Place a chair, show you care

This is my article that appeared on The Hindu Retail Plus, Feb 22 2009.

Place a chair, show you care!

How many times have you gone shopping and longed for a chair to rest, to catch your breath? How many times have you been forced to abandon the shopping spree ‘coz your husband got bored of standing? Or how many times you did not check out that lingerie aisle because it was filled with waiting men? Sounds familiar?

While retailers try everything to attract customers to their stores, their efforts would be a success only if the customers stay long enough to buy and are comfortable to be able to come back. Most shopping be it grocery or apparel is done by women. By the word woman understand it means strollers, children and husbands irritated in the sheer waste of time shopping rather than watch the latest match on TV. If you don’t give them a space to sit, your precious customers- the woman will be forced to make a hasty dash to grab what she came for and the rest of the sales that generally happens if allow her to look through will be permanently stored in your inventory.

Now try and place that all important chair towards the end of the woman’s clothing aisle, just before the Men’s range begins and trying placing the socks and ties near the seating range. Whoa! Be ready to order more merchandise to stock up your ties and socks inventory.

The chair in a store – a structure so totally unrecognized can make such a difference to your sales. Imagine a spa; men and woman alike come to relax and unwind under the trained hands of the beautician. Placing chairs in a common room with noisy television would spoil the whole purpose of having a spa. Here you need individual seating or reclining units with complete privacy. The same when in a fast food joint the more-the-merrier culture would want clustered seating.

In a bookstore we often would want to read the preface and chapters before a purchase. A few carefully placed chairs would be a huge welcome rather than reading while juggling with the other books and standing in narrow aisles constantly brushing with other customers.

Of course while talking of seating the most important factor is where the chairs are placed. Many a times wrongly placed seating can prove very detrimental to your sales. Imagine a group of waiting men in the apparel store sitting near the lingerie section. Need it be said women will be reluctant to buy from that section in your store? In fact chairs placed near the business section in a bookstore may foster sales as it gives a sense of pride to be seen buying the jargons of today’s business world, but be careful while placing chairs near the books for common ailments or sexual books… these are sensitive areas and most people would want to shop in private.

So retailers place that chair!