Editor's
Letter
How Customers Shop
Inside this issue of EB, we address several subjects designed to help you grow the premium portion of your business.
But, according to retail experts, where you place key goods--like high-end eyewear--is nearly as important as the inventory itself.
It's all about understanding how consumers shop, and our Marketing Matters author Murray Raphel offers a few tips on just that:
Counterclockwise. Most people walk counterclockwise in a store. According to "How People Shop", a study by in-store research pioneers Sorensen Associates of Minneapolis, it's part of the herding instinct--elephants, for instance, move counterclockwise in search of water. As a result, says Raphel, "don't build your entrance on the left side if you want to encourage longer visits."
Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy, concurs: "Americans shop to the right, so the front right is where the most important goods should go."
25 percent rule. The average consumer, says Raphel, only walks one quarter of a shop. Much of the rest can, if not properly positioned, be dead space for sales.
Feng whoey? According to the ancient Chinese philosophy Feng Shui, reports Raphel, "Having a straight-through view to the back of your store makes incoming energy quickly dissipate." And, having too many angles makes the "chi" (energy) boomerang, causing lack of focus.
Speaking of focus, we hope this issue will give you some fresh insights into making the high end work for you.
Sincerely,
Stephanie K. De Long
Editor-in-Chief
P.S. We're pleased to welcome Karlen Cole to the EB family as senior editor. Karlen (see p. 18) will be covering spectacle and contact lenses, equipment, and labs for us. She comes to us from Jobson Publishing. We're also happy that Joe Bruneni, an important part of EB for more than a decade, will, along with daughter Martine Breheny, continue his signature Ask the Labs column.