A consumer psychologist has shared some of the shrewd ways supermarkets get buyers to spend more money. Dr Cathrine Jansson-Boyd has said factors such as the layout and the soundtrack can be a massive influence.
She begins by explaining that the layout of supermarkets "trap" people, hoping they'll buy more things. She says: "It's no fluke that you have to walk up and down long aisles in the supermarket. They do that to make sure that you're trapped, because the more time you spend in an aisle, the more likely you are to pick up things along the way that you wouldn't otherwise buy if you could whisk through the shop in any direction."
She adds that the placement of products on the shelves can influence the amount you spend, with many stores pointing shoppers in the direction of more expensive items by putting them at a more convenient height on the shelves. Jansson-Boyd says pricier branded items will be at eye level, while cheaper options are towards the floor, reports The Mirror.
She also says that supermarkets will move their stock around every six months to a year to prevent customers from becoming too comfortable with the layout of the store, which means shoppers will need to walk around for a longer period to find what they need rather than just heading straight for the aisle they'd usually expect the item in.
"They tend to move things around. If you go to a supermarket regularly, there will come a point where you'll walk in and you're like, 'hang on a minute, I knew the bread was down here...' but it's not there.
"It's not to frustrate customers, because of course, they want people to be happy, it's to ensure you have to walk around looking and you'll pick up more things along the way. There's a real relationship between the length of time spent in a supermarket and number of products purchased."
Another trick supermarkets use is their soundtrack, which particularly comes into play in the build up to Christmas, and festive music makes the shopping experience more cheerful. They also utilise artificial scents such as the smell of fresh bread around the bakery.
The latter is the most "traditional trick of all", Dr. Jannson-Boyd says, before adding how it evokes a feeling of nostalgia for many of us.
"It's so often an artificial scent because it doesn't smell in the bakery as often the bread is pre-manufactured but they still pump out a smell of fresh bread, as shoppers have childhood associations with the smell.
"It's homely, it's nice and it's fresh. You want to believe that everything in the store is made from scratch and is amazing, but of course, it isn't. However, we sniff it and we're quite easily duped, we buy into it and we think it's all very fresh."
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