The layout of the supermarket is set out from a market perspective. Supermarkets do substantial amounts of research into the most effective ways of setting out the each department of the supermarkets and the best positioning for particular items .they also take into consideration the psychological effect on customers shopping which they might not be aware of .what they hope to achieve by doing this is following a particular patterns of shopper and using it in their advantage to make customers spend more so they as a supermarket can maximise their profits. Supermarkets also look at the emotional confusion involved in choosing particular items. Marketers also spend extensive amounts of time on advertising product and the positioning of these advertisements to make sure they are as effect as they can be normally by targeting certain age groups.
Supermarkets don’t just place items any spot extensive research goes into the planning of the layout. To make the supermarket a more inviting place supermarkets tend to place the fruit and vegetables right at the entrance of a supermarket giving the supermarket a fresh and healthy feel about it which is designed at encouraging shoppers to stay in the supermarket longer. Even though it means that fruit and vegetables are the first thing to go in the shopping trolley and might get squished the supermarkets still set it up this way to give the market feel to shopper(Browne 2010,p.5). They also tend to put specials advertisement at the beginning and end of the isle to attract customers’ attention .these advertisement are normally very colourful and contain bold writing to make the product they are trying to sell more of noticeable. This is all noticeable at local shopping centre such as Coles and Safeway’s were the majority of people go to shop.
The placement of items within the shopping centre is designed to make customers to spend more. Supermarket put the most expensive items at eye level to increase their profit. This works as customers tend to go with the first item they see so supermarket put the budget items higher or lower on the shelf so that people that want the cheaper items have to actually spend time looking around and when in a hurry shopper are more likely to choice the first item they see(Browne 2010,p.4).They also take into consideration when it comes to the chocolate or toy isle little children as they put items that are tempting for them which leads to nagging their parents to allow them to have a certain product. Items such as chocolate also appear near the counter so when parents are trying to load their shopping on the convey belt they have their little children asking for chocolate. At most supermarkets they put dvd’s near to the front of the shopping encouraging all shopper and almost any age to take a look and them .
Psychologists have done research into behavioural pattern of customers’ show that customers tend to turn to the right as they first enter the supermarkets. Supermarkets are aware of this behavioural pattern and tend to put tempting items such chocolate and magazines. They also take into consideration the weather such as if it was a rainy day they would put umbrellas towards the right of the entrance to entice people to buy them .Psychologist Dr Paul Harrison says the location of a stores entry point has a significant effect on how people shop, and even how much they will spend (Browne 2010,p.1).there also have been research that shows that people that right hand-side entries favour a anti –clockwise movement throughout the supermarket where as left –hand side favour clockwise movement. This has shown to be off importants as the research has shown that people that tend to walk in anti-clockwise position tend to spend two dollars more than the people that walk in a clockwise motion. (Browne 2010,p.1).
Emotional confusion is where there are lots of varieties of a particular item that is takes time to choose the actual product. Coffee and chocolates are prime examples of items that have different flavours, prices and different packaging that it takes a long time to choose from. Therefore in terms of the layout of the supermarket these particular products are put in the middle of the isle so that customers don’t feel pressured to quickly choose an item. The isles were the items take the longest to choose from are normally situated in the middle of the supermarket. This allows the customers to spend as much time as they need to find that product they really want and to feel that they have chosen a satisfying product. They also put near the coffee a variety of biscuits so as people are thinking of buying their coffee they then see the biscuits right near the coffee and some people will be tempted to buy them as well as they complements each other that’s why the supermarket put these two products near to each other (Browne 2010,p.4).
How short trips into the supermarket can end up hurting the budget. Supermarkets know that some customers just come in for the essential items such as bread and milk. Supermarket such as Safeways put the milk at the back of the store and put bread in the front corner of the store. This means that customers then have to walk to two different locations throughout the store .This can lead to the purchase of unplanned items .This essentially means that the short cheap trip that they had planned on turns into a long expensive trip around the store. (Browne 2010,p.2).They also place the milk that is closiest to going out of date toward the front of the shelf and the milk that has longer time before its use by date is normally at the back of the shelf.
When it comes to advertising products the isle with the lollies and toys have advertisement that are targeted toward children .where as the majority of the store is targeted at adults and in particular women’s. Women are the main people target for these advertisements this is due to 7.2 million female grocery buyers in Australia who spend up to 1.3bn a week in supermarkets which adds up to 80% of shoppers throughout Australia.(Milman 2010, p. 20) .Therefore its mainly women who are targeted as they make up the majority of customers .This is shown in the beauty isle where the advertisement for skin care products is mainly aimed at the women .this also is present in food magazine where they are targeting busy mums who are looking for new idea of what to cook their children for dinner and that is easy to find the product and cooks quickly .statistics show that over 900,000 food magazines are sold a month(Milman 2010, p. 20).
The layout is important to any supermarket whether it be a small local store or a big chain store such as Coles or Safeway’s they all base they layout of their store on what customers want or how they can gain a greater profit .There is a excess amount of research that goes into working out the best place to put particular product and where to place each departments. Supermarket know how to encourage their customers to buy more by placing complementing items together .Also attracting customers by having that smell of freshness as they first enter the store. They are now starting to go beyond this point and look at the psychological side of the way their customers shop and how they can use this to their advantage. Supermarkets also target particular ages groups for certain isle and place advertisement base on what will attract those ages groups such as specials which is aimed at adult shopper. The layout in any supermarket is important if they want to maximise their profit by using simple marketing techniques.
Reference list:
Milman,O 2010,’Targeting grocery buyers’ B&T Magazine ,April 02 ,retrieved April 5th 2011 from Business Source Complete
Browne. K 2010,’Trolley psychology: Choice unlocks the psychological secrets of the supermarket and shows you how to avoid spending more than you mean to’, Choice ,Australasian consumers ’Association ,Chippendale ,NSW, Australia, no. 4, April ,p.60 retrieved April 5th 2011 , expanded Academic database.
