasons they "unintentionally" use the incorrect costs. They wish to fool the customer. This really is, obviously, a bad retail strategy.

Increasing your retail business's revenue will be a continuous challenge. To that end, some of the strategies described above are effective; but recognize that using them is generally a juggling act given that they can irritate your customers and jeopardize your rapport with them. Follow the steps listed above to avoid a business liquidation.




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