retail thinking
The other day I went into Borders doing what I always do, browse, find, buy. I found the book I wanted, snagged a two dvds and strolled up to the checkout. I was quickly promted with "don't you want a third?, its free ya know.." I had no clue what she was talking about. "A third what? dvd?" I said to her. "Ya didnt ya see the signs? 2 dvds gets ya a 3rd for free.." she said as I had clearly been off the beaten track.
I got my third dvd. But it occured to me that I too didn't shop via signs. I could care less about promos, I wasn't thinking about where the signs were to say deal. Am i'm curious? Sure I guess but it didnt register. How many other people just pulled what I did not seeing these signs.
I saw this in the recent retail research project work had completed months ago. Folks don't generally shop via signage, in fact its often ignored as such, since x% of signage is typically advertising as well. In fact I'd like to see more obvious signage. Instead of 10% off, just say BOOKS, or BOOKS ARE HERE.
I sat back in store and just took a gander at signage. There was a ton in there. How is it I never saw the deals. Just not tuned into it. I think retail firms should experiment more with what people do look at, why they look at it and what are they looking for.
I can't say if I was merely shopping via product, sure I was browsing but I did use some signage. I was looking for a biz book, a food & wine book, i had to find those areas. I always explore the music section of the store.
more on this later...