Our shopping habits are not the same as last year, especially compared to five, ten or more years ago. It all changed, but one thing remained the same: our emotions continued to dictate the entire purchasing process!

We value the sales space as well as the people – just seven seconds is all it takes to create a first impression. And that almost completely unconscious. As much as 95% of our activities, such as decisions, actions, behavior and emotions are programmed in our subconscious. Does this mean that when going shopping, decisions were made based on the available balance in the account or the emotion that a certain product or brand “awakened” in us?

We feel before we register thoughts, and that’s why about 76% of purchase decisions happen right at the point of sale. Regardless of whether we came to the store with the intention of buying only a certain product and left the store, successful retail spaces will lead us to spend more time with them and spend more money.

Focus on the experience, not the product

Consumers buy an experience and want to feel comfortable and welcome in stores, therefore more attention is paid today than ever to the elements of sensory marketing – sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. Customers are irrational and shopping is not a response to rational needs, but a response to the current mood, while the mood can be very strongly influenced by music or the scent signature in the store.

It is a great example of a domestic brand that had such a specific scent signature that it aroused customers’ interest in buying the same product for apartments, houses and offices. Soon, the store, which actually sells sleeping equipment, started selling the fragrance that customers loved so much and associated with that particular brand.

Combined senses

If you enter a shopping center, you will notice that the music in the center is neutral, while each store plays its own music. The type of music in a particular store is not random. Sound creates a mood and, together with the visual aspect, makes up the largest percentage of brand communication through the sales area. In addition, in stores, we are surrounded from all sides by stimuli for all other senses.

The impact of the combined senses further enhances the customer’s experience of a certain brand, and of course, this does not only happen in shopping centers. For example, in some luxury sports cars, an engine sound amplifier is installed to make the experience of potential customers even more intense. The trailer for the TV series ‘Homeland’ included technology that caused mobile phones to vibrate during the most exciting scenes.

In Seoul, they went a step further, installing devices in city buses that released the smell of coffee every time the Dunkin’ Donuts jingle played. Just as the jingle ended, the bus would stop at a stop near a Dunkin’ Donuts store. This ‘coincidence’ increased the brand’s sales by as much as 29%.

Online and offline world

It seems that today every brand that operates offline wants to have a web shop in order to keep up with trends. The American giant Amazon did exactly the opposite. He used the knowledge gained in digital and extended the success of online sales methods to offline as well. Amazon has developed several different physical sales formats, and one of the most interesting is the ‘4-Star Retail Concept’, which offers only the best-rated products based on the location in which it is located. This concept arose from the insight that “people want to know that customers like they bought a certain product, as well as their satisfaction that resulted from that decision”.

Through the web shop, they have collected so much data about customers and their habits, that if they adapt to them, it is almost impossible for this offline project to be unsuccessful. Transferring a successful online sales model to an offline one is a method that certainly brings quality results. Digitally collected customer data helps personalize products and services and create spaces that respond to customers’ unique needs.

A certain percentage of sales will remain offline forever because online channels will never be able to replace the unique experience that a space can provide to a client.