Photo: iStockPhoto / supersizer
Do Good Looks Matter in Retail Sales?
A university study finds livestream sellers receive a boost in consumer engagement if they are good-looking.
The study led by Australia’s Charles Darwin University explored the emotions, thoughts and behaviors of those watching livestream broadcasts on China’s Taobao platform.
Ninety percent of respondents were between 20 and 30 years old, with the vast majority watching streams for one-to-two hours per day. The more time respondents spent watching livestreaming services, the more they engaged with broadcasters and other viewers.
“The finding indicates that consumers appreciate the beauty and tend to focus their entire attention and interests on good-looking broadcasters because they are physically attractive and charming,” Charles Darwin University senior lecturer Ninh Nguyen said in a statement. “The physical attractiveness of broadcasters encourages consumers to devote more time and efforts to watching the livestreaming of good-looking broadcasters.”
Researchers said the findings are only relevant to livestreaming and similar forms of online selling.
Numerous studies have shown attractive individuals have an advantage in hiring, wages and career development across industries — a phenomenon referred to as the “beauty premium.” The studies often come with warnings about bias.
Less studied is whether better-looking store associates offer proven benefits to the retailer.
Studies from the University of Alberta in 2008 and the Stockholm School of Economics in 2009 showed that attractive service workers often positively impact customer satisfaction. The University of Alberta study identified “sex as a critical moderating variable in the realization of this positive contagion effect; the contact source and observing consumer must be of the opposite sex for positive contagion to occur.”
Some other studies have found that attractive store associates can intimidate certain shoppers, deterring purchases or engagement.
Research from the University of Dayton in 2019 found shoppers who see themselves as less good-looking feel more of a social distance from attractive sales associates. The researchers wrote, “Although contentious to some, our findings indicate that the recruitment of attractive representatives may be an effective business practice in service settings. However, managers should not regard consumers as a homogeneous group; self-perceived unattractive consumers may respond negatively to their service representative’s physical attractiveness.”
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Good looks drive consumer engagement, study finds (press release) — Phys.org
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Do consumers stick with good-looking broadcasters? — Journal of Business Research
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Physical attractiveness of the service worker — Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services/Stockholm School of Economics
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Positive Consumer Contagion: Responses to Attractive Others in a Retail Context — Journal of Marketing Research/University of Alberta
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Shoppers more likely to buy from attractive salespeople — phys.org/University of Alberta
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Is beauty a premium? — Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services/University of Dayton
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Attractive people don’t always get ahead at work, research shows — Fast Company
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Large study finds attractive employees receive more fringe benefits — Pyspost
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Swedish employers want good-looking staff: study — Harvard Business Review
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Looking good: You're hired, study shows — UPI
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Are shoppers more likely to engage and buy from attractive livestreaming hosts and in-store associates? What advice would you have for retailers on weighing looks into the hiring process for any customer-facing job?
Poll
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Aspirational selling has never not worked. Whether it’s people or cars or lawnmowers, people aspire to wear, look like or even drive the best. Yes, human nature prevails, good looks (in anything) win.
I swear universities are running out of things to study. All the positive buzz about diversity and what’s real and we’re still talking about the importance of being physically attractive. Make it stop.
I disagree with this study. I know plenty of retailers who are killing it on Facebook Live every day who look like you and me. Real people. No heavy makeup or designer clothing, just a pure love of product and a connection with customers that’s based on common interests, not appearance.
I really believe that given the choice consumers would prefer someone who knows their product and is friendly and helpful to one who is attractive. I am struggling to believe we are even discussing this. It is surely time to move on.
This looks like a question for psychologists.
I am one and trust me–we don’t really understand the human heart any more than anyone else. We just use long words to pretend we do.
Is it ironic that CHARLES DARWIN University conducted this study?
I don’t disagree with the study at all. After all, we are a celebrity culture. Observationally, young women in China are considerably more conscience of attractiveness than American women. We must consider the projectability of an American retailer to make hiring decisions.
That said, attractiveness is a factor in the equation that starts with the first contact with the hiring company. It is ingrained and difficult for people to ignore consciously. But they must try. The judgment should weigh far beyond looks if one wants the best salespeople.
It’s funny how many of us resent these kinds of findings and yet have experienced this phenomenon in our own lives. I think there was once a study about babies being naturally attracted to beautiful faces. Thankfully, I make babies laugh so I’ve got that going for me. Ironically, this appears to be the one case where retailers shouldn’t use data and I would advise retailers to exercise great caution around this hornet’s nest and, as always, hire the best people for the job (confident, knowledgeable, personable, friendly, etc.).
