June 28, 2007
Big Boxes Go for Easy Shops
Wal-Mart wants its customers to be able to find everything on their shopping lists and to do it quickly.
According to a Wall Street Journal article, the average shopper at a Wal-Mart Supercenter spends 21 minutes in the store and, in the process of speeding through the shop, fails to find 30 percent of the items they came in to buy.
It is numbers such as these that have Wal-Mart and other big-box operators looking to find ways to make it easier for consumers to shop stores and, hopefully, find all the items they want to purchase.
Wal-Mart has made some changes in stores with better signage to help consumers find what they need, prominently displaying hot sellers and sales items in visible locations and improving checkout staffing to speed consumers through the final phase of the shopping experience.
The retailer has rolled out a new scheduling system to help it staff according to shopper need. Wal-Mart said 85 percent of its stores using the system posted sales gains in March and April that were twice that of stores not using the program.
“We don’t decide how long the people are in the store,” Wal-Mart marketing chief Stephen Quinn told The Journal. “What we decide is how easy it is for you within the 21 minutes you’ve allocated to get what you want.”
Others are also working to make the experience of hunting in a big-box store less overwhelming as well as physically and emotionally tiring.
Best Buy, according to the WSJ report, is running a 60-store pilot program with “personal shopping assistants” on hand to help make purchasing decisions on big ticket items, such as home theater systems, a little easier. The PSAs are distinguished from normal Best Buy staff with button-down dress shirts compared to the navy blue polo uniform worn by most team members on the floor.
Target has used intuitive merchandising by grouping like items in single departments. Instead of having items such as baby clothing, baby food and strollers in separate areas, Target has brought them all together in a single area of the store.
Target spokesperson Lena Michaud said customers “have responded favorably (to the merchandising change) and it has translated into positive financial results.”
Discussion Question: How do you see big boxes attempting to make it easier, dare we say more convenient, to shop these stores? What strategies do you see as most promising in speeding up the big-box shopping experience for consumers while at the same time delivering the products they want?
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As RetailWire contributors have pointed out over and over again, customer service (in the context of a store’s overall strategic position) is an essential piece of the puzzle. It’s no different than last week’s discussion about Whole Foods and its mastery of “line management” in Manhattan. Any store that presents itself as a convenient alternative for time-starved shoppers (as opposed to a store that encourages browsing) must pay attention to the front of the store, not just its ease of navigation and merchandise adjacencies.
In this case, what’s surprising about Wal-Mart’s conversion to more automated scheduling at its checkout lanes is how long it took to happen. It’s the sort of “Retail 101” action that will pay off in higher sales faster than the latest upscale design initiative.
Wal-Mart, and all big boxes for that matter, should use customer-facing technology to solve the “Where Is?” problem. Most Wal-Mart shoppers use email daily, have a text messaging cell phone, and have high-speed Internet access from their home or office. These shoppers are very comfortable with Voice Response systems. Why clutter the store with signs, when you can communicate directly with customers?
For example, Wal-Mart could offer its customers an SKU lookup feature that would point the customer to the correct section of each store. From their WEB Site, from an entrance kiosk, from a call center, or from a text message center. In each case the customer enters zip code “21212” or store number, then describes the article(s) – “Mustache trimmer”. In response, a voice, web page, text message, might say “HEALTH AND BEAUTY DEPARTMENT, AISLE 4, Lower Level, 5 products”.
If the customer has multiple items that might require sales support or handling, it would be helpful to schedule an appointment with a Wal-Mart associate, again on email, text message, voice response, kiosk or web. Alternatively, customers might enter multiple items into the SKU FINDER described above to help them optimally map their way through the huge stores, heaviest items last. A PEAPOD-like service might be effective such that many items could be picked for the customer in off hours in advance of their visit.
Customers want to spend their 21 minutes as efficiently as possible. They are connected already and tech savvy. Wal-Mart needs to figure out how to connect with these people, who are the majority of their customers, and determine the shopping services that would promote more efficiency, lessen lost sales and build loyalty.
