A survey of 1,000 shoppers by Timetrade has uncovered some fascinating facts about shoppers and their buying decisions. These insights can help retailers prioritise some of their investments and reduce the number of shoppers that leave stores empty handed.

What should I buy today?

In spite of the increased use of research before making buying decisions it seems that over half of shoppers have not made up their minds about what they want to purchase before they enter a store.  These shoppers are important. They buy more than they intend to when they go to a store without knowing exactly what they want. This is a great opportunity for retailers who are willing to put the effort into helping shoppers make the best buying decisions.

How to help

The obvious way to help shoppers is well trained store staff but they are expensive resources and they can’t be with every shopper all the time. It’s therefore often up to the product to sell itself by its look or via its packaging.  Sometimes this is enough but in many situations its hard to get enough information to choose one product over another.  As a result shoppers often leave stores without buying anything.

The powerful weapon

The other weapon in the retailers armoury is everywhere across the store but often just taken for granted by retailers. Signage.  As well as giving information about prices and offers smart signage can also give shoppers strong reasons to “buy now” in store.   Have a look at this 90 seconds animation to see what I mean.
The trend is that signage has now moved from a cost to an investment that gets shoppers to “buy now”. This is particularly true amongst retailers who want to differentiate themselves on something other than just being the lowest price.