December 4, 2006
Speed Sells
There’s no doubt that behind the wheel of a car, speed kills. When it comes to driving business at retail, however, speed sells. That is especially true during the holiday season.
According to a study by Yankelovich, consumers say having too little time is more of an issue for them than having too little money. This is true across all income levels.
The 56 percent of consumers who were most stressed over time constraints/pressure put a median price of $90 an hour on their time. The balance, who felt less stress, valued their time at $60 an hour.
“Christmas is a hard deadline. You don’t get an extension,” David Bersoff, Yankelovich executive vice president, told USA Today. “And as you get closer to Christmas, time gets even more valuable.”
Retailers and other businesses understanding that a lack of speed can kill their business are taking steps to move things along more quickly for shoppers.
Sears, for example, guarantees customers that items ordered online for store pickup will be ready within five minutes of the shopper coming to the pickup area with the bar code they receive as a receipt of their order. If Sears fails to deliver, the customer will get a $5 coupon.
Walmart.com redesigned its web site to make the process of checking out go more quickly. Today, a customer can checkout in four clicks. Before the site was overhauled, it took six clicks.
Mall operators are also looking to speed consumers through their facilities but the approach here is decidedly less high tech. Chelsea Property Group, a division of the Simon Property Group, has posted tips online as to how consumers can get their shopping done more quickly.
An example of Chelsea’s advice: “Map your day before you go. Print a map of the center and determine your plan of attack to save time.”
Discussion Questions: What are consumers doing to finish their holiday shopping in the shortest period of time? How are retailers speeding up shopping
trips? Is there one retailer in your experience that is the fastest?
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Those people waiting in line for Nintendo Wiis or Play Station 3s only to find that as the 20th person in line at store opening that the outlet only as 6 units available certainly don’t relate to the issues of speed or convenience. If the demand is great enough and the supply small enough people are willing to put in time and suffer inconvenience. The inflated selling prices for the units on eBay is further evidence.
However, I have also looked at long lines and left a particular retail outlet for that reason. However, I knew I could find the items somewhere else or could come back at another time to purchase the items. The time spent standing in line or the inconvenience were not worth it for the items being considered for purchase.
Time and convenience are critical issues for consumers and retailers need to do what they can to address those issues for consumers to want to frequent their establishments.
In terms of shoppers speeding the purchase, the answer seems to be gift cards (which eliminate the need to shop) and online shopping (which eliminates the need to stand in line). In terms of meat world retailers, they seem to find ways of making shopping harder and harder each year — the classic example being the “line up at 5:00 a.m. to rush to get those three cheap (fill in the blanks) we actually have in our store.”
I think we have a serious problem with not taking the time issue seriously. As a student of shopping, I’m having some trouble with this myself. We have known for some time that the single most common number of items purchased in supermarkets across the country is ONE!!!! The second most common number is two.
This may seem a bit afield of Christmas shopping, but speed and time are HUGE factors in the shopping experience. Even knowing this, I was close to shocked recently when observing the speed of eye movement in a recent full-store, real trip, eye-tracking study. The amount of study of products/displays in the acquisition of merchandise is shockingly thin.
This does NOT mean that no one studies products/labels/displays carefully, or that no one buys dozens of items. And there is no question that those people have a huge impact on sales. But they are a tiny minority of shoppers. Not discounting these, but it is the cumulative high-speed purchases of those in a rush, who make or break a store. OK, both groups are important. But has anyone shown that stock-up shoppers really don’t mind spending lots of time in the store?
Speed, speed, speed, is what it is all about, at Christmas, and most other times, too. This gets us back to what we call the Holy Grail of retailing (much better executed online than offline)
“To know exactly what the shopper wants as they come through the door; and to deliver that to them quickly, taking their money, and speeding them on their way.”
Could it be that shoppers spend less time shopping than in the past because the experiences of shopping have lost their appeal?
Time is not a variable, but how people spend to use their time is. I doubt that people have placed less importance on finding just the right gift for the special people in their lives. Granted, shoppers use alternatives like online shopping because it is easier, while certainly less personal, with some doubt about purchases since you can’t see, feel, experience, or touch the items.