One last thing. Retailers like Wal-Mart don’t know the 30% of the items that customers couldn’t find. Their primary input for optimizing inventories is sales. But wait…their sales only represents 70% of the unit demand. It would pay Wal-Mart and others to build their forecasting models on the missing 30% if they captured data from the customer-facing tools described above.
I think we might be over-analyzing this issue a bit. I’ll put out to the group that the reason the trip is only 21 minutes and they don’t purchase 30% of what they came in the store for is THEY CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE. Most Wal-Mart’s are so crowded with people – there are product and displays everywhere, kids screaming, and all other sort of inconveniences that you just want to get out ASAP. Wal-Mart in this matter is their own worst enemy. And wherever that picture came from, I bet that section doesn’t look that neat anymore.
It has been said many times before, but bears repeating; Wal-Mart is not a retailer but a distributor. They simply build a warehouse (um, sorry store) and fill it with merchandise with little thought given to organization, let alone merchandising.
Big box retailers would be smart to take a page from Target, which is the master at organization and merchandising. The stores are easy to get around end, merchandise is easy to find, and you don’t feel the need to get in and out in less than 20 minutes.
Where most big box stores fail in their concept is the big picture, meaning the opportunity for the shopper to get a 270 degree view of the store and then, with good signage, be able to access that particular part of the store in a reasonable time.
The only big box retailer that does that is Kmart. In its revamped prototypes, the customer gets this view once he/she enters the foyer of the store. Then he/she can start down a cleared, wide aisle to get to bedding, furniture, groceries, HBA, fine jewelry, garden shop, etc. and get in and get out of the store in a minimal amount of time.
I loved the self scanners Kmart once had. Every big box retailer, Kmart, Target, Best Buy, whatever, should provide this option and follow stores like Home Depot, A&P and Stop & Shop/Giant. This option speeds the shopper out of the store and keeps that particular customer happily returning and buying more and more.
What is going on here is the early stages of a major paradigm shift in retailing. 100 years ago, retailing largely shifted to self-service, which relegated retailers to the role of stocking the store and collecting the shoppers’ money. This left the shopper responsible for finding the products they want, so the shopper was the active agent in retailing, and retailers were passive.
In the parallel online retailing world, retailers have found that they MUST be active in order to succeed. In other words, you may have millions of items to offer, but if you (the retailer) don’t figure out right away what the online shopper wants, they’ll abandon their cart and buy nothing.
This ACTIVE retailing will become the dominant feature of dominant retailers in the years ahead. It involves a nearly complete change in mind-set and retailing strategy. For the off-line world to embrace it, they will have to understand exactly what happens during their shoppers’ trips on a second by second basis. This “clickstream” parallels the online clickstream, and calls for similar management (see MediaCart.com).
But it is possible to segment shoppers by their behavior, understanding paths and performance by groups of shoppers, and thus to implement active retailing without the huge technology infrastructure, RIGHT NOW. Of course the technology infrastructure WILL occur sooner or later. When it does, those retailers with their heads screwed on right will have a second (or third?) acceleration to push them ahead.
There is an opportunity for much improvement here. Who wants to walk around a big store with few or any signs or people to direct you? There often seems to be no logical layout and consumers resent having to walk all around the store for an item. They are more likely to give up and buy it elsewhere on another shopping trip.
I am amazed it has taken this long to incorporate consumer conveniences like clearer signs and graphics, maps, paper directories and directories on shopping carts, kiosks or electronic directories and now intuitive merchandising to group similar items. Locating “greeters’ half way into the store might make a better use of their time as staffers could offer assistance on product locations during a consumer’s shopping trip.
Some quick and easy consumer research on logical product locations is a must. Many retailers might be surprised at what they would learn. And don’t forget to have store associates know the location of top 20-30 most requested items and update them when the locations change! Providing a paper or electronic directory to staffers to have with them at all times can go a long way to improving customer satisfaction.
Twenty-one minutes is not a whole lot,
To find all your items without a not.
