Since the 1950’s retailers have used strategic merchandise marketing by placing inexpensive goods near the checkout counters to tempt customers into buying them. The positioning of these goods is important as it’s a well-known fact that will power decreases as shopping fatigue sets in. These small inexpensive items tap into our psychological conditioning, giving us a boost of the feel-good factor from getting ourselves a little treat.

People are by nature impulsive. In certain product categories, impulse buying accounts for nearly 80% of purchases. However, we don’t need data to convince us that people will be tempted and divert from their shopping list, the question we have to ask is, how do we best encourage that deviation.

Below we outline some merchandising marketing strategies to best encourage consumers to make those spontaneous purchases.

Fear of Loss

As consumers, we all love a deal. There is nothing worse than thinking you missed out on a good promotion. Drawing customer’s attention to a one time offer or limited promotion creates a sense of urgency and taps into our fear of missing out. Strong visual graphics and bright compelling displays urging the consumer not to delay can be effective in persuading customers to make the purchase there and then or risk losing out.

Product Related

By understanding which are the best selling items you can create a transactional strategy around those products by placing other items that are relevant to the best-selling item nearby, and in this way tempt consumers to consider buying them. This may require effective point of purchase displays that could, for example, creatively jog consumers’ memory or evoke a sense of nostalgia.

Equally the displays could make recommendations for cross merchandising by suggesting products that go well with each other, or by bundling offers together in a promotion. This is often done effectively online by showing you what other customers who viewed this item bought.

Taking online in-store

Consumers are more likely to make an impulse purchase instore than online, and 21% of consumers make more impulse purchases once they engage with a branded app on their phones. Consumers can hereby be encouraged to stay in-store for longer and with location aware beacon technology this means you can deliver real-time discounts to customer’s smartphones as they walk past specific products. Using the opportunity to push location based promotions helps in enticing the consumers into impulse purchases.

Experience counts

Some products are better at creating the impulse than others. Goods that are inexpensive are low risk as they require low involvement in terms of decision making, these usually do best. However, instore demonstrations and tastings are also effective mechanisms to get consumers to deviate from their shopping lists and buy more. Involving consumers through experience can create the sense that they are experiencing a product that fulfils a need, even if they didn’t realise that they had that need.

There is no one sure approach. Testing different positioning, promotions, displays and reviewing the sales data are all important elements in defining your merchandising strategy.

At FMI we work with our clients to continually asses the most effective merchandise marketing strategy to maximise engagement and sales. Get in touch today to learn more!