Rearranging Shelves

Rearranging Shelves

Have you ever gone into your local supermarket, to find that they have yet again reorganised? Everything is just slightly out of place, and suddenly you can’t find any of your usual items? Have you ever wondered why super markets do this? If so, keep reading, as we will be exploring the psychology behind this move.

The simple answer to this question is: to confuse you. Yes, supermarkets reorganise their shelves simply to confuse customers and make them just a little lost in the store. The intended outcome of this, however, is to increase spending through impulse buying. When the store has been rearranged, how often do you spend walking around trying to find the item you want? A lot longer than you did before, right? Well, impulse buying occurs when you are walking around looking for your usual item. As you are searching, you are forced to pay attention to other products in the aisle, as you scan for your desired product. As such, your attention is drawn to items that, previously, would have gone unnoticed. You may even decide that some of these products are new and exciting and that you should try them out! Furthermore, by causing customers to have to search for their items, supermarkets are not only forcing you to look at other products within that aisle, but you are also forced to go down every aisle, through fear that your desired product may be down there, and you may miss it. This again makes customers look at items that they would normally have never seen, or even considered buying.

Confusion, however, is not the only technique that is used to increase impulse buying, when rearranging a store. One of the key reasons why shops get rearranged is to ensure repeat customers. When a store is rearranged, it gives it a new, fresh look, and often highlights new products. This causes repeat customers to feel like they are getting a new experience, and to feel refreshed, therefore are more likely to continue to return to the store, and not get bored and find somewhere new. And as we touched upon earlier, by rearranging products, repeat customers are exposed to new products, and their spending habits change, and usually increase short term.

Stores do not only focus on repeat customers. By rearranging the store so that new items are displayed in the window and at the front of a store, a new side to the store may be shown. As such, passers by may be enticed by these different products and come into the store and become new customers. 

Another reason why a shop may be rearranged may be to highlight certain items. There are many reasons to do this, however the aim is still to cause an impulse buy from the shopper. Reasons to highlight items may be a sale or offer such as “buy one get one free” where a customer could decide to buy these products that they were not previously planning to buy, because they are on offer. Another reason may be that a popular brand or a big selling item, has brought out a new product, flavour etc. Therefore, customers may not be aware of the product prior to entering the store, but when the product is highlighted, will make an impulse choice to try it. Finally, a big reason why a store may rearrange, is when products may be reaching their sell-by date. In this case, supermarkets will often put them on sale, and again move them to a prominent place, or they may even have a specific “reduced” section for this reason. This benefits the supermarket, as the products are on sale, and placed prominently, so customers are again more likely to make the purchase, therefore the shop is able to make some money on a product that they would otherwise have to throw away, and waste is reduced. 

Having read this article, you may have a cynical view of supermarkets and their “underhanded tricks” to get you to buy more, or you may be more understanding the next time your local store changes its products. But whatever side of the fence you fall on, you are now more educated on the tricks of the trade. Perhaps you’ll find yourself noticing these tricks more, in your day to day life

-- From Marketing to Mind --

Photo by gemma and Rob Maxwell and nrd on Unsplash