Why We Buy

Underhall P. (2000) Why we Buy, Simon & Schuster. New York, America

This text written by Underhall is the result of a very long and detailed investigation to consumer shopping behavior. The authors research is still under going with a large team of employee's. Training videos and sessions for companies have also been an outcome of his research along with this book.

Some topics covered in this book are:

The transition period, this is how long it take the consumer to react to there surrounding from being outside and coming into a shop and being on 'Shopping Mode'. For example if a lady walks into a shop from a sunny day it takes her two meters of walking into the store putting her sun glasses away take off her jacket, before she ever thinking about shopping, by this time she has properly walked past a lot of products. Putting a mirror in place slows people down while walking or starting your displays a little further back from the door entrance could be more profitable as the customer has not walked past the display within the transition period.

Ergonomics of shopping, this is how the build of the human body should be considered when designing the store for example are the shelfs to high? What is in your sight line? Do you have another space to move around?

Below is a section of a mind map i have produced while reading the text.