How has the world’s savviest detailer,
Failed thirty percent as a retailer?
Maybe the answer rests in our replies,
But varied answers present a disguise.
So the “Big Boxes” must go for easy,
And decide if we are all too breezy.
Lots of wisdom above, but also some ideas that I think deserve more thought:
Several folks propose way-finding kiosks and/or wireless devices loaded with store maps and SKU-finders. These seem promising on first take, however they assume the existence of accurate and detailed store map data. Since shopper insights lead us toward more customized store assortments, this requirement is growing less and less trivial. Every store assortment is slightly different. Displays change every two weeks. This solution would require a constant, ongoing, shelf-level mapping process.
If we’re not ready for the e-maps, perhaps intensive staff training could be part of the solution. Everybody likes helpful store associates. Yet this approach is limited by employee turnover, customer habits and sheer workload. Especially in self-serve environments, the need to ask for help tends to slow shoppers down.
Ultimately, retailers need clear, intuitive way-finding in stores to help shoppers locate what they want efficiently and with minimum stress. A well-conceived department layout is fundamental, with adjacencies based on research, not instinct. This should be supported by strategically-placed signage and other visual cues.
Consumer interviews confirm that many shoppers have difficulty shopping in stores today, and not just the big box stores.
Most stores are still designed around the traditional stock-up trip up and down every aisle. In fact, most shopping trips today are relatively quick trips for a more limited set of items. Have you ever stopped at a store just to get “something for dinner tonight” and had to visit three different departments to pick up a three item dinner?
Furthermore, most stores (particularly the big boxes) are difficult to navigate. Unless you are familiar with the specific store, you need a GPS to figure out where anything is located. The signage is poor and can only be seen when you are already in the aisle.
Retailers need to recognize changing consumer shopping patterns and design their stores around them. The example of Target grouping baby products together represents a change in mindset. Retailers need to segment their customers in terms of “shopper missions,” redesign the store to provide “shopping solutions” and provide navigation aids. This would truly begin to improve the shopping experience and generate customer loyalty.
Think “GPS for your shopping trip.”
Digitized store layouts with RFID enabled shelf tags, linked to a PSA (Personal Shopping Assistant) would put the answer to “where’s the milk?” literally at the shopper’s fingertips. A user friendly GUI a la the http://www.like.com shopping site would be a perfect complement for the digitally impaired (aka me) shopper. Somebody needs to get this done!
Big box retailers can do several things to help the experience:
First, train the employee. So many times you ask the employee where something is and they look at you dumbfounded.
Second, have bold intuitive signage in aisles, on shelf, in slot.
Third, set up an easy computer touch screen in each department with capability to search for an item. This will assist the consumer that just doesn’t want to ask and the ones that are too embarrassed to do so. Plus, it’s quicker than searching for an associate. Also, have a couple at the front of the store so if I’m coming in for one item, I can immediately locate it and go straight there. Tracking this data will also give the retailer a database of items they need to carry that may not be in the store. It could also capture customer info if they want to backorder, etc.
Fourth, planogram better! Putting like items together makes a lot of sense and will promote spontaneous buying.
Finding the items you want to purchase in 21 minutes at a Wal-Mart super center wouldn’t be easy. If the desired items are in different product areas, most of the time would be used just walking through the store leaving little time to stop and browse to choose the desired item.
Determining the proper assortment of products and an appropriate merchandising method is critical for assisting consumers find the products they want. Personal assistants to answer questions and help locate the right items are not practical for the large number of low priced items at a Wal-Mart so experimenting with signage and displays is important.
I think the Target approach has more promise than the personal assistant or extra labor approach. Not everyone wants to share their shopping time with an employee. And, by the way, frequently the employees can’t find things. (My daughter forced me to ask for help finding an item in a Best Buy. After asking two employees, both of whom told us Best Buy didn’t carry what we wanted, we turned the corner and found a large aisle display with exactly what we were trying to find.)
The store within a store approach has more appeal. Signage can get you to the right store. The internal stores are smaller and can be merchandised in a more appealing way.