Customers respond more to sales associates they can relate to rather than admire. Personality is the critical factor for best engagement, which doesn’t always reside with the best looking. An average looking person with an engaging personality will boost sales far more than any supermodel.
How much of the attraction is built into our genetic memory and how much of it is culturally-ingrained? I’d imagine a good deal is the latter, and we know that people can adapt to changes in cultural norms. The movement to be more inclusive of plus-sized models is a good example. Ideals of beauty are fungible, so perhaps that offers hope that retailers can confidently diversify their hiring and focus more on inner beauty over superficial beauty.
There are so many things that are wrong with this study. One, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Two, attractiveness has many different attributes and facets that go beyond looks. Three, a good personality has a better chance of selling than a bad one: that is obvious and not groundbreaking. Four, other things are far more important: like having the right product and price. Five, for years Victoria’s Secret used models regarded by some as the “picture of perfection”: their business lost market share hand over fist and is still trying to recover.
I think knowledge over good looks is more appealing. If you gave me a choice of heart surgeons, and one was good-looking and the other smart, I’m going with the smart one. Nothing against good looks! That said, when it comes to advertising and marketing, the model’s look is important. However good looks don’t just apply to physical attributes. It’s how the host or employee puts themselves together.
First, this is 2023. Second there is a huge difference between the visual impact of livestreaming “hosts” and in-store standing-in-front-of-you associates. Most viewers do not expect TV hosts, etc. to look like them — though that is relevant when it comes to diversity. But when it comes to real-life connections things are different. My wife modeled from the age of five to 45 up in Canada. Now at 75 she’s getting back into modeling here in Arizona because there is a demand for senior models who look like senior customers. Strangely, they don’t call them “seniors,” they are “lifestyle” models. More strangely, many agencies still ask females for measurements. Georganne is absolutely right — Make it stop! There is still an old-school aversion to reality I guess.
At a photo shoot the other day there were still the 20-somethings wearing a size two and weighing 100 pounds and they were beautiful and likely very successful. But the energy was different, warmer, more engaging when the older models were up. It was more fun and there was more conversation even from the young. Both categories are perfect for their purpose.
I suggest that beauty is in the heart and mind of those who are being beheld. Beholders often get it wrong. It made me sad to read the phrase “self-perceived unattractive consumers.” The only purpose of ALL retail is to help EVERY customer become more fully themselves. They are all children of God and it doesn’t get any more beautiful than that.
This is just wrong. I know a lot of associates that do livestreams or sell product in a customer-facing capacity and they are not runway models. They hold their own in selling their products.
I suspect the answer here is ‘yes’ – how can it not be? – nevertheless I have a hard time squaring this question with the (seemingly almost daily) preaching about fairness and the various inequities society inflicts upon its members; could there possibly be anything worse than some subjective screening for “good looking”?? So which is it: do we want a world based on objective standards of performance or shallow discrimination?? (Frankly this question sounds like something I would have expected in the 1920’s, not the 2020’s)
I suppose its OK for consumer scientists to study human response to physical beauty in the retail setting, but the hypotheses could be heavily laden with cultural bias.
In a store setting it may be important for associates to reflect the values of the brand meaning, “dress the part” and behave professionally. But that should have nothing to do with attributes like body type or subjective physical beauty. In fact, diversity in those traits might actually be an advantage if they let shoppers feel more included.
In the context of influencer marketing or live-streaming, where the goal is to accrue large audiences, the proof is in the “likes” and “follows.”
When it comes to looks, a smile and body language says a lot more than overall physical appearance.
I love the following quote: “People will not remember what you say or what you do but will always remember how you make them feel.”
A risk here would be correlating this kind of engagement back to financial outcomes, or taking it out of cultural context.
Traffic isn’t created equal. Taobao is so ubiquitous that many of the streams are almost more equivalent to scaled media than a commerce channel, so it’s like asking if people pause and watch “more attractive” people on when flipping through television channels.
Conversely, we’ve seen the most success in commerce outcomes in brand web, social and influencer content in the west that’s 1) more unscripted and spontaneous, and 2) feels personally relevant (aka, someone who has my same use cases and considerations). Several years ago a pendulum swung away from perfection (Millennials) to authenticity (Gen-Z), and it’s a been a cross-generational shift in many social platforms where you can literally draw a direct line of attribution between different variants of content (for instance, testimonials on a new beauty product from “people who look like me” vs. celebrities) and show better outcomes the less “polished” it feels.