Most retailers believe that more is better because customers want choice.  However the work of researchers Sheena Iyengar and Kanika Agrawal suggest the exact opposite.  In an article for Strategy + Business magazine entitled, “A Better Choosing Experience” Iyengar and Agrawal detail their observation of consumers who are consistently overwhelmed by too much choice.  According to them, “there are neurological limits on humans’ ability to process information, and the task of having to choose is often experienced as suffering, not pleasure.”

“Choice overload,” as they call it, occurs when shoppers become frustrated with trying to compare and contrast a variety of products, particularly more than seven.  As a result, shoppers will either choose the thing with which they are most familiar or choose nothing at all.  In an analysis of 401(k) plan participation for one company, researchers found that when presented with only two fund choices, 75 percent of eligible employees participated.  The rate of participation dropped to 61 percent when plan offerings were increased to 59 choices.

Iyengar and Agrawal suggest four solutions to the problem of choice overload:

• Cut the number of options.
• Offer expert or personalized recommendations.
• Categorize product offerings
• Condition consumers by gradually introducing complex choices.

The article gives excellent examples of how retailers and manufacturers have employed one or all of these tools to help customers overcome choice overload and ultimately increase sales.  A worthy read with surprising insight into the shopper mind.

Although the next generation doesn’t place a high premium on privacy, they also don’t appreciate feeling violated by marketer invasions.  Global Retail Executive posted an interesting perspective by one of their millennial employees.  On the issue of privacy, he noted that millennials do have some boundaries that must be respected.

“Don’t bombard us with emails. Don’t call us (Domino’s Pizza started calling me with offers a few years ago after I ordered a pizza from them – Guess what? That was the last pizza I bought from Domino’s). And, for God’s sake, DO NOT text us advertisements if we didn’t ask for it. It comes across as invasive and needy, and we will avoid you out of spite.”

This is an important distinction that marketers have to grapple with as they begin to consider and employ technology. Anything that has a ‘big-brother’ feel to it is likely to be rejected.  And if something like that is integrated into the entire store experience, that means shoppers could reject visiting your store altogether. 

For instance, consider walking into a store and based on a remote scan of your face and body, which can detect things like age, weight, race, etc, media in the store start to push ads targeted at you as you walk by. Or what about neuroscience?  Last year we posted about marketers developing technology that can perceive your brain activity and market to you based on that. 

All of these things sound super cool.  But as technology evolves, we’re finding that there’s a thin line between cool and creepy (think robot dogs). Understanding the intended shopper and their nuanced use of technology is critical to its successful activation in the retail environment.

In March of this year, Arc Worldwide conducted a survey of shoppers examining how they connect social media and shopping.  They found that at this point social media is more of a pre-shopping device.  It influences brand perception and provides product information from trusted peers before the shopper gets to the retail outlet. However, social media is slowly making it’s way into the store.  Manufacturers and retailers are already experimenting with shopping assisted by smartphones.  Wall Street Journal reports that Best Buy will be employing the Shopkick app this summer which pushes advertisements through to shoppers’ phones while they’re in the store.  “With the Shopkick app, the retailer will know who individual shoppers are and can communicate, ‘when you need it, and how you want it,’ says Rick Rommel, Best Buy’s senior vice president of new business.’ Mobile retail is evolving in the US but has yet to catch up with Japan who has been out front with what they’ve coined ‘m-commerce.’

PSFK reports on multitouch displays that resemble Wolf Blitzer’s touch screen wall panels.  These life-sized screens would allow “groups of people to simultaneously engage.”  Shoppers could pull up product opinions  and information without having to talk to a sales associate. Future Of Retail: Massive Multitouch Displays – PSFK.

Instore Marketing Institute has reported on many of the technologies being explored to integrate social media and retail.  The implications are vast and growing as technology begins to catch up.

Did you know that 22% of adults have trouble reading?  How many of them are your customers? If the majority of your customers are seniors, are your in-store graphics designed to consider their aging eyes?  Do your aisles accommodate mobility devices?  Does your competitor?

Data is key.  Good shopper data drives good strategy which drives creativity which drives traffic that drives sales.  The explosion of information gathering and the easy availability of that information has raised the bar in how retailers are adapting to meet the needs of their customers.  As a result it has also raised the expectations of the shopper.  They know that you should know what they want.  Do you?

Through a network of desktops, laptops, monitors and televisions throughout the store, shoppers can research information on products just as if they were at their home or office computer.

 Comp USA has opened 32 stores featuring the Retail 2.0 shopping environment.

It may seem counter intuitive to provide shoppers with this much information in the store because you typically you want to be your shopper’s primary source of information and you don’t want them to compare and possibly see a better price elsewhere.  However, shoppers are doing this anyway before they get to the store.  Many come equipped with their Internet research in hand. So the idea is, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.  What has been coined as social retailing is about something very different from traditional retail.

The presentation below designed by Mobminds is a primer on the social retailing trend and why it might be important to your store.