New Book Explains Why People Buy

Furniture World Magazine

The new book, Shopping: Why We Love It and How Retailers Can Create the Ultimate Customer Experience by consumer insights expert Pam Danziger, provides a researched explanation of people’s passion to shop. Some 70 percent of Americans describe shopping as recreation, according to a survey of 1,250 upper-income shoppers (average income $111.8k) conducted by Danziger’s firm Unity Marketing. Shopping explains the drives and motivations for people when they shop in order to give retailers creative new ideas about enhancing the customers’ shopping experience in their stores. The key for successful retailing today is to make the time shoppers spend in the store more fun, Danziger asserts. “For years retailers’ success has largely been a function of offering the right products at the right price in the right location. But those factors are less important today as shopping becomes one of our favorite forms of recreation. Today success in retail is less not about what you sell, and more about how you sell it,” Danziger explains. Shopping uncovers the shoppers’ mindset and explains what makes them buy Backed by the in-depth research author Danziger is known for, Shopping explains shoppers’ propensity to buy as an equation based upon four key factors. P = (N + F + A) × E2 That is, Propensity to buy is defined by: N= Need or some perceived consumer need F= Features of the product that make the item more or less desirable A=Affordability or whether the price is worth it or not E=Emotion which is dominant in the overall shopping equation Called the quantum theory of shopping, the equation explains that the tangible factors in shopping, i.e. the need, features and affordability, play a supporting role in the shopping decision, but they rarely dominate. Of more importance than the tangibles in the quantum theory of shopping —Need, Features, and Affordability—is Emotion, which touches off and interacts with each of the tangible features. Danziger explains, “I discovered the quantum theory of shopping while I was window shopping on Rodeo Drive. I have a passion for shoes and I saw the most lovely pair of red velvet pumps in a boutique window. My need for those shoes was nil. However, particular features of those shoes made them highly desired, since I have other red shoes, other velvet shoes but no red velvet shoes. Affordability was the deal-maker. I figured the price would range between $400 to $800, above that I wasn’t likely to go. But when I went to the store to try them on, I found the shoes actually cost only $360, so in effect I ‘saved’ $440 on the purchase.” High emotion is what drives the shopper to buy and successful retailers play to the emotion in the entire retail experience. Shopping profiles retailers that create an ultimate shopping experience and gives principles retailers can put to work in their store In Shopping Danziger profiles stores that offer shoppers truly extraordinary shopping experiences — They are what Danziger calls “shops that pop.” Taking learning from these retailers, the book concludes with over 30 principles that retailers can put to work in their stores to transform them into a ‘shop that pops.’ “Because shoppers today demand more, retailers who offer them an alternative, one where shoppers can find great stuff at a reasonable price in a store where it is fun to shop, will survive—even thrive—in the future,” Danziger says. Shopping: Why We Love It and How Retailers Can Create the Ultimate Shopping Experience is published by Kaplan Business. It can be found in booksellers nationwide. An excerpt from Shopping can be downloaded directly at: http://www.unitymarketingonline.com/downloadPDF3.php