Big is better in most cases

Store walks – known in industry parlance as “thinking standing up” – always trigger a theme based on your observations or feelings from the first few stores. If one of the first things you experience is an impactful display that flows out of a store and draws you in, then find yourself comparing the impact and nature of displays for the next few stores.

Today, and for many days over the next eight weeks, retailers, manufacturers and I will spend time walking stores. Stores in shopping malls, stores in strip malls, stores on high streets, stores in train stations and airports, and car, bike and boat dealerships.

As we run into the Western world’s annual highest spending period, we are able to see inspired retailing and fantastic new “must-have” products, side-by-side with appalling retailing and appalling new products that will most certainly stay around for the New Year sales and in a decade will be brought out again as kitsch collector’s items!

I am not going to “name and shame” the worst examples, even though I was challenged by a journalist two weeks ago for not being hard on the “culprits” when I write. I do this because my mum told me “if you haven’t got anything nice to say then don’t say it at all”. Secondly because, poor retailing is rewarded with poor sales, and thirdly because we are all so time poor, the mantra is “just tell me the good stuff so I can learn from it!”

So I started my walks in a suburban shopping mall, one of the top 10 in Australia, and walked into a liquor store. Great layout, powerful merchandising, with lots of offers. However, I was after a small number of premium wines that I need as gifts at Christmas, so wanted to check out the range and compare prices.

Great range on the top shelf, but no pricing shown. So almost three linear meters of premium wines, Katnook to Henschke, Eileen Hardy to Penfolds, and not a single price on the shelf or the product. So I walked on.

As shoppers we are comfortable seeking advice on products from retail store staff, but we very rarely ask for pricing. Why? There are three reasons. The first is that in the Western world we just expect the price to be shown – we aren’t in a bazaar on holiday, we’re in a mainstream retail store in Oz. Second, if we have to ask, it invariably takes the poor retailer several minutes to dig around for a price book, or we have to stand in the queue for the item to be scanned, and that takes time. Thirdly, we might be unpleasantly surprised and have to put the item back, and that really does dent our ego!

So as I entered my second store, a grocery store, my mind was on pricing, and over the next 20 store visits, across national brands and owner-operator independent stores, I couldn’t help but look at pricing.

Pricing, done well, creates a level clarity in the minds of shopper and within the overall emotional purchase process that very few other communication pieces can achieve. We inherently “get” what good value looks like. Not “cheap”, but good value. Efficacy and quality at a fair price. If I want cheap as a shopper then I have to compromise on something… how long it will last, how good it will look, taste, start, do the job it’s intended for.

Today in that particular mall, the “best in-store pricing” was a draw between Kmart and Target.

What an incredible turn around Kmart has made in the past several months. The chain will nail Christmas 2009 as this will be the first one in years where it has had a clear shopper offer across the store. Big, bold, RED full dollar pricing – big, clear and compelling. The most compelling item was an end aisle display with depth of stock showing a Dunlop golf set for $100. “I know what I am buying, I know how much it costs, and I see it from 50 metres away!” It will walk out the door as the “big Christmas present” displayed and priced like that.

At Target, the value was communicated by the big, bold, full dollar pricing for an item that simply shouted “$34 save $35.” The “how much I save” figure was more than the “how much I pay” figure! No percentages, no mental calculations, just telling it the way it is. Love it.

At the other end of the scale, the worst was in an independent clothing store, with the confused message “buy one, get 50% off a second item.” Unless this is a destination store or I am a regular shopper I am none the wiser as to how much I may spend or save in that store.
Now clothing retailing can be claimed different to other types of retailing, but I would disagree when 80 meters further up the mall was a Jeans West store with large, clear pricing for single item and multiple item purchases.

In between were some great examples of pricing in the retail environment. Myer has clean, fresh, big single dollar pricing. Specsavers did big, clear “from $199” and Smiggle had big, full dollar followed by tiny “.95c” which seems to work for their shoppers. Oh, and proof that experiential “test, taste, try” can exist even in stationery stores: a little note pad near the pens saying “try me out.”

Today was a good indication of the planning and ideas that have been formed by retailers and manufactures over the past several months now coming alive in the run up to Christmas.

In his role as CEO of CROSSMARK, Kevin Moore looks at the world of retailing from grocery to pharmacy, bottle shops to car dealers, corner store to department stores. In this insightful blog, Kevin covers retail news, ideas, companies and emerging opportunities in Australia, NZ, the US and Europe. His international career in sales and marketing has seen him responsible for business in over 40 countries, which has earned him grey hair and a wealth of expertise in international retailers and brands. CROSSMARK Asia Pacific is Australasia’s largest provider of retail marketing services, consulting to and servicing some of Australasia’s biggest retailers and manufacturers.

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