Inside the Mind of the Shopper, 2nd Edition

Much anticipated. 2nd edition.  Pre order it.   By colleague Herb Sorensen  who we used for shopping innovation.   An ideal companion to our new world of advancing analytics in retail.  This connects  science to store behavior in ways that are essential to design, analysis and delivery of retail results.   I am reading and will be excerpting through the year.

Inside the Mind of the Shopper: The Science of Retailing (2nd Edition)
Anticipated on Sep 4, 2016
by Herb Sorensen

" ... What do you really do when you shop? The answers are fascinating and, for retailers, they're cash in the bank. In Inside the Mind of the Shopper: The Science of Retailing, world-renowned retail consultant Dr. Herb Sorensen, Ph.D. uncovers the truth about the retail shopper and rips away the myths and mistakes that lead retailers to miss their greatest opportunities. Every year, says Sorensen, shoppers will spend a quadrillion seconds in supermarkets and they'll waste 80% of that time. 

Sorensen analyzes consumer behavior–how shoppers make buying decisions as they move through supermarkets and other retail stores–and presents powerful, tested strategies for designing more effective stores, improving merchandising, and driving double-digit sales increases. He identifies simple interventions that can have dramatic sales effects, and shows why many common strategies simply don't work. 

You'll learn how to appeal to the "quick trip" shopper; make the most of all three "moments of truth"; understand consumers' powerful in-store migration patterns; improve collaboration between manufacturers and retailers; learn the lessons of Stew Leonard's and other innovators; and much more. Then, in Part II, Sorensen presents revealing interviews with several leading in-store retail experts, including crucial insights on using technology and retailing to multicultural communities.   ... ? 

Inside the Mind of the Shopper Published

Herb Sorensen book is now out Inside the Mind of the Shopper: The Science of Retailing, from Wharton School Publishing.

It details some of his work exploring how the shopper behaves in their environment. Based on extensive databases of how shoppers move, shop and buy in the store.

We had many fruitful conversations with Herb that led to improvements in our innovation spaces. Wish we could have collaborated more. Includes descriptions of collaboration with Peter Fader at the Wharton school, Wendy Moe of the University of MD and work by Mike Twitty at Unilever and Bill Bean at Pepsi and Colgate. Glad to see that P&G provided some of the earliest inspiration for Sorensen's work. He describes some of those experiences with Bob Stevens of P&G.

As is quoted on the cover: ' ... Inside the Mind of the Shopper is a preeminent handbook for any marketer or retailers seeking to understand why people do what they do when they shop ... '

The book covers many classic issues based on quantitative results: the nature of the trip ... what do they buy ... why is money left in the aisle ... the influence of packaging ... the nature of the engagement and what makes the close. Must reading for marketers and retailers who seek to understand the complexity of retail behavior with real experiments. He treats the operation of retail as a science.

I particularly like his Three Currencies of Shopping: Money, Time and Angst. In that short section (p. 62) he quickly brings together the measures that can make or break a shopping experience. Overall the book is an easy read, with lots of useful measures and direction.

The book also covers some of the newest advances in merchandising technology such as visual media and cart based displays.

I often cover Sorensen's work and writings in this blog.
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Atlas - Modeling Shopper Behavior : Paper

I recently posted about a shopper modeling system from TNS - Sorensen called Atlas, at that link you will find more information about the method and how it is evolving. Now here is the background paper to the method: Atlas: Modeling Shopping Behavior, by Herb Sorensen, TNS Sorensen and Jacob Suher, The Wharton School. This updated paper does a good job of providing an overview and validation of the methods involved. Surprise, its all about mining and understanding real shopper behavior! Not at all technical and worth a look for those interested in retail tech.

Inside the Mind of the Shopper

Herb Sorensen has a book coming out in May: Inside the Mind of the Shopper: The Science of Retailing, from Wharton School Publishing.

I am now reading it in preprint. Very good so far, covers lots of the domain we worked with in our innovation centers. Covers insights he and Peter Fader at Wharton developed, apparently with some contributions from Unilever. I will review here when I finish it. I often cover Sorensen's work in this blog.

And below a pointer to some of his current online work, always insightful:

Zero Based Retailing by Herb Sorensen
For planning purposes, most countries, businesses and individuals take their current situation as some kind of baseline, upon which they build their planning for the future. This is a seriously flawed approach, particularly when the enterprise is under severe stress. Sometimes, for planning purposes, it is better to sweep all away (conceptually,) and begin anew from scratch. This is the basic element of "zero based budgeting," the concept of starting with a zero budget, considering the mission and its scope, and then allocating exactly the right amount of resources (personnel, facilities, etc.) needed to accomplish the mission, without regard to past or present allocation of resources..... "

Evolving Brands

Ted Sorensen of TNS-Sorensen posts about Evolving Brands and Retailers.