Rather than using more associates, another approach would be kiosks with electronic store maps. With everything scanned in to inventory, it isn’t a big deal to map it to a location as retailers do in their distribution centers. With a clever interface, shoppers could use the kiosk to locate those items that don’t intuitively fall within a particular internal store.
I’d also ask the store employees what they think would work best. They will have some of the most simple and effective ideas (since they are the ones who hunt for what the customer wants).
Combining these approaches could help. Yes, there is some cost. Yes, kiosks have had mixed success. The idea is to combine many small with one or two larger ideas to get to an appropriate solution.
Big box stores can make it easier for consumers to find what they came in to purchase by taking a few small steps. Here are just a couple of examples:
– Make the greeter more meaningful by training this employee to know the store, the categories, and the products. Give this person some tools to help customers.
– Train employees throughout the store, and give them some easy resources, to help identify where products are located, even outside of their immediate domains within the store. The employee in the cosmetics section needs to help customers whose next item is premium mouth rinse.
– The answer is not simply to display the big brands in prominent places. Those are the simplest items that consumers do find on their own because these brands get a large banner effect from shelf space.
– Signs need to be a bit more specific. Instead of “Personal Accessories,” the sign should say, “Personal Care,” with sub listings for Toothbrushes, Shampoo, Feminine Hygiene, etc.
– Many of the items within the 30% that don’t get found or purchased are items of very personal nature, that customers might shy from asking about. Examples are feminine hygiene, remedies for bad breath, condoms, diabetes product types… even toilet paper. These items need better signage.
Well, that’s a start. Happy Hunting!
There are two universal constants in Retailing and in Marketing: every new merchandising and/or marketing regime wants to change the store layout, and every new CPG marketer wants to change the package. I would conjecture that if they kept the major revamps to a minimum, that consumers would get used to the category locations within the store, and would have a much easier time finding them.
None of these ideas captures the IT capability retailers have right now, or the breadth of the need. Having a deep-search kiosk in every single section of the store would do it, though — the shopper can search by brand, item name, etc., and the screen shows you not only aisle number, but how to get there (and a dot-printout of the map, if you need it). I have seen prototypes of these and they are marvelous.
Some vendors offer only a very skimpy search functions in these machines; the search function must be very easy to use and very complete. Some vendors are now experimenting with simplified versions of these that would be attached to shopping carts, which incorporate GPS and help you navigate right to the item.
Human contact is the key to a positive customer experience. Knowledgeable, friendly, and welcoming employees who are familiar with the store’s layout, inventory, and staff can go a long way to providing that contact. A prominent and inviting information desk (labeled as such – not Customer Service or Guest Relations, Special Services, or anything else. Just INFORMATION.) staffed with talent whose sole job is to help customers find products and answer questions (not unlike a hotel’s concierge, information desk in your local Border’s Books, or even a librarian) can make the experience much more productive.
In addition to directing customers to the appropriate areas of the store and subject-matter experts, these folks can keep track of the number and nature of customer inquiries. This information can ultimately help steer merchandising, marketing, and other business decisions to better focus on that particular store’s customer base.
Too often retailers rely on cashiers to inquire, “Did you find everything today?” How likely is the customer to respond “No” if they’ve got four people behind them? And how likely is the cashier to help meet the customer’s needs given the same circumstances? The check-out should be the most efficient area of the store, though no less friendly. It’s not an ideal place to try and help meet customer’s needs. It’s like a waiter asking if you’d like anything else after you’ve paid your bill. Scattering employees around the store to assist customers is a little better, but that usually results in the dreaded “Can I help you find anything?” which begets the automatic “just looking” response. And “just looking” doesn’t benefit anybody.
Providing an easily accessed, hard-to-miss, inviting, well-staffed point of information that can subsequently refer the customer to the right location or person is a way for big boxes to tie together all the key points of engagement within the store and better ensure a positive customer experience.
Rules for a pleasant shopping experience:
>Make it easy to find what I’m looking for.
>Be sure it is in stock.
