Clean Up Your Selling Floor!

"We've gone from a boxing match to a bar fight in the world of retailing!" says retail anthropologist Paco Underhill. In today's retail environment the customer who shops at Neiman Marcus in the morning is visiting a Wal-Mart in the afternoon. "The social stratification of retail has been thrown out the door and that's something that particularly the high-end retailers are just beginning to acknowledge," says Underhill, whose New York firm, Envirosell, observes shoppers, then advises retailers on how to make their stores more consumer friendly.

A recent survey by the International Mass Retail Association (IMRA)n found that the major considerations for shoppers were the speed and convenience with which they could walk through the store. In other words, consumers aren't going to put up with a confusing, cluttered, and dirty selling floor just to save a few dollars. IMRA asked nearly 1500 American consumers why they would choose one store over another and the answers included: "the one with no stuff in the aisles," "the one that looks neater and nicest inside," "the one I know best inside," and "employee attitude." Clearly, most customers don't choose a store on the basis of lowest price, as long as the store is in the acceptable range of expected prices. "The basic concept of value has gone through a revolution both at the high end as well as the low end," says Underhill. "If you give the Wal-Mart customer a reason to trade up they will. On the other hand, we know that the smart woman, when she approaches the department store, for the most part, is not focused on buying full price."

Once a retailer has managed to lure a customer into his store, the next big challenge is getting that customer to spend both time and money there. That's where Underhill comes in, and with an impressive client list that includes Bloomingdale's, Gap, Levi's, Calvin Klein, C & A, and Wal-Mart, he's come to some basic conclusions. "We see people are less inclined to buy articles of clothing as they are to look for fashion solutions," says Underhill. While women used to buy the clothes and men the car accessories, shopping is no longer gender-specific. Therefore retailers should display complete outfits and put menswear in the front of the store because research shows men have less patience for shopping and are uncomfortable when they have to walk through women's apparel to get to theirs. Placing men's socks near the shoes and between the pants and the cash register is another subtler, yet effective, way to add convenience and additional sales.

The average time people spend shopping has been declining, according to most studies, and while the cardinal rule among retailers has been to try to keep customers in the store as long as possible, many are accepting the inevitable. Retailers might fear that moving consumers through the process more quickly may cause them to buy less, but IMRA's study concludes that if a customer is less frustrated and finds it easier to shop, they are more likely to stop and look at additional items. "There is a vested interest in making the customer, in a real sense and in a perceived sense, able to manage their time on the floor of the store better," says Underhill.

For retailers determined to keep the customers in the store longer, Underhill suggests they try to develop themselves as the "third place." Home and the office are considered the first and second place. "Barnes and Noble has done it by putting in cafes," notes Underhill, adding that transforming a store into a social gathering place has its benefits. "They recognize that the margin in a cup of cappuccino is huge and 'while I've got you there I'll be able to sell you something.' It's also tied to Generation X's looking for a place to have social interaction that is light, airy and smoke-free."