Is time stress the real issue, or is it shop online convenience combined with a more stressful and less enjoyable in-store experience? I think the latter has more to do with shopping decisions than does the reasoning of time starved shoppers.
Whoever thought the day would come that we would be willing to stand in line and then pay $2 or more for a cup of coffee? I, for one, won’t and wonder if the retail coffee roasters have any idea how much business that they are missing by keeping the people in line “invisible” until “their turn”?
Many times I have turned and walked away after too many people ordered fancy, time consuming coffee drinks. Just acknowledge me, and I am more likely to wait. I think we have watched too many Frazier shows.
Not simple…lots of conflicting interests. Consumers want speed but many shop like sheep, wanting to go where everyone else goes and they want to buy what everyone else buys. Studies have shown that in malls, people flock into the busy crowded stores and avoid the empty ones. Keeping customers in stores generally produces more sales and there is a direct correlation between time in store and money spent (as long as that time is spent shopping and not waiting in register lines). The key is having edited, shoppable stores that have the right goods properly presented and stores that are so fun and interesting that people actually slow down and enjoy the experience.
Any retailer that doesn’t consider the convenience factor as part of its “selling proposition” will continue to lose market share to other retailers that execute better. As Ryan points out, online retailers and purveyors of gift cards will continue to grow their share for the foreseeable future for this very reason.
Big-box retailers such as Target, Kohl’s and Best Buy seem to have worked harder than traditional mall retailers on issues like ease of navigation, parking and rapid check-out — but they still have room for improvement. Most department stores (including Penney and Kohl’s) bunch their biggest promotional efforts into the same days of the week and store hours during the holidays, giving consumers no choice but to trade convenience for the best prices of the season.
I agree with Ryan. The only add that I have: when my wife and I go shopping, the first thing we look at upon entering the store is how long the lines are at the registers. If too long, we just do an about-face and shop elsewhere.
My hat’s off to CVS, though. Yesterday, at the store in Hanover, NH, the place suddenly became mobbed. I watched in dismay as a long line built at the registers, but, just as suddenly, stock clerks and photo people opened up registers. What’s more, they actually knew how to use them! The line disappeared and the customer joy was palpable. Now, if only other retailers could do that more often.
After many years of spending huge amounts of time looking for specific gifts, sizes, colors, styles, etc. I finally realized that gift cards were the way to go for me. I also admit that I shop quite a bit online as the time savings and convenience greatly outweigh the hassles of crowded stores, parking and traffic, slow checkout lines, and overstocked aisles that create an overwhelming sense of overload.
I used to enjoy the “hunt” of the shopping trip but have found it most enjoyable to take the easy way out…I am also a fan of gift delivery from online vendors…another big convenience item for me. In my older years I now know why it was easy for my grandparents to write a check!!!
Okay, call me idealistic, but I still think the gift itself is the most important thing, as well as the experience while purchasing it.
Just today, my wife was complimenting a pair of gloves that she simply loves. They were purchased at Nordstrom some seven years ago now. As we talked about them, we recalled the experience that I had purchasing them. Seven years and it’s still fresh in my mind. Why? It was one of the best, if not the best, retail purchasing experience that I have ever had. That was a result of two things really. First the fact that it was the gift that she really wanted. It meant something to her. Second, the experience of purchasing them and giving them was terrific. And, yes…a simple pair of leather gloves. But, now that I am writing this, I am also thinking that they were of tremendous quality to be still in use some seven years later, and still looking great.
Certainly in some instances, speed is great. However, finding just the right gift and having a great experience purchasing it makes the season memorable. I remember that gift and the experience. Ask me to recall other great experiences, and I do, but the gift itself slips my mind.
For me — and I don’t believe that I am all that atypical — fast just isn’t enough. The retailer that has what I want or, should I say, can sell me something that I didn’t know I wanted, has an edge. I can’t believe that getting it done surpasses the gift itself and how we found it and how we were treated when we bought it. I may be cynical, but not that cynical yet, to believe that the majority are simply interested in knocking down their list as fast as possible. Maybe, but I still believe….
