Real world shopping principles and your online shop

This article explores some of the selling principles that underpin modern supermarkets and department stores and offers online shop owners ten points for consideration:

1. Predict everything that you can about the lifestyles of your customers, using proven research methods. Establish the needs and desires associated with these lifestyles. From these needs and desires, understand which products your customers are likely to place in their shopping baskets, and when they are likely to do so.

2. Having made your predictions, stock your shop and establish procedures for tracking what your customers actually buy and when they buy. Analyse your predictions, in light of the actualities, regularly. Be flexible, learn from experience and be prepared to exchange stock that does not sell, for stock that does.

3. Sell everything that your customers actually buy, or are very likely to buy based on past experience, at the times they are likely to buy. This implies that the stock of your online shop will vary throughout the year, although there may well be a few year-round offers too.

4. Be aware that your customers will have differing spend capabilities. By all means offer top of the range products to the wealthy. However, you should also offer lower priced alternatives to middle income customers and bargain basement alternatives to the less well off. Provide simple yet effective ways for your customers to compare the relative merits of differently-priced alternatives.

5. Cater for the different age ranges of your customers. Meet your customers' needs and wants from cradle to grave. For example, you might offer young customers incentives in return for their loyalty. You will also offer virtual wheelchair ramps and resting seats to your less able and elderly customers.

6. Stimulate all of your customers' senses. This will require creativity and innovation on your part. Stimulating sight is fairly straightforward on the Internet, although you should keep colours muted. Sound is less common, but still possible. Keep any music slow paced. Taste, smell and touch stimulation are real challenges, although objective text descriptions can be effective. For those who need kinaesthetic sensory inputs, consider more subjective editor and end-user reviews.

7. It is thought that the majority of customers' purchasing decisions is sub-conscious. Therefore, display best-selling products alongside less attractive alternatives and associated items. In other words, put potential 'impulse purchases' in your customers' way, at the point of purchase. Make them reach past alternatives, add-ons and upgrades, in order to place best-selling products in their baskets.

8. Locate best sellers in the remoter corners of your shop. Make customers encounter other products that they may buy spontaneously, whilst they are on their way to the products they have come to buy deliberately. Never place best sellers on your home or landing pages, i.e. in the doorways of your shop. However, between your doorways and remoter corners, do dazzle customers with arresting, bright and colourful displays that also increase the value of the average shopping basket.

9. Keep the aisles of your online shop free from pallet-trucks etc. Do your shelf-filling and stock administration at night when there are fewer customers about. Give your shop a clean and uncluttered appearance during the day. Optimise customers' browsing experiences by using clear signs and sign posts. For customers who are in a hurry, provide an effective 'search and go' facility: an express check-out, if you will.

10. Advertise your online shop everywhere! Do your search engine optimisation, write articles and pay for clicks. Notify web directories of your shop's existence and establish reciprocal links too. Also, and this is very important, advertise your shop offline: in newspapers, with flyers, on local radio etc. Make your shop's name appear everywhere that your customers will be.

The next time that you shop in a successful supermarket or department store, switch your senses and brain on. Observe and analyse the tactics in use and try to replicate them in your online shop. I would be interested to know your findings.