What is the science or psychology behind the way how they display their products?
I understand that it’s supposed to drive sales, but what is the reason behind their method?
Why, or how does it work?
In: Other
I know that shops will have some deals at the end of aisles because people slow down at those areas and are more likely to see and browse those deals.
This is an entire science basically involving psychology, industrial organization, etc that big retail chains hire people to do for them. grocery stores are one of the best examples. Most grocery stores have their produce right at the main entrance. This serves to give off the assumption of “freshness” as you enter the store. flowers are usually there too. then you walk through the bakery. now, especially if you’re hungry you’re totally screwed because you’re even more hungry and everything you walk past just looks amazing.
then they put stuff that is an “ingredient” in those center aisles to force you to go deeper into the store and walk past other stuff that you didn’t plan to buy today.
staple goods like meat, dairy, eggs usually somewhere far away from the door so that you have to walk as far as possible to get the stuff you need. again, making you walk past a bunch of other stuff.
put the “impulse” items like candy and what not by registers. etc.
Then you get into even more detailed stuff like specifically which shelves certain things go on. Notice you rarely see the discount brand items at eye level. Our brains tend to want to put stuff in order so on store shelves, a higher shelf assumes higher “quality”. So stores put more expensive stuff right there at eye level even though it might be the exact same quality as the store brand one at the bottom. big chain grocery stores generally have very high ceilings and the signs are up higher which serve to draw your stare upward toward them top shelves. or, it might be high profit margin items right there even though they are cheaper. certain items stores make way more money on even though the product itself is significantly less costly.
Every time you’ve been in a store and thought about how it would make more sense if “X & Y” were by each other, is exactly why they are not by each other.
[https://youtu.be/EqviBPG2uPE?si=QqCiQr2nXevBpi_o](https://youtu.be/EqviBPG2uPE?si=QqCiQr2nXevBpi_o)
this is a great video about this topic. Anything i say will just be paraphrased from this video
[removed]
They put the basics as far from the front and from each other as possible. That’s why meat, produce, & dairy are always in the back and meat and produce are on opposite ends. They will put high profit items between those places.
For the shelves themselves, they will put commonly sold, high profit items at eye level and less profitable items on the top or bottom where they’re harder to reach. This is because people are more likely to grab what is at eye level because they see it first and it’s easy to reach.
The snacks at the front are there to encourage impulse purchases while you wait in line. That’s why it’s always smaller stuff like candy and magazines.
Also, the music is because studies have shown that people will buy more if there is music playing.
Depends on who is doing it. Mom and pop stores probably put stuff wherever, with stuff people want being easier to access. Bigger stores will actually sell their shelf space (higher shelves, endcaps, displays) to the highest bidder so they’re obligated to display some products very specifically. Anything you want to sell to kids you put at their eye height so they can beg their parents to buy it for them. Some well paid individual will decide how the entire store is laid out, and then sometimes they’ll hire individuals to be in charge of making the displays look pretty, dressing the manequins, tearing down and replacing the shelves, etc.
I was the IT portfolio manager for a series of systems that decided what to sell and where to place it on the shelf for what was at one time a large grocery chain.
Most of it is math. Engines statistically compare sales of same product in different locations and then it tells the product manager where to place the product for maximum sales.
Also. There are reasons the rules may be ignored or countered. I worked for a grocery chain. Milk was in the back of the store and the business side would never change that despite what my systems said. They wanted people to walk to the back and maybe buy something on the way to milk. Pharmacies actually sell more milk because as you walk back you pickup the milk.
In the same way it was hard to convince them to sell beer and meat close together. Which btw sales like hotcakes.
Ice cream is bought by pallet loads you basically don’t get to choose the flavors.
Yogurt companies required a variety of their product meaning in some stores Greek fancy yogurt never sold and more was thrown away than sold.
Also just obstinate personalities and politics. Each product manger fights for real estate, and then has to fill it. So the drug guy wins his argument and has 12 feet of shelving to fill. Sometimes that meant the system would order product that will expire before it sells. I could show them this math, but it is hard to go against 50 years of tradition.
I assume since the same systems work for big box stores they have the same math and issues.
I was the IT portfolio manager for a series of systems that decided what to sell and where to place it on the shelf for what was at one time a large grocery chain.
Most of it is math. Engines statistically compare sales of same product in different locations and then it tells the product manager where to place the product for maximum sales.
Also. There are reasons the rules may be ignored or countered. I worked for a grocery chain. Milk was in the back of the store and the business side would never change that despite what my systems said. They wanted people to walk to the back and maybe buy something on the way to milk. Pharmacies actually sell more milk because as you walk back you pickup the milk.
In the same way it was hard to convince them to sell beer and meat close together. Which btw sales like hotcakes.
Ice cream is bought by pallet loads you basically don’t get to choose the flavors.
Yogurt companies required a variety of their product meaning in some stores Greek fancy yogurt never sold and more was thrown away than sold.
Also just obstinate personalities and politics. Each product manger fights for real estate, and then has to fill it. So the drug guy wins his argument and has 12 feet of shelving to fill. Sometimes that meant the system would order product that will expire before it sells. I could show them this math, but it is hard to go against 50 years of tradition.
I assume since the same systems work for big box stores they have the same math and issues.
Latest Answers