Herb Sorensen Articles

An index of a number of articles by consumer behavior scientist Herb Sorensen. See also my review of his recent book and other technical pieces on shopper behavior. All thought and value provoking.
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Average Quicksand

Herb Sorensen of TNS Sorensen talks about "Average" Quicksand in shopping trips:

' ... What is the life experience of the average human being? Other than that they are born and die, it gets pretty complicated. That's why we don't usually ask questions like this: we recognize a certain absurdity in the concept. And yet, lot's of absurd answers are available for less than insightful questions about shopping. For example, how long is the average shopping trip? This seems like a legitimate question.

In fact, we have been thinking about this question for years, partially because classifying trips by their "length" has been done for more years than I have been in shopper research. Of course when speaking of trip length, usually people are referring to how long in minuutes. However, when we began measuring actual shopper paths, the door was opened to measuring the distance they traveled as the length of the trip. Maybe it wouldn't be too great of a stretch to consider length in relation to the number of items they purchased, or the amount of money they spent... ' (see the complete article linked to above, and his recent book: Inside the Mind of the Shopper)

The Aisleness of Stores

Herb Sorensen of TNS-Sorensen, posts an article: The Aisleness of Stores, part of his series Views: on the World of Shoppers, Retailers and Brands. Always provocative, Herb is a pioneer in the understanding of consumers in retail spaces. It also a reason for the use of contextual innovation centers to understand how consumers actually behave in the retail world.

So What is a Quick Trip?

Herb Sorensen of TNS Sorensen covers the topic of a quick trip in grocery retail in a recent post. This is covered in more detail in his forthcoming book: Inside the Mind of the Shopper ..., which I have now read in preprint. Some surprising results based on empirical data covering thousands of observations of shopper behavior. It's a particular classification that we talked about much in the enterprise. How differently do shoppers behave based on the context of their needs? Is it the right granularity of classification? What can CPG learn from it? How can retailers change the way they operate based on this knowledge? Link on and then buy the book.

Sell to Their Shopping Lists

Good piece from Herb Sorensen's Views site.  Read the whole thing.

Sell to Their "Shopping Lists" (Tell'em Which to Buy!)
December 20, 2010 - by Herb Sorensen, Ph.D., Scientific Advisor, TNS Retail and Shopper

This issue of the Views provides further insight on how and why you can use the dominant path through the store to increase sales. Ten years ago I articulated "The Holy Grail of Retailing:"

To know exactly what each shopper wants, or may buy, as they come through the door of the store, and...   To deliver that to them right away, taking their money and speeding them on their way.

So we want to focus here first on "what each shopper wants, or may buy," and will use an expanded view/definition of the "shopping list" to encompass exactly this – what the shopper wants or may buy. It is a mistake to limit this "shopping list" to a piece of paper or other overt evidence of a shopping plan. In fact, with a better understanding of the role of habit (or the subconscious mind) in shopping, the "wants or may" abbreviates what Neale Martin refers to as the executive mind (wants) or habitual mind (may.) (See Neale Martin, Habit: The 95% of Behavior Marketers Ignore.) ... "

Store Simulation and Category Placement

I met today with Herb Sorensen and Bill Hruby to see TNS's just released Atlas Store Datamining Tool. An impressive piece of work that takes insights from Herb Sorensen's Inside the Mind of the Shopper book and uses a model that predicts store performance based on a TNS gathered database of consumer behaviors when shopping varying store designs.

This is the first example I have seen of a practical, usable category level layout analysis tool. It is still in the process of being developed further to include more details of store operations, and being added to a larger set of store consumer behavior based on alternative layouts.

I can see how even now it can be used to get deep insight into store performance. Useful for retailers and manufacturers. See the link above for more information. I will continue to report on it as I test it and as it evolves further.

Shopper Efficiency vs Total Store Sales

Herb Sorensen writes about store sales.

" Sorensen's First Rule of Retailing: The faster you sell, the more you will sell!

This is of course an empirical generalization, that applies to stores with similar classes of merchandise and generally designed and merchandised similarly. So here's the data: ... "

Selling vs Order Taking

Correspondent Herb Sorensen of TNS-Sorensen has a great piece in his Views series about Selling vs Order Taking which links to the history of retail itself and its architecture. I wrote about this previously, pointing to the history of the US Piggly-Wiggly Chain, which claims to have invented the self-service store in 1916. Also a great store interior image above. He also mentions MediaCart, Modiv Shopper and Infosys as new ways to sell in the aisle.

" ... The sales person facilitates the thought process that leads to closing the sale - "close early and close often" - while the order taker plays a more passive role.

