Where there is money to be made, there are tricks up their sleeves to get you to spend it. Like any other business out there, retail stores exist to take your money. You go in, you spend money, you get things, and everyone walks out happy.
Before I portray the tricks of the retailers let me clarify first the vital difference between the Shopping mall and Strip mall.
The malls have a variety of branded and local based stores. The prices of the stores also vary depending on the type of the store, while branded stores are quite pricey, other smaller stores offer normal prices on merchandise. (Here you have the freedom to take your items without asking anyone.)
Whereas Shopping centers usually house small supermarkets, video rental stores, dry cleaning, grocery stores, coffee shops, etc. do not have large stores to attract the public also known as strip malls or open-air malls. The person would have to exit one store to enter another. (Here you need to ask for your items to the shop owner)
Have you ever observed the difference between buying any grocery items from strip mall or supermarket and from big grocery mall?
Let me explain you then, you might carry a small list of your necessary items before purchasing those and when you go to any strip mall you place your order to the shopowner according to your list and the shopowner handover you those items and at last he asked whether you need anything more and then you instantly reply them ‘NO’ and you clear the bill.
But when you go with the same list of items to any big grocery mall then there you are free to take your items as per your list without asking anyone by holding the cart. Here is the real game begins, yes the real trick. Because when we get that freedom of taking our necessary items you might observe that you never stick to that particular item only instead your attention deviates towards those plenty colorful items of the aisle and you purchase 3 or 4 items more than your budgetary list.
Here are some retail tricks that try to compel you into spending more cash…
Flooring patterns to slow down shoppers in big malls
Store size matters, if the store isn’t particularly big, they’ll make it feel big. In crowded places, people spend less time shopping, make fewer purchases (planned and impulsive), and feels uncomfortable.
Supermarkets and retailers are applying tricky methods by using secret flooring patterns to slow down shoppers and make spenders fork out more, to make them spend the most time and money in the sections with the products that make them the highest profit.
Lines on the floor “tell” us at what speed are we walking. It was shown, for example, that increasing the distance between the lines on the floor turns on the subliminal desire to reach to the end of the line if the end seems closer, we walk faster towards it. So, if the lines are closer, the buyers will go slower. In the contrast, researchers found that customers moved faster when the distance between lines was wider.
The rhythm of music stimulate your spending interest
As music is the best option for change your stress mood. From supermarkets to department stores, retailers employ this clever technique designed to get you to spend more.
Research shows that slow music makes people shop leisurely and spend more. Loud music hurries them through the store and doesn’t affect sales. Classical music encourages more expensive purchases.
They put a big, bold ‘SALE’ sign in the window
Your curiosity pushes you to go inside the shop and to scope it out when stores put giant sales signs of ‘SALE’ in red color in their windows which attracts your eyes. There, you may buy something on sale or buy at full price in, either way, they got you inside and made you spend money.
They welcome you with shopping carts
The store is welcoming you with a nice big cart at your fingertips in the intent of fostering you to fill the cart because of the larger the cart, the more prone you are to spending more, so choose for the handbasket or even the old-school armful of purchases if you can.
They place colorful high profitable items at the front eye level
Stores will put the more desirable and profitable items at eye level so that you’ll see them easier. This increases your chances of buying the more profitable items.
Majority of the grocery store have the tendency to keep like baked goods, floral colorful items, and stuff like that at the front so that it draws your eyes to these items because their appealing smell activates your salivary glands and will put you in a good mood, making you more likely to purchase on impulse.
They put the essential items towards the back of the store
That way you have to walk through the entire store to get to them. That’s why milk, meat, cheese, and similar items all rest almost exclusively against the back wall. You have to walk down various aisles to get to them and to get back to the registers in the front. This exposes you to a bunch of the store’s inventory. It doesn’t take a study to know that if you look at enough stuff in a grocery store that you’ll probably buy something else other than what you came in to buy. This forces you to walk through the whole store to reach them, increasing your odds of throwing some items into your cart along the way.
You have to walk up and down in the aisles
Since no store has a standardized setup, each aisle has only a part of a meal in it. Often to find out your specific items you are conditioned to walk up and down each aisle without deviating means to get all of the meal, you have to travel down multiple aisles. Stores do this intentionally so that you end up spending more time in the store looking for certain items. More browsing time equals more opportunities to buy. Eventually, you’ll start doing it out of force of habit even after you’ve completed your shopping list.
They keep things in reach
When you touch anything you get the feeling of that like when you buy clothes you like to touch the fabric which gives you the feel about the quality and help you to make your decision to buy something. The research found that people who touch things are more likely to buy them than those who do not touch things. If you can touch everything, there is a high probability that you’ll buy at least some of it.
They take the advantage of your good mood in holidays
After getting the holiday from your regular tight working schedule you really want to rejuvenate yourself by spending time at those Shopping malls with your closed ones. Holidays make people happy and that means they’re primed to spend money.
The malls use holidays to create huge sales events so that they can take advantage of your good mood because the sales are meant to get you into the stores and spending on discounted stuff and maybe some non-discounted stuff, too.
They use ploy of the rewards card
Lots of different places use the tactic of rewards card. You may pick up a rewards card, swipe it at checkout, and you get points. After all, if you spend all your money there, you’ll get rewards points which you can redeem for other stuff. As it turns out, by the time you get enough points for those nice things, you’ve already spent so much money that they’ve made a good profit off of you.
They put ‘Limited time offers’ card
Stores also use the trick of limited-time offers means to put limits on things to make them seem more appealing to increase your sense of urgency in making a purchase by creating the illusion of an unbeatable sale. The items tempting you to buy on the spot. For instance, you may go to buy a shirt, see that they’re discounted, and then see that the discounted rate has a “limit of five per customer.” So you grab a great deal without delaying where you only went in there to buy one. So they win.
They offer free shipping or home delivery
Sometimes stores offer free shipping when they’re out of stock in a size or low on inventory of a particular item, but this is often just to get you to make the purchase that day. You may be better off shopping around and finding a better deal with a competitor.
They offer to guarantee your refund.
The money back policy that if you are not satisfied with a product, really encourage the customers to spend more, implying with the intention that no matter what the customer does, they cannot lose. Actually, this removes skepticism about a purchase and any reluctance they may have felt to buy.
Caution
So be alert from next onward now before you enter any giant Shopping mall, be calculative and focussed only on your necessities despite diverting your attention towards the bright and mesmerizing offer of the stores.
Bravery Truth !! 