I just finished reading an article on impulse purchases stating that about 20% of what people purchase at the grocery store is unplanned.
Of course that figure varies greatly depending on if you drove a car or rode a bike to the store, whether you are “young, unmarried,” if you consider yourself “fast and efficient,” etc.
But it did get me to thinking that a store like a Super Target would be a wonderful place to experiment with the way the way people purchase things.
Like, what if we defied logic? Like, having a selection of hammers in the pillow department.
What if we used logic? (Sort of.) Men like hot sauce. So, let’s trying selling hot sauce in the power tool aisle.
What’s the price limit that someone will spend when it comes to ‘impulse’ items at the checkout counter? Would people buy an iPod if it was sold alongside the Zagnut bars? What if the iPod next to the Zagnut bars was twenty bucks less then an identical, full-price one in the electronics section?
You could further geek-out by cross referencing the purchasing data with what was happening in the world that day. Do disasters, the 4th of July, trouble abroad, etc make consumers more open, or less open, to impulse purchases?
(On a side note, next time you check out, really look at your receipt. It’s amazing the amount of information that’s printed on it.)
Why is no one doing this?
Well, actually, there are a couple of stores that are kind of is doing it.
Wilco Gas Stations
In between the Twinkies and coffee, they usually have Mexican blankets for sale. I never would have put gasoline, Twinkies and Mexican blankets together, but they do. And that’s the cool thing about experimenting. Throw a bunch of variables together and see what happens.
And the other store is Wal-Mart. Of course.
By sifting through their 460 terabytes of consumer data, Wal-Mart found that when a hurricane is about to hit, sales of strawberry Pop Tarts shoot up sevenfold. So, before hurricanes, they now ship in truckloads of Pop Tarts to the area that’s going to be affected.
But, they aren’t so much experimenting as they are just forecasting.
Data doesn’t exist on what might happen if we put broccoli in the toy section or grouped everything in the store by color.
Who knows? The experiments may create new buying habits among consumers.
Kids seeing broccoli next to the toys might start equating broccoli with fun and play and therefore willingly ask their parents to buy it. (Doubtful. But who knows. Only Tom knew they were painting a fence. Everybody else thought they were just having fun.
So, Target, when you’re ready to turn one of your stores into a giant impulse buying laboratory, give me a call. I’ve got my Mexican blanket, a Zagnut bar and I’m ready to roll. Let the experimenting begin.
Links to articles mentioned:
Impulse Article
Wal-Mart Articl