Is your store an Olympic Venue? Do your customers have to jump through hoops, kneel, squat, reach and extend?
Shopping is supposed to be easy. In a world where baby boomers are fast approaching their 40s, 50s and 60s, their physical requirements have changed. I count myself as part of the boomers (albeit at the tail of the group, of course), and now find myself pushing an item a few inches away just to be able to read its label. When did lighting levels change? When did crouching down to look for my size become a symphony of grunts, cracks and groans? Did stores change the shelving unit levels and put them lower than ever, closer to the ground? What's with aisles? Did I become wider and thus now find it hard to navigate in between floor units? Or maybe, the stores narrowed their aisles? That's it!
Breathe in, stretch, stretch and breathe out. Now, forward fold. Good. A warm-up routine is almost necessary before any serious shopping. Aside from making it hard for me to find the item I am looking for, I marvel at the stores who make it harder for me to buy the item even if I found it. Considering that purchasing decisions are mostly made in-store, retailers must give careful thought to how they present their merchandise. Most people will pick items within eye and waist levels. The standard for merchandising products is for the small items to be within eye to arm level, medium items waist level and large items below this but at least a foot off the floor. However, when housing one product type, this will probably result with large items being left unsold. Therefore, why not put all 3 sizes in one shelf uniformly throughout the entire unit? That way, shoppers have the easy option of picking the size they want. For clothing, why not try placing large shirts on the top shelf and the small ones on the bottom instead of the other way around? Doesn't this make sense since large sized shoppers will find it harder to crouch instead of the smaller sized customer? Shop your store and see where you can make it easier for us.
DO
Left:
Shopping is easy
with a tilted bottom shelf at this Chapters store.
Middle:
Adequate lighting
levels at this Grand & Toy enables one to read labels with ease.
Right:
Nesting tables like
this one at the Fish Market make it easy for shoppers to pick
products up.
DON'T
Left:
Cramming boxes into
an already limited space asks for trouble.
Middle:
Who turned off the
lights?
Right:
Great scrapbooks.
Where are the trimmings? Please
Seriously
Left:
These boxes not only
make it hard to navigate the aisle, but also discourage
customers to shop the units.
Middle:
Merchandise appeal
is lost when there is not enough light to properly view the
items.
Right:
This unit looks top
heavy and unbalanced with the large bulky items on top and the
tiny items close to the floor- not to mention harder to shop.