Whats on the mind of the retail consumer !

Its said that in all marketing driven domains ,understanding the mind of the consumer is the key , its easier said than done, as the classic cliche goes no two human beings are the same , but the blogs guess is that consumers can be identified as 80 % same in terms of their wants and needs , lets keep the balance 20 % misfits out of the discussion set . So what do the 80 % consumer want in his / her shopping which should be useful for the retailers .

i ) My kind of stuff : Consumers don't know what is the science behind the retailers mix planning etc , however the consumers expect that the Merchandise mix in the store is the kind that he /she needs plus does it drive an impulse decision ! a lot of shopping decisions are taken by consumers ,without a plan in mind so the retailers ability to have the right mix is the key in driving items into the shopping bags , if its a planned shopping from the consumer side , then not finding what you wanted is a disaster in the making which is termed as the mind 1 shelf 0 phenomenon ,( on the mind of the consumer but not on the shelf ) see the earlier article mind 1 shelf 0 in this blog .

ii) Don't want to wait : Consumer mind normally gets agitated and is in a state of expectations and is usually a bit lost when shopping especially in a heavy traffic store , there is nothing called as relaxed shopping !in that state the consumers just don't want to wait ! for instance after buying a pair of trousers , after 20- 25 m of trial room drama ,imagine the feeling of being told that it would take 2 hrs for alterations , one might just give up the idea of buying the trouser ! consumers don't want to wait ! fast service is a BIG need ! the same holds good for the cash counter , which is a known bottle neck there are others too !

iii) Ease of finding what is where and placed where in the store helps a lot in finding the required merchandise , easily a lot of well lit signages and VM led displays do help ease the pain .Ease of finding merchandise is directly correlatable to conversion rates !

iv)Get surprised ! consumers these days are seeking offers that give them huge value , say buy 1 get 2 free deals , combo deals are always a hit and when consumers realise that the store is a full of surprises in terms of deals or in terms of merchandise ,consumer would start loving you !

Some of the thoughts are known , guess most retailers are still not doing enough in getting there act right in some areas , say when consumers don't want to wait , is there a customer service differentiator that is available to be used by a slight increase of costs by delivering shorter waiting time and use the customer experience to get more in , through the Word of mouth medium ? but is this happening !