>Provide me with speedy checkout.
Reasons for an unpleasant shopping experience:
>I don’t know where anything is because it changes so often.
>An empty shelf where my stuff is supposed to be.
>Long lines at checkout.
Wal-Mart would be easier to shop if it had fewer signs. There’s way too much visual clutter. If everything has a sign, all focus is lost. Mies van der Rohe said it best – “Less is more.” Target stores have way less visual clutter, and the graphics have a better coordinated design.
As for Best Buy, it would be more productive to train everyone rather than a select few. Yes, that’s not easy with high employee turnover. But turnover goes down when training is better. It’s an investment. Everyone in a Best Buy store represents the company.
Being in stock would be the best way big-box stores (especially Wal-Mart, although Target also has this issue to a lesser degree in my experience) could make shopping easier on consumers.
I know where to go in the store to find a product I’ve planned to purchase. My batting average with finding what I want at Wal-Mart is closer to 50 percent across all shopping trips. Target usually falls somewhere between 70 and 90 percent.
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As RetailWire contributors have pointed out over and over again, customer service (in the context of a store’s overall strategic position) is an essential piece of the puzzle. It’s no different than last week’s discussion about Whole Foods and its mastery of “line management” in Manhattan. Any store that presents itself as a convenient alternative for time-starved shoppers (as opposed to a store that encourages browsing) must pay attention to the front of the store, not just its ease of navigation and merchandise adjacencies.
In this case, what’s surprising about Wal-Mart’s conversion to more automated scheduling at its checkout lanes is how long it took to happen. It’s the sort of “Retail 101” action that will pay off in higher sales faster than the latest upscale design initiative.
Wal-Mart, and all big boxes for that matter, should use customer-facing technology to solve the “Where Is?” problem. Most Wal-Mart shoppers use email daily, have a text messaging cell phone, and have high-speed Internet access from their home or office. These shoppers are very comfortable with Voice Response systems. Why clutter the store with signs, when you can communicate directly with customers?
For example, Wal-Mart could offer its customers an SKU lookup feature that would point the customer to the correct section of each store. From their WEB Site, from an entrance kiosk, from a call center, or from a text message center. In each case the customer enters zip code “21212” or store number, then describes the article(s) – “Mustache trimmer”. In response, a voice, web page, text message, might say “HEALTH AND BEAUTY DEPARTMENT, AISLE 4, Lower Level, 5 products”.
If the customer has multiple items that might require sales support or handling, it would be helpful to schedule an appointment with a Wal-Mart associate, again on email, text message, voice response, kiosk or web. Alternatively, customers might enter multiple items into the SKU FINDER described above to help them optimally map their way through the huge stores, heaviest items last. A PEAPOD-like service might be effective such that many items could be picked for the customer in off hours in advance of their visit.
Customers want to spend their 21 minutes as efficiently as possible. They are connected already and tech savvy. Wal-Mart needs to figure out how to connect with these people, who are the majority of their customers, and determine the shopping services that would promote more efficiency, lessen lost sales and build loyalty.
One last thing. Retailers like Wal-Mart don’t know the 30% of the items that customers couldn’t find. Their primary input for optimizing inventories is sales. But wait…their sales only represents 70% of the unit demand. It would pay Wal-Mart and others to build their forecasting models on the missing 30% if they captured data from the customer-facing tools described above.
I think we might be over-analyzing this issue a bit. I’ll put out to the group that the reason the trip is only 21 minutes and they don’t purchase 30% of what they came in the store for is THEY CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE. Most Wal-Mart’s are so crowded with people – there are product and displays everywhere, kids screaming, and all other sort of inconveniences that you just want to get out ASAP. Wal-Mart in this matter is their own worst enemy. And wherever that picture came from, I bet that section doesn’t look that neat anymore.
It has been said many times before, but bears repeating; Wal-Mart is not a retailer but a distributor. They simply build a warehouse (um, sorry store) and fill it with merchandise with little thought given to organization, let alone merchandising.
