Intuitive Retail

Intuitive retail is rooted in human behavior. For it to be effective, it must fundamentally meet the expectations a person has created through life experience and deliver confidence, control, comfort and belonging.

Despite attempts to win consumers over with a positive and relevant brand experience, many brands and retailers are actually driving consumers away, confusing them, frustrating them, and creating indifference with too many product assortments, wrong messages, and irrelevant experiences. Why? Because brands and retailers fail to understand that today’s purchase decisions are not made by consumers or shoppers, but by complex individuals who often have deep and sometimes unexpected relationships with products and brands outside of the store, that are often overlooked or dismissed at retail. Intuitive retail is understanding, affecting, and reflecting behaviors.

The foundation of an intuitive retail experience is built with five building blocks:

1. Create confidence. Identify and remove the barriers that kill consumer confidence.
2. Provide control, Help the consumer navigate and understand, educate, and minimize choice.
3. Bring comfort. Put the consumer at ease. It makes them feel relaxed and less stressed.
4. Deliver belonging. Offer a sense of community for the consumer. Give back to the community or local organizations.
5. Meet high expectations. Think about the journey to purchase.

When applying the foundation of intuitive retail to a dynamic buying environment, it is important to focus on the behaviors of people, taking a holistic view of their lives. Determine high or low emotion, and involvement. Incorporating high emotions and high involvement creates rich associations for the consumer. When faced with uncomfortable realities, it is a good idea to incorporate comfortable elements. A good example is the Barnes & Noble “comfy” chair and in-store cafe. The uncomfortable reality: an enormous selection of merchandise, where the consumer can feel overwhelmed quite easily; solution: elements of comfort are introduced into the environment that create a relaxed atmosphere to facilitate browsing or “drifting,” creating a longer in-store consumer experience. Create rich, compact experiences to tap associations and connections.

A few seconds is not a very long time, but with intuitive retail, it’s all you need. The following recaps the keys to success for creating an intuitive retail experience:

Focus on the behaviors of people. Take a holistic view of their life.

Meet higher expectations. Think about the journey to purchase.

Affect or reflect behaviors. Determine high/low emotion and involvement.

Create rich, compact experiences. Tap associations and connections.

Create confidence. Eliminate confidence killers.

Offer control. Help mediate plenty.

Provide comfort. Put them at ease.

Deliver belonging. Offer a sense of community.

Source: Intuitive Retail: Brian Kristofek, Upshot