January 7, 2013
Retail Customer Experience: The Right Way To Do In-Queue Merchandising
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is an excerpt of a current article from Retail Customer Experience, a daily news portal devoted to helping retailers differentiate the shopping experience.
Wrongly perceived as a necessary evil, the often "lost" space and time of a checkout line can easily be transformed into both an important revenue source and a happy diversion.
If customers are distracted as they wait, the perception of how long they wait decreases and their overall satisfaction then increases. Coupled with the fact that 65 percent of retail sales are driven by impulse shopping, the line at checkout can be transformed from just another frustrating wait, into a source of increased customer ease and sales.
Planning in-queue merchandising:
Determine your space and formation: The lanes need to be wide enough to accommodate people, merchandise and carts. The type and amount of your merchandise will obviously vary, depending on a single-line or multiple-line queue setup, as well as your queue’s width and structure.
Combine belts and merchandise racks: When selecting one of the many fixtures, merging the typical checkout line belts and stanchions with merchandising is highly effective and spatially efficient.
Use merchandising displays: From impulse bowls attached right on the stanchions, to signage, display walls, racks, in-line tables, and hooks and shelves, the options are many and scalable to better present your selection of products.
Mark an entrance: Standard post-top signage and a belted stanchion marks the recognized entrance to the waiting line.
Make it scalable: Make ebb and flow organic, using retractable belts with merchandise also available on the shorter lines.
Employ in-queue signage: Help draw immediate attention to products while providing direction to those in the line. Digital signage is especially effective, keeping customers more engaged and entertained while more effectively promoting products on display.
Pitfalls to avoid:
Overdoing it: Whether piling merchandise too high or pinching customers with a line narrowed by too much "stuff," it’s a fine line that takes some experimentation to find, but one that you don’t want to cross.
Neglecting the shortcut: During slower periods and shorter queues, make sure the merchandise is in the line, regardless of its length.
Overlooking the clue to the queue: It can look less like a line with merchandising in place. A belted stanchion and a post-top sign universally say, "Line forms here."
The important thing to remember is that people want to be entertained, and they want to spend money. While you’ve got them in line is a perfect time to do both.
BrainTrust
Recent Discussions
Discussion Questions
What are some common and more adventurous strategies for maximizing sales in the checkout line? What are some signs of overdoing it?
Poll
I think the key is having merchandise that doesn’t require the angel on one shoulder and devil on the other to battle inside the shoppers head. Also, a common mistake is showing in-store video of recipes that, if a shopper liked, would have to leave the line to purchase the ingredients.
Make it tactile, make it easy and make it simple to get results.
To a very large degree, the answer to these questions depends on the retail vertical. What works in apparel and GM may not work in grocery. As Bob mentions, it would likely be frustrating for a grocery shopper to hear about a special when she’s already in line. A shopper at a clothing store might think otherwise. Training is the critical element for successful sales at checkout across retail. Associates have to know when to get shoppers through the lines quickly, when to try and upsell and when to cross merchandise (and when not to do all these things).
I also like Bob’s adage about keeping it simple. Stew Leonard’s does a great job with this, sticking to products that help the checkout process (recyclable bags), small gifts, things that can be eaten on the way home, and similar items.
I am an expert in this area—as a shopper. With my retail addiction and being the family shopper, I stand in line looking at the items for sale around me and think “what if they did a basket analysis of the type/style of shopper using this lane?” Seems most shoppers—on the food side—like certain lanes. So what are some common traits that they have? How could you re-merchandise those lanes? Are the products maintaining a desired turn rate?
Think “each shopper is my only shopper” and maybe the merch in the lanes will move faster?
Tom…always in line….
Dechert-Hampe has done extensive studies of the checkout and defined some of the best practices as part of the Front-End Focus initiative.
The checkout has a huge impact on the overall shopper experience and satisfaction with the store. A slow or difficult checkout experience can undo an otherwise great shopping trip.
Impulse sales at the checkout often represent 1% or more of total store sales and rival whole departments in profit. Retailers need to recognize the value of the Front-End to store sales & profits and manage the Front-End as a department with a dedicated manager.
Products merchandised at the checkout should be driven by consumer buying behavior. Select items with high penetration, high frequency & impulse appeal.