There isn’t any one answer. For some, price is most important and those consumers shop at Wal-Mart and Target. For others, speed or selection is most important and they shop Amazon.com or a brick and mortar category killer like Best Buy or Bed Bath & Beyond. And for some, it’s all about the old-fashioned experience and they spend a day on New York’s Fifth Avenue or Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, walking from store to store, marveling at the decorations and listening to the music and ringing bells. The key is to know what your target market holds most important and give it to them in spades.
Retailers are adding extended hours help keep the experience tolerable. Not the 5 a.m. Black Friday promo, but every day for a month opening early and closing late. People are creatures of habit, and those new hours tend to be less crowded.
Some of the technology retailers are starting to use is especially helpful during the “season.” We noted in another discussion how some Apple stores have roving checkout clerks with wireless terminals that can process a credit card transaction for you anywhere on the store floor. Retailers with the right kind of merchandise, even supermarkets where as Herb noted many people are standing in line with one item, can use these systems to monitor the line, pull people out and speed them on their way.
Any retail store can install a TV camera connected to a router with a broadband connection. You don’t even need a personal computer in the store. Then publicize the Store Cam web site which shows when the store is crowded and when it isn’t. A lot of time can be saved by shopping when the crowds aren’t there. Total cost per store: about $250, if there’s already a broadband connection and a router.
Speed is a must. To be successful, a store must offer a superior merchandise mix for their target customer, and then match a given shopper’s time constraints with speed alternatives for making their purchases. This is the beauty of using 3 sales channels instead of 1. Full service checkout with assistance of a cashier (traditional POS), self service (kiosk or self checkout) and the Web. All three channels must be available, because each shopper will need a different channel, or combination of channels, depending on “the circumstances of the day.” I might need to walk in for 1 item and want to get right out the door. I may choose a cart full of items with promotional discounts and require the assistance of a cashier. Finally, I may need a lot of information for a purchase of a single item and scan the web for a extensive amount of product knowledge before ordering this item. Satisfying the varying requirements for speed is dynamic and crucial to acquiring and keeping retail customers….
How things and times change. Years ago the thought was, the longer you can keep a customer in the store, the more the customer was going to buy. Now, at least from this premise, speed is most important. There must be some sort of blend that is optimal. Maybe that blend is the shopping experience. Is the need for speed coming as a result of consumer feedback? Or is it what “the experts” are saying? Nobody wants to wait on a long checkout line. But with better than 60% of purchases being made being attributed to discretionary dollars, I challenge the need for speed theory.
I have worked in the retail industry for at least 10 years and I have noticed that there is a catch 22 in the time/service conundrum. The more time a salesperson can have with any one customer, the more time you have to answer their questions and offer the best options available, and the customer leaves happy. Now, though, more and more retailers are depending on less employees to handle more customers in an effort to become cost effective. Instead of being able to add-on sales or develop a future relationship with a client, an employee must curtly dismiss the person they were helping as quickly as possible to help the mob of angry people who want attention as quickly as possible. This is not the retailers’, customers’, or salesperson’s fault, but society’s. We are all becoming used to instant gratification, and as a result everyone suffers.
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Those people waiting in line for Nintendo Wiis or Play Station 3s only to find that as the 20th person in line at store opening that the outlet only as 6 units available certainly don’t relate to the issues of speed or convenience. If the demand is great enough and the supply small enough people are willing to put in time and suffer inconvenience. The inflated selling prices for the units on eBay is further evidence.
However, I have also looked at long lines and left a particular retail outlet for that reason. However, I knew I could find the items somewhere else or could come back at another time to purchase the items. The time spent standing in line or the inconvenience were not worth it for the items being considered for purchase.
Time and convenience are critical issues for consumers and retailers need to do what they can to address those issues for consumers to want to frequent their establishments.
In terms of shoppers speeding the purchase, the answer seems to be gift cards (which eliminate the need to shop) and online shopping (which eliminates the need to stand in line). In terms of meat world retailers, they seem to find ways of making shopping harder and harder each year — the classic example being the “line up at 5:00 a.m. to rush to get those three cheap (fill in the blanks) we actually have in our store.”
I think we have a serious problem with not taking the time issue seriously. As a student of shopping, I’m having some trouble with this myself. We have known for some time that the single most common number of items purchased in supermarkets across the country is ONE!!!! The second most common number is two.
