STUDYING CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR IN RETAIL STORES

1 STUDYING CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR IN. RETAIL STORES . WILLIAM APPLEBAUM. Stop 6? Shop, Inc. TUDIES of CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR in re- is influenced by the needs and prefer- S tail STORES usually deal with (i) ences of the consumers for whom the identification of customers and (2) their products are purchased. As a dog owner buying BEHAVIOR patterns. The aim of 1 can testify that our Cocker influences such studies is to ascertain who buys her purchasing agents in the choice of where, what, when and how. In addition, brands of dog food. A devoted house- such studies endeavor to learn about wife will buy for her husband his favor- CUSTOMER response to sales promotion de-ite, extra-strong cheese, even though she vices.

2 The results of these studies are prefers not to subject her sensitive nos- useful in the solution of an array of trils to the penetrating, if not over- marketing problems. powering, bouquet. These studies are gaining importance Here, however, we are primarily con- in marketing research. It is safe to pre- cerned with customers' buying BEHAVIOR dict that interest in them will increase rather than with consumer preferences. greatly in the next decade. This paper The strict definition of CUSTOMER as pur- summarizes the writer's experience with chaser, valid as it may be, is sometimes such studies in grocery STORES .

3 ^ However, impractical because it is not always sim- the principles and techniques discussed ple to identify a purchaser in a store. here are also applicable to other types of A husband and wife shopping together RETAIL STORES . may represent two customers, or one The "why" of CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR is a CUSTOMER and one bundle carrier, and it separate and very difficult subject; it is is not always possible to tell which is not treated here. A knowledge of cus- which. A boy accompanying his mother tomer BEHAVIOR must precede any con- may influence decisions in selection and sideration of the reasons for the BEHAVIOR .

4 Purchase of several items, even if the youngster has no purchasing power of IDENTIFICATION OF CUSTOMERS his own. Therefore practically every The terms CUSTOMER and consumer person who enters a store is a potential are not synonymous. A CUSTOMER is a purchaser and represents a unit in the purchaser of a product or a service; a store's CUSTOMER traffic. consumer is a user of a product or a Identification of customers seeks to service. Bed-ridden invalids in hospitals ascertain who the customers are. It is not are food consumers but hardly food sufficient to study buying BEHAVIOR pat- store customers.

5 Purchasers of rat poison terns without knowing whose buying are not the consumers of the product. BEHAVIOR is involved. Hence it is neces- The buying BEHAVIOR of the CUSTOMER sary to identify the competition and origin of customers. ^ In so far as the author himself has developed or le- fined the ideas and techniques dealt with in this paper, Composition of Customers by far the major part of the pioneer research work was dene between 1932-38 vriiile IK wai in du: employ a(Tht This includes many characteristics, Kroger Company. 8uch as sex, age group, color, economic 172. STUDYING CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR IN RETAIL STORES 173.)

6 And educational status, occupation, re- Similarly a distinction should be made ligion, nationality origin, and so on. Both between buying habits and buying be- consumption and buying BEHAVIOR are havior patterns. Habit is a tendency affected by these characteristics; and toward an action which by repetition the relative significance of each of these has become spontaneous. A pattern is a characteristics varies greatly, depending design or type. Each CUSTOMER has his on the nature of the problem. The extent or her own buying habits. Buying be- to which any one or all of these CUSTOMER havior patterns represent the design of characteristics should be studied can be BEHAVIOR of a large number of customers.

7 Determined only on consideration of the A run on STORES to buy and hoard sugar, purpose for which the data are to be nylon stockings or toilet paper in re- used. In STUDYING CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR in sponse to a shortage scare or to proposed RETAIL STORES it is generally impractical rationing is not a buying habit; it is a or unnecessary to ascertain all of the manifestation of the imperfections in our CUSTOMER characteristics enumerated education, in our faith, and perhaps even here. in our frequently exalted way of life. To the retailer, such panicky CUSTOMER Origin of Customers BEHAVIOR is very annoying.

8 CUSTOMER buying habits or BEHAVIOR Where do a store's customers come patterns are not permanently fixed, and from? What is the geographic distribu- certainly not sacred, even though some tion of their homes and how far do they habits tenaciously resist change. Many travel to the store ? The answers to these factors are operating in combination to questions supply useful data on CUSTOMER change CUSTOMER food-buying BEHAVIOR origin, which in the sense used here is a patterns. Among these are the automo- composition characteristic. Origin tells bile, the super market and self-service, us whether the CUSTOMER is a large-city the progress in the development and apartment dweller, a suburbanite, a merchandising of frozen foods, prepared ruralite, a transient, and so on.

9 The food- flour mixes, brown-and-serve baked buying BEHAVIOR pattern of a CUSTOMER goods and concentrated fresh milk; the who lives in a congested apartment area increasing availability of suitable facili- of a large city is markedly different from ties in the CUSTOMER 's home for preserv- the rural CUSTOMER who has a large ing these and other highly perishable vegetable garden and a home freezer. raw and prepared foods; and the public's receptive disposition to easier and less CUSTOMER BUYING BEHAVIOR time-consuming ways of living. Similar PATTERNS and perhaps even more pronounced To buy is to purchase.

10 To shop is to changes are affecting CUSTOMER buying visit business establishments for inspec- BEHAVIOR patterns of non-food commodi- tion or purchase of goods. Therefore ties. shopping is an element of CUSTOMER be- CUSTOMER buying BEHAVIOR patterns havior in buying. A CUSTOMER placing an can be grouped in relation to: order over the telephone is buying, not 1. Place of Purchase shopping. For this reason it may be 2. Items Purchased desirable to standardize on the use of the 3. Time and Frequency of Purchase term buying rather than shopping when 4. Method of Purchase the totality of CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR is un- 5.