Going around the mall
In one management association meeting, I happened to sit beside the head of a big retail outfit and he talked about foot traffic and sales in his branch at a relatively new mall (two years old but still expanding). His low sales in that outlet he attributed to poor “circulation” in the mall. The sprawling design seemed to lend itself to shoppers or diners getting stuck in one zone unwilling to take long walks to the other side.
Is there a science to the layout of a store?
Paco Underhill who describes himself as an urban geographer and retail anthropologist consider shoppers as a distinct urban tribe. In two books on consumer behavior, Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping (2000) and Call of the Mall (2004), Underhill distills years of work as retail store design consultant. His other book, What Women Want (2010) focuses on the patterns of the woman shopper.
The difference between mainstream anthropology like exploring rituals of growing up in Samoa and Underhill’s retail focus involves how information is analyzed and used. Underhill aims simply to increase store sales for his clients and improve their conversion ratio from browser (window shopping) to shopper (swiping a card at the cashier). This approach classifies Underhill’s efforts as a more mercenary research more than mere anthropology.
As in all sciences struggling for legitimacy like palmistry and juggling, urban geography introduces new terminologies like “adjacencies.” The word refers to what racks to put beside one another to increase sales of both products — shouldn’t the shelf for cameras be put next to other photo gadgets like mobile phones?
Other adjacencies have to do with proximity of certain spaces.
For instance, ledges for men to sit on while waiting for their partners shouldn’t be facing the section for women’s lingerie and brassieres, as it did in one store with disastrous effect on sale of female underwear. The ledges were always full of seated men in dark glasses.
Underhill uses trackers who inconspicuously trail shoppers to observe and mark down behavior from entrance to exit. This firsthand observation is supplemented by hidden cameras throughout the store — but not in the fitting rooms. The findings are not always obvious. Men who fit clothes are more likely to buy (65%) than women who do the same (25%). Women have not made any purchasing decision yet when they bring clothes to the fitting room. They want to see how the color and fit suit them. Men just want to check if the pants fit before buying them.
Women with other women stay in the shop longer (8 minutes and 15 seconds) than women with men (4 minutes and 41 seconds). (Just get that blue one. Let’s go.) Stores then need to distract the male companion from looking at their watches (or if wandering somewhere else to meet up later, sending text messages — I’m already here at the flower shop) and leave the wife alone so she can shop longer (and buy more). Maybe, he can sit on that ledge.
Never should the cashier be required to also do gift-wrapping. Nothing turns off a shopper more than a long waiting time at the cashier to pay for what he has bought. A separate gift-wrap counter is best. Here the long- line is expected — please come back after 30 minutes. Better still, a nicely designed bag is just given away for the item.
Underhill considers shopping a pastime rather than just a need to pick up an essential item. We can only agree with this observation. Isn’t shopping at the mall referred to as “retail therapy?”
The mall has become a destination for a free afternoon, especially for retirees. It’s a place that offers many distractions. Maybe the only obligatory part which can serve as a purpose for going to that air-conditioned symbol of consumerism ( buying things you don’t really need) are meals, including just a cup of coffee. Here the choices need only a short discussion for a couple — do you feel like sushi?
Going to the mall is also a form of exercise, even when the stores are still closed. There is the option of tai chi or zumba. Once the stores open, the exercises can turn into more frenzied forms like swiping and lugging of big bags.
Is there a science to the layout of a store?