Mark Dunlop : Projects : Cogito : Why we buy mini-review
Introduction
Paco Underhill is a founder of Envirosell, a research and consulting practice specialising in shopping patterns of consumers and retail practices and strategies. In his book Why we buy: the science of shopping, he analyses many shopping behaviours he and his colleagues have uncovered mainly through retail anthropology. Much of the book is very focussed on high street shops and the book has a strong US bias. However, there are several potential lessons for electronic commerce, and a chapter devoted to e-commerce (although this is fairly superficial compared to the rest of the book). It is also a fairly interesting read, giving many insights into shopping (e.g. the "butt-brush factor" - if a person in an aisle is squeezed past a few times they will leave immediately without purchase) and a different application domain for ethnography. The science is based around man-years of observing consumers using direct observation and video taping mostly, almost classic ethnography but based in shops. A nicely written book overall with many good examples, but in some sections it feels a little stretched out and repetitive - a really good read if you can read fast.
The remainder of this short review is mostly a list of quotes from the book, on the whole you are left to make your own deductions about their implications for e-commerce. It should be noted that the book includes lots of examples applying these and more principles, some of these examples go wrong through too simplistic implementation – the same is no doubt true on the internet.
Time in store
"The amount of time a shopper spends in a store (assuming he or she is shopping, not waiting in line) is perhaps the single most important factor in determining how much she or he will buy. Over and over again, our studies have shown a direct relationship. ... The majority of advice we give to retailers involves ways of getting shoppers to shop longer."
Interception rate
"...another good way to judge a store: by its interception rate, meaning the percentage of customers who have some contact with an employee. ... The more shopper-employee contacts that take place, the greater the average sale."
Waiting time
"... a final measure, a real simple one: waiting time. This, as we discuss elsewhere, is the single most important factor in customer satisfaction. ... One housewares chain'’ vice president was startled when we showed him video in which a woman who had just spend twenty-two minutes shopping in his store joined a very long checkout line, stood there until it dawned on her that she was in cashier hell, and abandoned her full cart and exited the place. We weren’t surprised – we see this happen all the time."
Transition zones
"It’s a law of nature – shoppers need a landing strip."
For many reasons concerned with physical layout of stores and shopping arcades, people have a transition zone: we enter the shop and have to adjust to new surroundings (no longer outside, but inside - lighting changes, scenery changes, temperature changes); in addition we are conscious of not blocking the entrance. This implies that items put immediate inside the door will often be missed (a classic example is piles of baskets just inside a shop’s doors).
In terms of e-commerce, this might be related to banner blindness and users may miss things on the front page if they are too busy adjusting to the site and working out what links to follow. I’m not sure if this is true but its an interesting question and probably points towards fairly simple front pages to help customers land smoothly.
Hands free shopping
"There’s a rather elaborate way of keeping customers’ hand free that I’d love to see some retailer try. This plan would keep shoppers feeling 100 percent unburdened until it was too late – after they had reached the exits. The idea would be to create a combination coat check-package call systems. Customers could unload all encumbrances as soon as they enter the store. And instead of carrying their selections around with them, they’ instruct salesclerks to dispatch bags and boxes to the will-call desk near the exit. After a full session of vigorous, hands-free shopping, the customer would head for the door, pick up coat and hat and purchases, and be gone, into car or taxi or waiting limousine."
Is this not exactly what e-commerce can provide?
Amenability and profit
"The overarching lesson that we’ve learned from the science of shopping is this: Amenability and profitability are totally and inextricably linked. Take care of the former, in all its guises, and the latter is assured."
Fun
"Someday, I believe, cybershopping will have an added attraction: it will be fun. ... I’m amazed that no shopping web site stars a living being on-screen to welcome shoppers, guide them through the site and answer questions."
Internationalisation
In this US oriented book, he refers to providing advice for non-English speakers and other visitors, in a shop this could include providing advice on pricing, measurements, sizes etc. In restaurants this would stretch to foreign language menus. Possibly we are better at this in the EU, but for e-commerce we have to be aware that customers may come to us from many different locations and backgrounds. Many US-based websites assume you are in the US, or make non-US customers go to a special "foreigners’ section" which is usually less well developed and not well integrated.
Reference
Paco Underhill, Why we buy: The science of shopping, Orion Business Books, ISBN 0-75281-330-7.