No Snoozing in Retail

Did you know that when nine out of 10 people walk into any store, they turn to the right? The phenomenon is called “invariant right,” so named by Paco Underhill, one of the retail industry’s foremost authorities on consumer shopping behavior.

Through a combination of video cameras and on-site observation, Underhill and other researchers at his New York firm Envirosell have for years been tracking the paths that consumers plot through stores, recording not only what they buy but how they buy. And Underhill is not the only one watching. Many of this country’s chain stores and the brand marketers in them know exactly how customers walk the aisles to shop for their products.

America’s major brewers know whether you like to buy beer from the cold case or an end cap, whether you prefer potato chips or pretzels to go with it, and whether you pick out the snacks before you put the beer in your cart or after. In fact, when you cruise through the grocery store, every product on every shelf has been strategically packaged and placed, and most grocers know how long you stand there looking at them.

At Wal-Mart, each purchase shoppers make at each store feeds into a central, real-time data bank that shows what’s selling or whether inventory is low so that, within hours, managers can change displays or call for additional stock.

Retailing is sophisticated business. And if you think you are reading about somebody else’s store in this column, you’re wrong.

Since you probably run a destination store — where most of your business comes from referral and most of your customers seek out your products — you may not believe it’s important to pay attention to basic retail tenets like location, store design and display or consumer marketing. But with margins tightening and competition heightening, now could be the time to begin.

For years, HomeCare, too, has been keeping tabs on HME retail and, for years, that portion of revenues has remained unchanged at less than 12 percent of sales for the average home care company.

What an incredible opportunity.

Think about what could happen to your sales if, beyond referral sources, the consumers in your community knew your store existed. What would happen if it were located in a convenient shopping center instead of an out-of-the-way industrial park? Think about how visibility would increase if more cars passed by. Or what might happen if you added another lift chair to your floor (you’ll sell more of them, experts say), or put a big-profit display in that prized right-hand course (which Underhill suggests attracts the highest traffic in the store).

While you don’t need the complex tracking systems of the Wal-Marts and the Budweisers (well, at least not yet), HME retail definitely isn’t for wimps. As this issue’s “Destination: Retail” points out, it takes commitment and cash — and for most, the right location is a plus. But the possibilities that increased retail business offers are worth considering: Think about whether you are going to keep all of your eggs in the Medicare basket, or whether you might like having sales that you and you alone control — no forms, no regulations, lots of potential customers.

For starters, dump that dusty artificial plant in your front window if you have one. Then, the next time you wake up in the middle of the night wondering how to replace the revenue you’re losing to reimbursement cuts, turn on the light and think like a retailer.

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