We find consumer psychology fascinating. Having an understanding of these little tendencies that most of us have toward or away from certain things can be really helpful in crafting an environment that first of all, creates a connection with the customer, and secondly, encourages purchasing.

Give Something to Get Something

Reciprocity is a tried and true way to encourage purchases. Do you remember your mom’s loyal trips to the Lancome counter to get the gift with purchase? She was not going to miss the widow that allowed her to get a goodie bag full of samples with her moisturizer purchase. Special sample days at the grocery store are another great example of this tactic.

Action Card Tip: Be sure to set up a tracking on the success of these types of campaigns. If you aren’t measuring it, you aren’t likely to improve it.

Create a Pleasant In-Store Experience for the Senses

We’re talking about sight, smell, sound, and the flow of the store. Create an experience for your in-store guests that promotes your brand, feels inviting, and makes the customer experience downright pleasant. Clothing retailers Abercrombie & Fitch do a great job of including all of the senses in their customer experience. Music that appeals to their demographic can be heard from outside, their signature scents can be smelled a mile away, and their dim lighting is relaxing without taking away from the products.

Action Card Tip: Create a system/checklist for your store opening duties with reminders throughout the day to keep the customer experience fresh.

Create a Sense of Urgency

A simple way to create urgency is to give an offer or sale an end date that you highlight. This can be done with large, bold lettering on your promotional materials, or having employees educate your customers. We’ve also seen membership, time restraint, or product countdowns with verbiage like, “Only 7 spots left!”, “Sale ends in 2hr 43min!”. These coundowns have a strong influence on your customer closing the deal.

Action Card Tip: Always keep your offerings consistent through your area stores. It can be very off putting to a customer for a sale to end earlier than advertised by another location.

Be Inclusive

While your target audience probably isn’t a toddler with no money or the family dog, by showing some love to the people or things that your target shopper cares about, you’re showing that you care about them. Like when your neighborhood bank gives your pup a dog treat, or your favorite grocery store gives free fruit to kids while you shop. It puts a smile on the customers face and enhances their experience with you.

Action Card Tip: Launching something like this in conjunction with a customer satisfaction survey could be a great way to boost your scores.

But Also a Little Exclusive…

Who doesn’t love feeling like an insider? Offer your core customers special deals and let them know it’s because of their loyalty. On the simplest of levels this could be a free coffee refill for your every-single-day c-store customers. Or this could be building a mailing list and offering a special or discount. Create an insider, or community feeling to enhance your customer loyalty.

Action Card Tip: To get the most out of your customer email list, be sure to work with your marketing department. Customer audiences and ad targeting can be achieved with these lists.

As you can see, we like to use consumer psychology to create a bond with the customer. Consumer psychology is about finding ways to create a connection between the customer and the brand, and we just happen to be great at that! Want to know more about crafting an environment that draws people to your brand? Take a quick demo today.