Big box retailers would be smart to take a page from Target, which is the master at organization and merchandising. The stores are easy to get around end, merchandise is easy to find, and you don’t feel the need to get in and out in less than 20 minutes.
Where most big box stores fail in their concept is the big picture, meaning the opportunity for the shopper to get a 270 degree view of the store and then, with good signage, be able to access that particular part of the store in a reasonable time.
The only big box retailer that does that is Kmart. In its revamped prototypes, the customer gets this view once he/she enters the foyer of the store. Then he/she can start down a cleared, wide aisle to get to bedding, furniture, groceries, HBA, fine jewelry, garden shop, etc. and get in and get out of the store in a minimal amount of time.
I loved the self scanners Kmart once had. Every big box retailer, Kmart, Target, Best Buy, whatever, should provide this option and follow stores like Home Depot, A&P and Stop & Shop/Giant. This option speeds the shopper out of the store and keeps that particular customer happily returning and buying more and more.
What is going on here is the early stages of a major paradigm shift in retailing. 100 years ago, retailing largely shifted to self-service, which relegated retailers to the role of stocking the store and collecting the shoppers’ money. This left the shopper responsible for finding the products they want, so the shopper was the active agent in retailing, and retailers were passive.
In the parallel online retailing world, retailers have found that they MUST be active in order to succeed. In other words, you may have millions of items to offer, but if you (the retailer) don’t figure out right away what the online shopper wants, they’ll abandon their cart and buy nothing.
This ACTIVE retailing will become the dominant feature of dominant retailers in the years ahead. It involves a nearly complete change in mind-set and retailing strategy. For the off-line world to embrace it, they will have to understand exactly what happens during their shoppers’ trips on a second by second basis. This “clickstream” parallels the online clickstream, and calls for similar management (see MediaCart.com).
But it is possible to segment shoppers by their behavior, understanding paths and performance by groups of shoppers, and thus to implement active retailing without the huge technology infrastructure, RIGHT NOW. Of course the technology infrastructure WILL occur sooner or later. When it does, those retailers with their heads screwed on right will have a second (or third?) acceleration to push them ahead.
There is an opportunity for much improvement here. Who wants to walk around a big store with few or any signs or people to direct you? There often seems to be no logical layout and consumers resent having to walk all around the store for an item. They are more likely to give up and buy it elsewhere on another shopping trip.
I am amazed it has taken this long to incorporate consumer conveniences like clearer signs and graphics, maps, paper directories and directories on shopping carts, kiosks or electronic directories and now intuitive merchandising to group similar items. Locating “greeters’ half way into the store might make a better use of their time as staffers could offer assistance on product locations during a consumer’s shopping trip.
Some quick and easy consumer research on logical product locations is a must. Many retailers might be surprised at what they would learn. And don’t forget to have store associates know the location of top 20-30 most requested items and update them when the locations change! Providing a paper or electronic directory to staffers to have with them at all times can go a long way to improving customer satisfaction.
Twenty-one minutes is not a whole lot,
To find all your items without a not.
How has the world’s savviest detailer,
Failed thirty percent as a retailer?
Maybe the answer rests in our replies,
But varied answers present a disguise.
So the “Big Boxes” must go for easy,
And decide if we are all too breezy.
Lots of wisdom above, but also some ideas that I think deserve more thought:
Several folks propose way-finding kiosks and/or wireless devices loaded with store maps and SKU-finders. These seem promising on first take, however they assume the existence of accurate and detailed store map data. Since shopper insights lead us toward more customized store assortments, this requirement is growing less and less trivial. Every store assortment is slightly different. Displays change every two weeks. This solution would require a constant, ongoing, shelf-level mapping process.
If we’re not ready for the e-maps, perhaps intensive staff training could be part of the solution. Everybody likes helpful store associates. Yet this approach is limited by employee turnover, customer habits and sheer workload. Especially in self-serve environments, the need to ask for help tends to slow shoppers down.