This may seem a bit afield of Christmas shopping, but speed and time are HUGE factors in the shopping experience. Even knowing this, I was close to shocked recently when observing the speed of eye movement in a recent full-store, real trip, eye-tracking study. The amount of study of products/displays in the acquisition of merchandise is shockingly thin.
This does NOT mean that no one studies products/labels/displays carefully, or that no one buys dozens of items. And there is no question that those people have a huge impact on sales. But they are a tiny minority of shoppers. Not discounting these, but it is the cumulative high-speed purchases of those in a rush, who make or break a store. OK, both groups are important. But has anyone shown that stock-up shoppers really don’t mind spending lots of time in the store?
Speed, speed, speed, is what it is all about, at Christmas, and most other times, too. This gets us back to what we call the Holy Grail of retailing (much better executed online than offline)
“To know exactly what the shopper wants as they come through the door; and to deliver that to them quickly, taking their money, and speeding them on their way.”
Could it be that shoppers spend less time shopping than in the past because the experiences of shopping have lost their appeal?
Time is not a variable, but how people spend to use their time is. I doubt that people have placed less importance on finding just the right gift for the special people in their lives. Granted, shoppers use alternatives like online shopping because it is easier, while certainly less personal, with some doubt about purchases since you can’t see, feel, experience, or touch the items.
Is time stress the real issue, or is it shop online convenience combined with a more stressful and less enjoyable in-store experience? I think the latter has more to do with shopping decisions than does the reasoning of time starved shoppers.
Whoever thought the day would come that we would be willing to stand in line and then pay $2 or more for a cup of coffee? I, for one, won’t and wonder if the retail coffee roasters have any idea how much business that they are missing by keeping the people in line “invisible” until “their turn”?
Many times I have turned and walked away after too many people ordered fancy, time consuming coffee drinks. Just acknowledge me, and I am more likely to wait. I think we have watched too many Frazier shows.
Not simple…lots of conflicting interests. Consumers want speed but many shop like sheep, wanting to go where everyone else goes and they want to buy what everyone else buys. Studies have shown that in malls, people flock into the busy crowded stores and avoid the empty ones. Keeping customers in stores generally produces more sales and there is a direct correlation between time in store and money spent (as long as that time is spent shopping and not waiting in register lines). The key is having edited, shoppable stores that have the right goods properly presented and stores that are so fun and interesting that people actually slow down and enjoy the experience.
Any retailer that doesn’t consider the convenience factor as part of its “selling proposition” will continue to lose market share to other retailers that execute better. As Ryan points out, online retailers and purveyors of gift cards will continue to grow their share for the foreseeable future for this very reason.
Big-box retailers such as Target, Kohl’s and Best Buy seem to have worked harder than traditional mall retailers on issues like ease of navigation, parking and rapid check-out — but they still have room for improvement. Most department stores (including Penney and Kohl’s) bunch their biggest promotional efforts into the same days of the week and store hours during the holidays, giving consumers no choice but to trade convenience for the best prices of the season.
I agree with Ryan. The only add that I have: when my wife and I go shopping, the first thing we look at upon entering the store is how long the lines are at the registers. If too long, we just do an about-face and shop elsewhere.
My hat’s off to CVS, though. Yesterday, at the store in Hanover, NH, the place suddenly became mobbed. I watched in dismay as a long line built at the registers, but, just as suddenly, stock clerks and photo people opened up registers. What’s more, they actually knew how to use them! The line disappeared and the customer joy was palpable. Now, if only other retailers could do that more often.
After many years of spending huge amounts of time looking for specific gifts, sizes, colors, styles, etc. I finally realized that gift cards were the way to go for me. I also admit that I shop quite a bit online as the time savings and convenience greatly outweigh the hassles of crowded stores, parking and traffic, slow checkout lines, and overstocked aisles that create an overwhelming sense of overload.
I used to enjoy the “hunt” of the shopping trip but have found it most enjoyable to take the easy way out…I am also a fan of gift delivery from online vendors…another big convenience item for me. In my older years I now know why it was easy for my grandparents to write a check!!!
Okay, call me idealistic, but I still think the gift itself is the most important thing, as well as the experience while purchasing it.
