A Professional’s Guide to Consumer Behavior

Understanding consumer behavior is essential when you are preparing your store for the new year. Marketing and merchandising are centered around how you will make consumers feel, think, and act. The main goal of marketing is to influence the way that consumers think. Motivating them to decide to buy what you want them to buy is what must be accomplished to ensure a profitable selling season.

Customers are as influenced by experience as they are by product positioning and presentation. Training your employees to offer customer service above and beyond what the customer expected can go a long way in influencing consumer behavior. When an escalated situation is handled professionally, nicely, and effectively, an aggravated customer is likely to make a purchase and return in the future. One reason is that they now have a connection with your store and your staff.

In real life, going through an ordeal that ends with a favorable outcome draws people closer together and strengthens their relationship. The same applies for customers who have a problem. Try not to dread dealing with irate customers. Look at difficult situations as ways to bond and turn problems into favorable relationships than you could not have originally obtained.

Make sure that customers feel as if you understand and acknowledge their problem. Listen more than you speak. Solve their problem in a way that exceeds their expectation and you’ve struck gold. Not only does the customer have a stronger bond with you, but they have an incident to talk about with their friends. If they walk away feeling like you handled the situation in a professional and personal manner, then they are going to spread the word.

Product positioning is also important when your intention is to influence consumer behavior. First you must understand what type of customer you are trying to influence. Are your customers looking for deals? Are they looking for quality? Are they shopping for others? Determine which sets of customers you would like each display to appeal to and go from there. For example, a table set up with sweaters that would make great gifts may be tied with ribbon to resemble a present. You could place a sign here that informs customers about your free gift wrap services.

Position your displays in areas where customers are likely to decide to make purchases. Your big attractors should be in the front of the store to draw customers in. However, you do not want all of your best finds to be right in the door, or customers will get more disappointed as they move through and leave with a bad impression. Use mannequins and signage to draw customers back further and further into the store. Impulse buys along the aisles that receive the most traffic will help to lure the customers in. Using a mannequin, like a female mannequin or male mannequin, can help you to position your product where it can be easily seen. For example, someone standing twenty feet away may notice your dress mannequin wearing a coat that they really like and move back to that area. If the coat was simply hanging, the customer would have never gone back there.

Use mannequins, spread out your merchandise, and always treat your customers with respect. You will keep the sales going through busy and slow seasons year round.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail displays, including mannequins, dress mannequin forms, female mannequins, gridwall and slatwall store fixtures. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com.

Marketing with Mannequins

Mannequins can be your greatest asset when marketing your apparel. Mannequins have unsurpassed effectiveness in visual merchandising schemes. They get a lot of attention from customers and help to boost sales.

Mannequins show customers and even just people passing by what clothing will look like on. Mannequins are great for showing just how certain garments can be worn. A lot of clothing hangs limp on the hanger. This is especially true of light or flowing fabrics.

Dress mannequins are extremely effective in selling dresses. This is because almost no dress looks good simply hanging. Dresses need to fit the body in a certain way. A lot of simple dresses would just look like a long t-shirt hanging on the clothing rack, but may look stunning on a dress mannequin.

Accessory sales can skyrocket if you use your mannequins to promote them. Assemble the display with accessories that fit the style of the outfit. Hats, gloves, scarves, earrings, necklaces, purses, shoes, tights, and backpacks can all be included in your display. Don’t overload your mannequin with too much stuff or it can take attention away from the outfit that you really want to sell. But, using accessories will entice people to purchase more than they planned.

People like to see a mannequin showcase in stores because it gives them fashion ideas. A lot of times, the display will feature a new style that someone hasn’t thought of. For example, wearing combat boots with a sun dress, or a scarf with a short-sleeved blouse may not have occurred to them before they saw it in your display.

Putting outfits together keeps people from having to dig through racks and come up with the ideas on their own. Layering is an effective marketing tool because shoppers may not have purchased any of the items alone, but love the look of them layered together. So, instead of buying one shirt or nothing, they actually purchased a camisole, a sheer long-sleeved shirt, and a pullover sweater.

Displaying clothes on a mannequin won’t automatically make sales for you. You have to be creative enough to give your mannequin displays feeling. People can envision themselves in outfits worn by mannequins that they can relate to. Develop a scene that gives the display personality, or that creates a mood or feeling. These kind of displays help people to feel a certain way. Think about what feelings your customers have when they decide to purchase something. Do they feel sentimental, athletic, or beautiful? Help customers to get that feeling that they need to decide to go through with a purchase and your displays can be incredibly effective.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail displays, including mannequins, dress mannequin forms, female mannequins, gridwall and slatwall store fixtures. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com.