In understanding what needs to happen in shopping, and is happening, among retailers and brand suppliers that want to sell, it is helpful to review how the industry at large became so passive (order-taking) in managing the sales process. What is common on the selling room floor today (passivity,) was not always this way... "

Shopper Scientist: Herb Sorensen

I want to remind people of Herb Sorensen's blog: Shopper Scientist.  He visited our innovation centers a number of times.   One of the most data oriented retail explorers I have ever met.  I hear he may be coming out with an update of his book,  anticipating it, follow him for more information, I will report on it when it comes out.  See my previous writings on his book: Inside the Mind of the Shopper.

Inside the Mind of the Shopper

I have had a chance to re-examine Herb Sorensen's book from last year, and his supporting site that contains articles about some of the concepts included. Also, a number of posts in this blog about the concepts in the book.  And you can order his excellent book there as well:

Inside the Mind of the Shopper 
In his new book, Herb Sorensen challenges the conventional wisdom of retailers and brands who don't understand how shoppers actually buy. A few highlights:

- Sell more by promoting a select group of products, rather than frustrating them with too many choices.
- Merchandise for the "quick trips," which comprise most shopping trips and a third of total dollar sales.
- Understand the buying hot spots, reach more shoppers and sell more items.

Unilever's Use of Prism, TNS Sorensen

An interesting case study of Unilever's use of Prism in Ad Age, and a comparison to work by TNS Sorensen. They say it implies that coupons and signs beat in-store tech. I would agree only in this very limited case, and for these particular executions. Execution is a very big part of any such comparisons.

"... Unilever thought it had a great idea: Put ads for its Sunsilk hair-care products on supermarket freezer doors, because focus groups showed its target consumers like ice cream.

Trouble is, data from Nielsen Co.'s new shopper-marketing measurement system, Prism (for Pioneering Research for an In-Store Metric) show fewer than 10% of Sunsilk's young women aged 18 to 24 actually go down the ice-cream aisle on a shopping trip. End-aisle and hair-care shelf ads reach far more of them ...

The in-store programs found "most influential" by consumers in the study were, in order, in-store samples, package ads, coupon dispensers, in-store fliers and end-aisle displays. Those deemed least influential were ceiling ads, in-store audio and floor ads. Most of the newer media -- including cart ads, in-store TVs, video displays, checkout-lane ads and entryway ads -- ranked in the lower half of the 19 media considered ... "

A Shopper Perspective of the Aisle

You will recall I reviewed Herb Sorensen's book: Inside the Mind of the Shopper". Highly recommended for its insight into the scientific understanding of retail, based on actual consumer behavior. He has been a long-time correspondent. Above is a picture of what he views as the holistic shopper and a diagram of their behavior patterns in-store. A hint at some of his ongoing work that we look forward to experiencing. Will continue to track his work here. See also links to his writings in Retailweek, in twitter at @herbsorensen.

Views from Our Top Shopper Scientist

 Colleague and correspondent Herb Sorensen writes about the shopper from the view of a scientist.  He helped us formulate some of the key concepts we used in the innovation center.   Extensive and informative article in Shopper Views.  With online retailer Amazon at its center.   Read it!    See also his book and related articles. Abstract:

" ... Selling, logistics and payment are the three principal functions of retailing. In self-service retailing, the mental selling function is largely left up to the shoppers themselves. The mental process shoppers use in serving themselves, whether online or offline ("bricks",) is amazingly similar — and inefficient.

Amazon has learned how to efficiently sell to shoppers in much the same way as personal salesmen of old assisted shoppers in acquiring merchandise, albeit now done algorithmically.
The super-efficient Amazonian selling process can be broken into five steps of moving the mind of the shopper from interest to the close of the sale. Those same five steps can be implemented in bricks stores, with phenomenal success, as has been demonstrated by one global retailer and smaller regional operators.

The advent of smart phone shopping apps (personal sales assistance,) will likely accelerate sales, but not without fixing fundamental flaws that currently impede sales in bricks stores. The driving force of efficiency begun by A&P in the first half of the 20th century, with the baton passed to Walmart in the latter half, is now with Amazon in the first half of the 21st century. However, it is the Amazonian sales principles that will identify the winner(s) of the current struggle for retail dominance. ... " 

Read the whole article.

See also his excellent book.

Thank God for Out-of-Stocks

I was at a training meeting at a major manufacturer this week that emphasized retail design to decrease out of stocks. Herb Sorensen sees it differently.

Building It and Getting the Shopper to Buy

Herb Sorensen, well known retail scientist publishes an interesting article in Views: If you build it, they will NOT come!   An evidence-based quantitative view of how shopping works.  Highly recommended.

"It helps to think about retailing, beginning with its basic elements. The driving force behind it is the needs and wants of people. Other people have produced those needs and wants, and it is a matter of getting the stuff together with the people who want and need it. Of course a driving force behind the small store movement is the effort on the part of retailers to get the stuff closer to where the people are, rather than having it in huge stores, where shoppers may have to travel some distance to get access to their needs and desires. But there are other important factors here, relating to what happens once the shopper gets to the store and goes inside. ....  "