Are you aware of all the strategies that you can use for capturing the customer’s eye and attention? Well, maybe you will find something new today, maybe not, but let me tell you a thing: you have at your service a lot of stuff (music, colors, odours) that you can use for influencing costumers, but you have to know exactly how to do this to make them buy more than maybe they would’ve thought.
Because you know that, inevitably, when it comes time for your customers to lay down their credit cards, they can’t help but worry about price and affordability. So, let me tell you something more: have you ever considered that a specific kind of music or even a song is able to make expensive products look better? Well, it’s a fact, and I’m sure you’re willing to discover how does this work.
You know that every store wants to produce a good image to the buyers, and the sounds a customer hears in that store complement the overall image. Here’s the psychology of the client: every single one gets instantly (even more) in the shopping mood when some nice music, with some good vibes, or a specific song that he likes comes along in the store.
If a client gets in the atmosphere, he feels that he belongs in the certain store in that exact moment, and that he has to stay there and enjoy it. And, of course, this leads to buying as much as he can (more specific, as much as his wallet lets him), because he’ll have the urge to grab every item that steals his eyes, as long as he’s feeling good and he’s in the mood.
If we’re talking about malls, we must take into consideration that shops which have teenagers as targeted consumers will tend to pop music at a high volume, while in a chic, expensive jewelry shop, you will most likely hear classical music. Why? I think everyone can think of a reason for this, but the experts have done this too, and they do it best.
Dr Kit Yarrow, consumer psychologist at Golden Gate University and co-author of Gen BuY: How Tweens, Teens, and Twenty-Somethings Are Revolutionizing Retail, explains why this is: ‘’I think music is more of the ability to create a feeling. So, what stores are trying to do with music is tap into emotion.
Imagine watching a movie without any music, and it just wouldn’t work once in a while I’ll be watching something with the sound off and I’ll think ‘’that looks so cheesy”. Music is emotionally evocative and that’s what retailers want to do. They want you to get you feeling things and not thinking things.”
Of course, it goes further than that in some cases. A study from The European Journal of Scientific Research suggests that if the music is played at a loud volume, customers will move quicker in the store, in opposition to a slower and quieter music, which would make customers stay longer in a shop. While music can influence the customer in all types of ways, you have to know that the main purpose of using it in a retail store depends on what you, as a retailer, want to do.
Maybe sometimes you want the customers to move to a place quickly (like a fast food or restaurant), while other times you may want them to stick around. If you’re wondering, this can lead to some purse strings loosen, if it happens for them to be in the store at the proper moment, when the right tune hits them. As every store’s main goal is, of course, to make the customers spend as much as possible, one of the best tricks retailers can use is to make them feel comfortable, and show them a lifestyle they want and they can achieve.
It is also very important what kind of music you choose to play in your store. Because, let me tell you something, if you will play, let’s say, Gwen Stefani in a wine shop, you will most likely make your customers run away. Why? I mean, it’s nothing wrong with Gwen Stefani, it’s just that hearing “If I was a rich girl” while shopping for wine doesn’t seem right. The songs you choose for your store have to mesh with its overall image, so be careful. Think about it.
The fact of the matter is: stores are always looking for new ways to sell stuff and get the customers to spend more. You can always use these subtle cues and, even though it’s not sure they will work on every customer, you will surely have more chances to make your clients spend more. Because if you know the client’s psychology and the effects some things have on them, like the appropriate music, in this case, you know what you have to do to approach your goal: making them spend more.
