58 pages • 1 hour read
Paco UnderhillWhy We Buy: The Science of Shopping
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “Instead of Samoa, Stores: The Science of Shopping”
Chapter 1 Summary: “A Science Is Born”
Everything in a store influences its shoppers. From display racks to signage to the color of the walls—“every nook and cranny from the farthest reach of the parking lot to the deepest penetration of the store itself” (4)—the details affect shoppers’ decisions. Until recently, though, anthropologists knew more about the markets of New Guinea than they did about shopping in modern industrial societies. The science of shopping had to be invented.
Author Paco Underhill’s market research company, Envirosell, manages “trackers” who are carefully trained to observe surreptitiously roughly 40 variables in shoppers’ traits. Trackers note these behaviors on a “track sheet”; they can observe up to 50 shoppers per day. Video cameras record specific areas of the store to gather data on the effects that particular layouts, signage, and equipment have on, for example, patron walking patterns or worker fatigue.
Trackers work in groups to study visitors at every type of retail establishment and many large public spaces, including concert halls, museums, train stations, and stadiums. Teams of trackers work from offices in New York City, “Mexico City, São Paulo, Milan, Bangalore, Moscow and Tokyo” (7). Envirosell has worked with half of the world’s top-50 merchant companies and one third of the Fortune Top 100 companies.
The findings help improve sales. Shoppers at a housewares store, for example, are much more likely to make a purchase if they use shopping baskets; Envirosell works with the store to develop ways to encourage more use of the baskets. Displays at a crowded entrance generate fewer sales because people who visit the display tend to get bumped from behind by patrons entering or leaving the store, and they give up and walk away; moving the display elsewhere improves the customer experience and increases purchases. An item popular with children or the elderly that is stocked high on a shelf can be too hard for them to reach; placing the items lower causes sales to go up.
William “Holly” Whyte, a journalist who became a researcher during the mid-20th century, studied urban spaces with a view to improving their ability to create community. His teams would, for example, videotape a park for several days and interview some of the visitors until they understood the nuances of how people used the benches, fountains, and grassy areas, and how the park's layout and nearby buildings influenced visitors’ behavior. Whyte’s work was foundational to shopping science, which studies the effects of a store’s interior design, signage, coloring, and other aspects of its environment on shoppers’ purchasing decisions.
Underhill was teaching environmental psychology in 1977 when he got his first research job, helping New York’s Lincoln Center theater district determine pedestrian traffic flow around a gift shop. Underhill realized that the way the gift shop was managed was itself a worthwhile subject of study.
His next client was CBS Records, which asked his team to study a local record store. The team improved sales there by repositioning signage and moving cashier lines away from display bins. They also discovered that cassette tape buyers would first visit the vinyl album section because LP record covers were easier to read; the store widened the record aisles, and overall purchases went up. Envirosell saved the store thousands in losses because video surveillance showed that thieves often arrived with bags from non-local retailers, which they’d use to stash their ill-gotten loot; such bags thereafter stood out as telltale signs of trouble.
Cash register tapes can paint a deceptive picture of a store’s success. At a drugstore, Underhill’s team found that purchases in the aspirin aisle, though hefty, were missing even more sales because the aisle led directly to the cold drinks section, so that elderly buyers of analgesics were constantly jostled by teens rushing past on their way to the sodas. Aspirin was moved to a different aisle, and sales rose 20%.
Since the mid-20th century, the number of marketing channels—TV and radio outlets, web pages, mailers, and catalogs—has ballooned, making it harder to reach everyone at once on a few channels. Brand loyalty also has faded in the face of so many product choices. More shopping decisions are therefore made on the fly inside retail establishments. Every aspect of the store has a much bigger influence on that process. Making life easier for the consumer is where shopping science comes in; it is “a form of consumer advocacy that benefits our clients as well” (26).
Many marketing firms now believe that some cameras and software can do shopping science correctly for less money, and Envirosell has seen clients leave in search of that promise—but they return.
Chapter 2 Summary: “What Retailers and Marketers Don’t Know”
A major retail chain hired Envirosell to analyze shopper behavior at its stores. The research was completed, and Underhill asked a ranking executive there what he believed was the conversion rate—the number of purchasers per shopper—at his stores. He replied that it was virtually 100%. Underhill told him that the real number, though respectable, was only 48%. Troubled, the company conducted its own survey, counting shoppers and how many emerged holding bags. Their result was identical to Envirosell’s.
Executives often misunderstand what’s going on in their stores. They might assume that women take 10 minutes to shop for makeup when the real number is two. Shoppers themselves often estimate their time inside a store to be twice as long as they actually spend. Generally, those who buy spend more time in a store than those who look but don’t purchase. This amount varies by type of store and other factors.
Sometimes average time spent in a store increases because the layout causes confusion. Envirosell convinced office supply purveyor Staples to alter its layouts to resemble arenas, where shelving was low in the middle of the store and taller around the edges. This layout made it much easier for shoppers to find what they were looking for. Other office superstores followed suit, and sales improved as much as 20%.
Stores do better if employees talk to the customers. Patrons dislike waiting in line, and their opinion of stores deteriorates with increased wait time. Retailing higher-ups can be oblivious: “Busy executives hate to wait for anything, but some don’t realize that normal people feel the same way” (34). Some customers will abandon full shopping carts and leave rather than wait too long. Store managers also sometimes don’t know their customers’ ages, ethnicities, or gender ratio, factors that indicate specific product preferences and variations in how those customers expect to be treated.
Part 1 Analysis
Part 1 introduces the basic principles of shopping science. Underhill argues that a careful study of people's behavior while shopping can reveal specific flaws in a given store’s layout, presentation of merchandise, and employee behavior. The specifics about customer behavior—they like it when clerks talk to them, they don’t like to wait, they ignore complex signage—are addressed in detail in later chapters.
Why We Buy, though full of useful information for anyone in retailing and eye-opening for anyone who shops, also acts as a kind of commercial for the author’s marketing research firm, Envirosell. Much of the final pages of Chapter 1 and the early part of Chapter 2 focus on how shopping science—and the work done by Envirosell—involves more than a simple collection of statistics about conversion rates and year-over-year store sales. The process is complex and requires a skilled team that puts feet on the ground to collect data that computers and cameras will miss.
Retail executives from major corporations have hired Underhill and his team to ferret out problems with their stores’ floor operations. At the same time, many of these same upper-management people behave as if they already know what’s best for their companies. High-powered people often display a certain arrogance, a trait that may have helped them climb the corporate ladder but that also may undermine their decision-making.
Underhill walks corporate leaders carefully through his research data, helping them see exactly what needs fixing in such a way that they don’t take it personally. He must combine scientific expertise with careful diplomacy if his consultancy is to succeed. Several times in the book, Underhill describes moments when he stuns executives with counter-intuitive discoveries he’s made while studying their stores; these revelations, with their element of surprise, arguably help to disrupt their mindset and break down their resistance. Underhill, an entertainer in his writing style, also must be a showman during corporate presentations.
Underhill is critical of consultants who would underbid his services by automating or otherwise streamlining their research efforts. This kind of approach, he declares, amounts to glorified corner-cutting that fails to give retailers the deep insights they need. Underhill believes his extensive research process will pinpoint, specifically and scientifically, the areas where his clients can make strong improvements.