Ultimately, retailers need clear, intuitive way-finding in stores to help shoppers locate what they want efficiently and with minimum stress. A well-conceived department layout is fundamental, with adjacencies based on research, not instinct. This should be supported by strategically-placed signage and other visual cues.
Consumer interviews confirm that many shoppers have difficulty shopping in stores today, and not just the big box stores.
Most stores are still designed around the traditional stock-up trip up and down every aisle. In fact, most shopping trips today are relatively quick trips for a more limited set of items. Have you ever stopped at a store just to get “something for dinner tonight” and had to visit three different departments to pick up a three item dinner?
Furthermore, most stores (particularly the big boxes) are difficult to navigate. Unless you are familiar with the specific store, you need a GPS to figure out where anything is located. The signage is poor and can only be seen when you are already in the aisle.
Retailers need to recognize changing consumer shopping patterns and design their stores around them. The example of Target grouping baby products together represents a change in mindset. Retailers need to segment their customers in terms of “shopper missions,” redesign the store to provide “shopping solutions” and provide navigation aids. This would truly begin to improve the shopping experience and generate customer loyalty.
Think “GPS for your shopping trip.”
Digitized store layouts with RFID enabled shelf tags, linked to a PSA (Personal Shopping Assistant) would put the answer to “where’s the milk?” literally at the shopper’s fingertips. A user friendly GUI a la the http://www.like.com shopping site would be a perfect complement for the digitally impaired (aka me) shopper. Somebody needs to get this done!
Big box retailers can do several things to help the experience:
First, train the employee. So many times you ask the employee where something is and they look at you dumbfounded.
Second, have bold intuitive signage in aisles, on shelf, in slot.
Third, set up an easy computer touch screen in each department with capability to search for an item. This will assist the consumer that just doesn’t want to ask and the ones that are too embarrassed to do so. Plus, it’s quicker than searching for an associate. Also, have a couple at the front of the store so if I’m coming in for one item, I can immediately locate it and go straight there. Tracking this data will also give the retailer a database of items they need to carry that may not be in the store. It could also capture customer info if they want to backorder, etc.
Fourth, planogram better! Putting like items together makes a lot of sense and will promote spontaneous buying.
Finding the items you want to purchase in 21 minutes at a Wal-Mart super center wouldn’t be easy. If the desired items are in different product areas, most of the time would be used just walking through the store leaving little time to stop and browse to choose the desired item.
Determining the proper assortment of products and an appropriate merchandising method is critical for assisting consumers find the products they want. Personal assistants to answer questions and help locate the right items are not practical for the large number of low priced items at a Wal-Mart so experimenting with signage and displays is important.
I think the Target approach has more promise than the personal assistant or extra labor approach. Not everyone wants to share their shopping time with an employee. And, by the way, frequently the employees can’t find things. (My daughter forced me to ask for help finding an item in a Best Buy. After asking two employees, both of whom told us Best Buy didn’t carry what we wanted, we turned the corner and found a large aisle display with exactly what we were trying to find.)
The store within a store approach has more appeal. Signage can get you to the right store. The internal stores are smaller and can be merchandised in a more appealing way.
Rather than using more associates, another approach would be kiosks with electronic store maps. With everything scanned in to inventory, it isn’t a big deal to map it to a location as retailers do in their distribution centers. With a clever interface, shoppers could use the kiosk to locate those items that don’t intuitively fall within a particular internal store.
I’d also ask the store employees what they think would work best. They will have some of the most simple and effective ideas (since they are the ones who hunt for what the customer wants).
Combining these approaches could help. Yes, there is some cost. Yes, kiosks have had mixed success. The idea is to combine many small with one or two larger ideas to get to an appropriate solution.
Big box stores can make it easier for consumers to find what they came in to purchase by taking a few small steps. Here are just a couple of examples:
– Make the greeter more meaningful by training this employee to know the store, the categories, and the products. Give this person some tools to help customers.
– Train employees throughout the store, and give them some easy resources, to help identify where products are located, even outside of their immediate domains within the store. The employee in the cosmetics section needs to help customers whose next item is premium mouth rinse.
