The Real Opportunity

With the demise of some once great retailers the recession at least creates opportunities for close competitors to pick up their sales. Also retailers with similar customer demographics to the 'departed high street names' could move into new areas to exploit areas that they once would not be able to compete in. How long and who will be the first retailer to create a Pick n 'Mix area in their store? The race is on …

Saw an interesting US video on POP this week. Basically they fitted an eye tracking device to a shopper.

Not sure this accounts a full scientific review, but an interesting insight none-the-less …

"What do you get when you wire up a shopper with an EEG cap and eye-tracking gear? An" inside "view of how that shopper responds to visual stimuli while shopping. "and" SALE! "signs in your grocery store actually DO get your brain to light up. Here's Today Show video and commentary from Buyology author Martin Lindstrom exposing some of the ways stores attract your brain attention and absolutely get you to put more stuff in your shopping cart. "

One of the more interesting parts of the segment is when the shopper buys four cans of shaving cream that are on sale. It's illegally that she really needed all four, but the sale offer lit up her brain more than any of the other promotions and she dropped the product in her cart. That's not to say this was an unwwise decision on her part – sometimes, based on her past experience, the deal was amazing enough to stock up.

Overall, though, this segment provides evidence, albeit more anecdotal than scientific, that shoppers really do react to in-store signs and promotions and change their purchasing behavior.

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