Just today, my wife was complimenting a pair of gloves that she simply loves. They were purchased at Nordstrom some seven years ago now. As we talked about them, we recalled the experience that I had purchasing them. Seven years and it’s still fresh in my mind. Why? It was one of the best, if not the best, retail purchasing experience that I have ever had. That was a result of two things really. First the fact that it was the gift that she really wanted. It meant something to her. Second, the experience of purchasing them and giving them was terrific. And, yes…a simple pair of leather gloves. But, now that I am writing this, I am also thinking that they were of tremendous quality to be still in use some seven years later, and still looking great.
Certainly in some instances, speed is great. However, finding just the right gift and having a great experience purchasing it makes the season memorable. I remember that gift and the experience. Ask me to recall other great experiences, and I do, but the gift itself slips my mind.
For me — and I don’t believe that I am all that atypical — fast just isn’t enough. The retailer that has what I want or, should I say, can sell me something that I didn’t know I wanted, has an edge. I can’t believe that getting it done surpasses the gift itself and how we found it and how we were treated when we bought it. I may be cynical, but not that cynical yet, to believe that the majority are simply interested in knocking down their list as fast as possible. Maybe, but I still believe….
There isn’t any one answer. For some, price is most important and those consumers shop at Wal-Mart and Target. For others, speed or selection is most important and they shop Amazon.com or a brick and mortar category killer like Best Buy or Bed Bath & Beyond. And for some, it’s all about the old-fashioned experience and they spend a day on New York’s Fifth Avenue or Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, walking from store to store, marveling at the decorations and listening to the music and ringing bells. The key is to know what your target market holds most important and give it to them in spades.
Retailers are adding extended hours help keep the experience tolerable. Not the 5 a.m. Black Friday promo, but every day for a month opening early and closing late. People are creatures of habit, and those new hours tend to be less crowded.
Some of the technology retailers are starting to use is especially helpful during the “season.” We noted in another discussion how some Apple stores have roving checkout clerks with wireless terminals that can process a credit card transaction for you anywhere on the store floor. Retailers with the right kind of merchandise, even supermarkets where as Herb noted many people are standing in line with one item, can use these systems to monitor the line, pull people out and speed them on their way.
Any retail store can install a TV camera connected to a router with a broadband connection. You don’t even need a personal computer in the store. Then publicize the Store Cam web site which shows when the store is crowded and when it isn’t. A lot of time can be saved by shopping when the crowds aren’t there. Total cost per store: about $250, if there’s already a broadband connection and a router.
Speed is a must. To be successful, a store must offer a superior merchandise mix for their target customer, and then match a given shopper’s time constraints with speed alternatives for making their purchases. This is the beauty of using 3 sales channels instead of 1. Full service checkout with assistance of a cashier (traditional POS), self service (kiosk or self checkout) and the Web. All three channels must be available, because each shopper will need a different channel, or combination of channels, depending on “the circumstances of the day.” I might need to walk in for 1 item and want to get right out the door. I may choose a cart full of items with promotional discounts and require the assistance of a cashier. Finally, I may need a lot of information for a purchase of a single item and scan the web for a extensive amount of product knowledge before ordering this item. Satisfying the varying requirements for speed is dynamic and crucial to acquiring and keeping retail customers….
How things and times change. Years ago the thought was, the longer you can keep a customer in the store, the more the customer was going to buy. Now, at least from this premise, speed is most important. There must be some sort of blend that is optimal. Maybe that blend is the shopping experience. Is the need for speed coming as a result of consumer feedback? Or is it what “the experts” are saying? Nobody wants to wait on a long checkout line. But with better than 60% of purchases being made being attributed to discretionary dollars, I challenge the need for speed theory.
I have worked in the retail industry for at least 10 years and I have noticed that there is a catch 22 in the time/service conundrum. The more time a salesperson can have with any one customer, the more time you have to answer their questions and offer the best options available, and the customer leaves happy. Now, though, more and more retailers are depending on less employees to handle more customers in an effort to become cost effective. Instead of being able to add-on sales or develop a future relationship with a client, an employee must curtly dismiss the person they were helping as quickly as possible to help the mob of angry people who want attention as quickly as possible. This is not the retailers’, customers’, or salesperson’s fault, but society’s. We are all becoming used to instant gratification, and as a result everyone suffers.