The Influence of Store Design on Average Ticket
Summing it up:
Physical retailers are well aware of the challenges of competing with e-commerce. But there’s one thing that online shopping can never replace: the in-store customer experience. Take, for example: touch, scent, lighting, people, and human interaction. But how do you know if your physical store is optimized and satisfying the customer who’s seeking a unique experience? Let’s break it down!
Average ticket and store design
A recent neuroscience study from Caltech proved that, during quick decision-making, visual impact has more influence on choices than consumer preferences. Therefore, the average ticket is heavily influenced by store design. In other words, increasing the visibility of a product along with strategic lighting draws more attention and, consequently, boosts sales.
A scientific look
Neuromarketing studies aim to expose the relationship between neuroscience and consumer behavior. They explain the logical side of profit increases as well as the emotional and impulsive reasons behind purchases. One of the main consensuses — not only in purchasing but in daily decisions — is that we aim to gain the most with the least energy expenditure, and we feel loss more intensely than we enjoy gain. These behaviors are controlled by our brain, and understanding it helps us connect store design with increased sales.
Because our brain focuses more on avoiding loss than achieving gain, many studies highlight that our decisions — especially shopping-related ones — are largely irrational. Research shows that 70% of purchase decisions are unplanned. Why? When we talk about irrationality or lack of logic, we’re referring to emotion. The stimuli used in sales directly impact our senses, influencing processes like emotion, memory, and motivation.
Here’s an example: some fast-food chains release scents to trigger disgust, encouraging customers not to linger. In contrast, retail stores like those selling clothes and perfumes use ambient music to stimulate the release of hormones that make us feel welcome and comfortable, encouraging us to stay. Other strategies involve visuals like colors and pricing to influence emotions and reduce the feeling of loss.
Today, various strategies are being applied using behavioral studies combined with neuromarketing. To support these, tools like electroencephalograms (to identify which brain areas respond to stimuli like images, sounds, and ads), eye tracking (to identify what grabs customer attention), and even salesperson profiling (to match seller types with customer types) are being used.
Data-driven strategy
As shown in the studies above, average ticket and store design go hand in hand. Take e-commerce as an example: since the early days, heatmaps have guided decisions about what should stay or be removed from websites. The average ticket is measured, the heatmap is reviewed, and changes are constantly made based on the layout that maximizes spending. This iterative process results in a website design optimized for conversions. This technique is known as data-driven decisions.
AlterVision takes all the above into account to deliver a new product. Our heatmap is designed to boost your average ticket. All your store’s security cameras are used to train our machine learning model. We build an optimization map for the retailer, identifying the most viewed products, busiest aisles, and key opportunities to enhance store layout and increase average ticket.
Tip:
Whenever hiring a new service for your store — such as software or consulting — calculate the ROI (Return on Investment). This lets you compare the cost of the product to the value it generates. For instance, evaluate whether investing in heatmap software leads to a higher average ticket after layout changes.
Source:
The Art of Influencing Consumer Choices: A Reflection on Recent Advances in Decision Neuroscience. Bault N, Rusconi E. Front Psychol. 2019; 10():3009.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6766676/pdf/CIN2019-1976847.pdf