– The answer is not simply to display the big brands in prominent places. Those are the simplest items that consumers do find on their own because these brands get a large banner effect from shelf space.
– Signs need to be a bit more specific. Instead of “Personal Accessories,” the sign should say, “Personal Care,” with sub listings for Toothbrushes, Shampoo, Feminine Hygiene, etc.
– Many of the items within the 30% that don’t get found or purchased are items of very personal nature, that customers might shy from asking about. Examples are feminine hygiene, remedies for bad breath, condoms, diabetes product types… even toilet paper. These items need better signage.
Well, that’s a start. Happy Hunting!
There are two universal constants in Retailing and in Marketing: every new merchandising and/or marketing regime wants to change the store layout, and every new CPG marketer wants to change the package. I would conjecture that if they kept the major revamps to a minimum, that consumers would get used to the category locations within the store, and would have a much easier time finding them.
None of these ideas captures the IT capability retailers have right now, or the breadth of the need. Having a deep-search kiosk in every single section of the store would do it, though — the shopper can search by brand, item name, etc., and the screen shows you not only aisle number, but how to get there (and a dot-printout of the map, if you need it). I have seen prototypes of these and they are marvelous.
Some vendors offer only a very skimpy search functions in these machines; the search function must be very easy to use and very complete. Some vendors are now experimenting with simplified versions of these that would be attached to shopping carts, which incorporate GPS and help you navigate right to the item.
Human contact is the key to a positive customer experience. Knowledgeable, friendly, and welcoming employees who are familiar with the store’s layout, inventory, and staff can go a long way to providing that contact. A prominent and inviting information desk (labeled as such – not Customer Service or Guest Relations, Special Services, or anything else. Just INFORMATION.) staffed with talent whose sole job is to help customers find products and answer questions (not unlike a hotel’s concierge, information desk in your local Border’s Books, or even a librarian) can make the experience much more productive.
In addition to directing customers to the appropriate areas of the store and subject-matter experts, these folks can keep track of the number and nature of customer inquiries. This information can ultimately help steer merchandising, marketing, and other business decisions to better focus on that particular store’s customer base.
Too often retailers rely on cashiers to inquire, “Did you find everything today?” How likely is the customer to respond “No” if they’ve got four people behind them? And how likely is the cashier to help meet the customer’s needs given the same circumstances? The check-out should be the most efficient area of the store, though no less friendly. It’s not an ideal place to try and help meet customer’s needs. It’s like a waiter asking if you’d like anything else after you’ve paid your bill. Scattering employees around the store to assist customers is a little better, but that usually results in the dreaded “Can I help you find anything?” which begets the automatic “just looking” response. And “just looking” doesn’t benefit anybody.
Providing an easily accessed, hard-to-miss, inviting, well-staffed point of information that can subsequently refer the customer to the right location or person is a way for big boxes to tie together all the key points of engagement within the store and better ensure a positive customer experience.
Rules for a pleasant shopping experience:
>Make it easy to find what I’m looking for.
>Be sure it is in stock.
>Provide me with speedy checkout.
Reasons for an unpleasant shopping experience:
>I don’t know where anything is because it changes so often.
>An empty shelf where my stuff is supposed to be.
>Long lines at checkout.
Wal-Mart would be easier to shop if it had fewer signs. There’s way too much visual clutter. If everything has a sign, all focus is lost. Mies van der Rohe said it best – “Less is more.” Target stores have way less visual clutter, and the graphics have a better coordinated design.
As for Best Buy, it would be more productive to train everyone rather than a select few. Yes, that’s not easy with high employee turnover. But turnover goes down when training is better. It’s an investment. Everyone in a Best Buy store represents the company.
Being in stock would be the best way big-box stores (especially Wal-Mart, although Target also has this issue to a lesser degree in my experience) could make shopping easier on consumers.
I know where to go in the store to find a product I’ve planned to purchase. My batting average with finding what I want at Wal-Mart is closer to 50 percent across all shopping trips. Target usually falls somewhere between 70 and 90 percent.