Book Review: Why Do We Buy?

He still can't tell me how the money magically disappears from my bank account.

One of the challenges that any of us in digital signage face is understanding the end result – the viewer. Regardless of what sector of the industry you live in, whether you’re adding special effects to copy in post production, or you’re wiring the LCD mount on the shelf, you need to understand why you’re doing it. The “why” is the customer.

And there is probably no better body of work where you can learn about the shopper than “Why We Buy – The Science of Shopping” by Paco Underhill.

This book is written for anyone who wants to know why shoppers do what they do in a retail environment. If you have any responsibility for the actions of a customer (you do), read this book in a week and take out of it years of insight.

One of the final passages from Mr. Underhill:

“First and foremost, shopping follows social change, and woe to the businessperson who fails to comprehend. Shoppers are fickle today, and their loyalty to brand name – whether of a product or a store – lasts only as long as the afterglow of the most recent shopping experience.”

Given the fast-moving evolution of electronic messaging and engagement, it’s important to bring this up now, because it lays the groundwork for the rest of the information.

Mr. Underhill describes four essential elements of store shopping that are core to the success of a retailer:

• Dwell Time: How long the shopper is in the store. (Studies routinely show that longer store dwell times lead to higher sales.)
• Conversion Rate: The percentage of shoppers to actual transactions at the counter.
• Waiting Time: Almost a contrast to Dwell Time, the longer a customer has to wait in a store, the lower his or her opinions are of that store. This would be “bad” Dwell Time.
• Employee Interaction: Going back to those studies, employee interaction leads to higher sales.

Much of his writing can be directly attributed to the philosophies of in-store signage. The purpose of signs, regardless of whether they are static or digital, is to get someone to do something. Understanding the shopper is the key to effectively using the store (and ultimately the signage) itself as a tool to engage a shopper.

Throughout the book, you will find bits and pieces in almost every chapter that can be applied directly to digital signage and electronic in-store experiences. We see touchscreens on shelving, mobile devices with the capability to capture QR codes on the spot, and knobs and dials that enable someone to make the speaker volume go to 11 on a stereo that he or she is interested in. Knowing how shoppers respond in the retail environment is the foundation for understanding how they will respond to the signage.

This goes to 11.

Mr. Underhill provides nuggets of information that fit very well into the world of electronic engagement and interactivity. He notes that “about one-fifth of all shoppers actually see the average product on a supermarket shelf. There’s a reliable zone in which shoppers will probably see merchandise. It goes from slightly above eye level down to about knee level.” This is important. Part of the equation of compelling content is where a screen goes. If it’s placed where no one sees it, then one one sees it. Not good.

Chapter Five, “How To Read A Sign” is worth the price of the book and should be etched in your brain. The chapter covers signage in a store. And almost the entire chapter can be directly translated to our industry by simply placing the word “digital” in front of each instance of the word “sign” or “signage” in the chapter. Even though we are using a new technology for communications, the fundamentals of right message, right place, right time are as accurate as ever..

If you walk into a Barnes and Noble, a Williams-Sonoma, or a Dean and Deluca, you can see the execution of Mr. Underhill’s insight on “900 different aspects of shopper-store interaction.” I’m guessing all the executives of these organizations have this book on their shelf.

Whether you are responsible for content, technology, or execution, this book will help you better understand why people do what they do, so you can better do what you do.

Do be do be do.