Focus should be on the power categories that represent 75-80% of Front-end sales and profits: Confectionery, Magazines & Beverages.
Consumers tend not to shop across the lanes so it is important to have the best sellers available on every lane.
Retailers need to recognize the issues and opportunities presented by new technology such as self-checkout and mobile payments. Impulse merchandising methods need to be redesigned to address these shopping patterns.
Done right, the checkout offers retailers an opportunity to generate significant incremental sales and profits. Done poorly, it can ruin the shopper experience and damage the relationship.
In food service, overhead displays aka “the silent sellers” works quite well. It allows the restaurant to upsell the customer and helps with speed of service as cashiers no longer have to ask the customer “Do you want X with that?” And as the article mention, do it but don’t over do it. There can be too much of a good thing!
The conventional wisdom is to merchandise checkout with items that satisfy an immediate need, especially around beverages and snacks. However, with many governmental bodies putting pressure on the food industry to offer more “better for you” products, some progressive retailers are voluntarily placing more healthy items at checkout in order to get ahead of potential regs and to mitigate government mandates.
This idea of merchandising goes counter to the consumer-centric strategies that have been evolving over the last 20 years. It will be interesting to see the shopper response and impact to retailer checkout sales.
I think the grocery world could learn something from the apparel/non-food merchandising strategies that are in place. First of all, I have seen only a few single line queues in grocery, and I see them working very well. Beyond that, a close watch on the item movement of each SKU in the queue needs to be leveraged to keep the assortment fresh. Too many products collect dust. Take the emotion out of the selection, and drive item velocity.
I think the best thing supermarkets could do to create a better experience in the checkout line is to create “themed lines.” The “No Candy” line for parents trying to avoid the nuisance with children. Perhaps a “hardware line” that is dedicated to batteries, flashlights, small tools, etc. A “sewing line” that includes sewing tools and materials. Once customers realize the themes, they can line up in a line that meets their needs.
You will never be able to eliminate lines all together at a reasonable cost. By making them useful, you lessen the negative effect of lines. But it is also important that the distractions in the line don’t prevent a customer from unloading their cart or keeping the line moving. This could aggravate the customer next in the line.
Finally, although it is not economical today, the ubiquitous expansion of RFID will make non-line-of-sight checkout systems able to ring up full orders without unloading a cart. Then, the bottle neck will become getting the groceries into the car and house. Perhaps the answer will be shopping carts that consist of multiple baskets the customer can load into their car, carry into the house, and return on their next visit.
I like the single queue that snakes through many categories of impulse items. This works well to corral the customers, distract them from the wait, and offer RELEVANT impulse items. Think iPhone cases and batteries, or game controllers at Best Buy, then kookie pens with the animal heads on top at Staples.
Best Buy is using the single queue effectively during busy periods, but doesn’t do a good job with the short cut!
I find it interesting that an earlier comment mentions Stew Leonard’s. Because of their unique retail layout (with essentially one long winding aisle snaking around the entire store) you could almost think of the entire store as in-queue merchandising….
The retail store that I frequently visit with family, tries to maximize impulse purchase at point-of-sale by stocking items often purchased on impulse. One area of improvement can be that stocking huge piles of one item does not make sense. The retailer should adopt the strategy of putting small quantities of goods from different categories on display, attracting attention from point-of-sale queue. These need to be replenished as soon as sold, regularly.
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I think the key is having merchandise that doesn’t require the angel on one shoulder and devil on the other to battle inside the shoppers head. Also, a common mistake is showing in-store video of recipes that, if a shopper liked, would have to leave the line to purchase the ingredients.
Make it tactile, make it easy and make it simple to get results.
To a very large degree, the answer to these questions depends on the retail vertical. What works in apparel and GM may not work in grocery. As Bob mentions, it would likely be frustrating for a grocery shopper to hear about a special when she’s already in line. A shopper at a clothing store might think otherwise. Training is the critical element for successful sales at checkout across retail. Associates have to know when to get shoppers through the lines quickly, when to try and upsell and when to cross merchandise (and when not to do all these things).
I also like Bob’s adage about keeping it simple. Stew Leonard’s does a great job with this, sticking to products that help the checkout process (recyclable bags), small gifts, things that can be eaten on the way home, and similar items.
