How To Use Impulse Purchases To Increase Sales

What is impulse buying?

Impulse buying has been defined as occurring ‘when a consumer experiences a sudden, often powerful and persistent urge to buy something immediately’, even if they entered the store without the intention to buy that item [1].

But what triggers a customer to make an impulse purchase decision? There is no one set factor that drives a person to buy something that they had not initially set out to buy. There are, however, various aspects of your store that you can utilise to make this purchase behaviour more likely, which include working to optimise store atmosphere and promotional signage.

So what makes people buy? Research conducted in the United States and Great Britain has shown that factors like consumers' mood, emotional state, national culture and demographic factors influence impulsive buying behaviour [3].

The psychology behind impulse purchases

The decision to buy a product or service can be attributed to a number of different psychological events. The most understandable reason is that we get a good feeling from a ‘new’ product, which is likely gained through the excitement of receiving gifts as a child.

Another strong psychological push towards impulse buying is the ‘loss aversion trigger’ [4]. This is the feeling that you need to avoid feeling bad in the future, which could involve making an impulse purchase to avoid missing out on a great deal. Customers are also very susceptible to deals that claim to save them money or time, such as buy-1-get-1-free offers and bundled products.

Cross merchandising

Cross merchandising is perhaps the easiest and least expensive way of increasing impulse purchases in store. This involves displaying related products next to each other, in order to prompt customers to buy an item that relates to the item that they initially wanted.

Make sure to place dump bins in high traffic areas, such as in the centre of aisles or next to popular products, not in corner of stores where not many people may notice them. A great example of how this works can be seen in a case study from Tesco.

In 1998, the supermarket noticed that a large proportion of people buying nappies were men [5], and it was believed that their partners had sent them out while they cared for the baby. Tesco then started to display beer and snacks alongside nappies, which resulted in an immediate increase in sales of these cross-merchandised products.

Window displays and in-store signage

There is compelling evidence that window displays, floor merchandising and promotional signage have a great impact on customers’ impulse buying behaviour, based on a Pearson correlation test [6]. Signage and visual displays play a huge role in directing customers’ attention towards your promotional products. Studies show that in store marketing works particularly well for younger, more educated, opportunistic consumers, as they are more willing to consider and choose brands that were brought to their attention because of in store marketing [7].

If you are a luxury store and large ‘SALE’ or ‘NEW’ signs are not quite suitable for your store window displays, then another way of enticing impulse buyers into your store is to present an aspirational image of your brand. This can be achieved using display plinths or cases to elevate your products, or large posters and signage.

Using seasonal products such as beauty gift sets or coats, which typically indicate the winter and festive period, tells customers subliminally that those items won’t be available for much longer. This evokes the same response in a customer, but without the need for overt promotional messages.

References