I am an expert in this area—as a shopper. With my retail addiction and being the family shopper, I stand in line looking at the items for sale around me and think “what if they did a basket analysis of the type/style of shopper using this lane?” Seems most shoppers—on the food side—like certain lanes. So what are some common traits that they have? How could you re-merchandise those lanes? Are the products maintaining a desired turn rate?
Think “each shopper is my only shopper” and maybe the merch in the lanes will move faster?
Tom…always in line….
Dechert-Hampe has done extensive studies of the checkout and defined some of the best practices as part of the Front-End Focus initiative.
The checkout has a huge impact on the overall shopper experience and satisfaction with the store. A slow or difficult checkout experience can undo an otherwise great shopping trip.
Impulse sales at the checkout often represent 1% or more of total store sales and rival whole departments in profit. Retailers need to recognize the value of the Front-End to store sales & profits and manage the Front-End as a department with a dedicated manager.
Products merchandised at the checkout should be driven by consumer buying behavior. Select items with high penetration, high frequency & impulse appeal.
Focus should be on the power categories that represent 75-80% of Front-end sales and profits: Confectionery, Magazines & Beverages.
Consumers tend not to shop across the lanes so it is important to have the best sellers available on every lane.
Retailers need to recognize the issues and opportunities presented by new technology such as self-checkout and mobile payments. Impulse merchandising methods need to be redesigned to address these shopping patterns.
Done right, the checkout offers retailers an opportunity to generate significant incremental sales and profits. Done poorly, it can ruin the shopper experience and damage the relationship.
In food service, overhead displays aka “the silent sellers” works quite well. It allows the restaurant to upsell the customer and helps with speed of service as cashiers no longer have to ask the customer “Do you want X with that?” And as the article mention, do it but don’t over do it. There can be too much of a good thing!
The conventional wisdom is to merchandise checkout with items that satisfy an immediate need, especially around beverages and snacks. However, with many governmental bodies putting pressure on the food industry to offer more “better for you” products, some progressive retailers are voluntarily placing more healthy items at checkout in order to get ahead of potential regs and to mitigate government mandates.
This idea of merchandising goes counter to the consumer-centric strategies that have been evolving over the last 20 years. It will be interesting to see the shopper response and impact to retailer checkout sales.
I think the grocery world could learn something from the apparel/non-food merchandising strategies that are in place. First of all, I have seen only a few single line queues in grocery, and I see them working very well. Beyond that, a close watch on the item movement of each SKU in the queue needs to be leveraged to keep the assortment fresh. Too many products collect dust. Take the emotion out of the selection, and drive item velocity.
I think the best thing supermarkets could do to create a better experience in the checkout line is to create “themed lines.” The “No Candy” line for parents trying to avoid the nuisance with children. Perhaps a “hardware line” that is dedicated to batteries, flashlights, small tools, etc. A “sewing line” that includes sewing tools and materials. Once customers realize the themes, they can line up in a line that meets their needs.
You will never be able to eliminate lines all together at a reasonable cost. By making them useful, you lessen the negative effect of lines. But it is also important that the distractions in the line don’t prevent a customer from unloading their cart or keeping the line moving. This could aggravate the customer next in the line.
Finally, although it is not economical today, the ubiquitous expansion of RFID will make non-line-of-sight checkout systems able to ring up full orders without unloading a cart. Then, the bottle neck will become getting the groceries into the car and house. Perhaps the answer will be shopping carts that consist of multiple baskets the customer can load into their car, carry into the house, and return on their next visit.
I like the single queue that snakes through many categories of impulse items. This works well to corral the customers, distract them from the wait, and offer RELEVANT impulse items. Think iPhone cases and batteries, or game controllers at Best Buy, then kookie pens with the animal heads on top at Staples.
Best Buy is using the single queue effectively during busy periods, but doesn’t do a good job with the short cut!
I find it interesting that an earlier comment mentions Stew Leonard’s. Because of their unique retail layout (with essentially one long winding aisle snaking around the entire store) you could almost think of the entire store as in-queue merchandising….
The retail store that I frequently visit with family, tries to maximize impulse purchase at point-of-sale by stocking items often purchased on impulse. One area of improvement can be that stocking huge piles of one item does not make sense. The retailer should adopt the strategy of putting small quantities of goods from different categories on display, attracting attention from point-of-sale queue. These need to be replenished as soon as sold, regularly.