Retail Detail

Impulse vs. Destination in Retail Sales

All the books, postings and advice I have seen on retail and most of them leave out this most important factor.  Destination purchases vs. impulse purchases.  What is your business and are you capturing both or just one side of the equation?  Are people driving down the road on a quest for your product or do they see a sign and it triggers an impulse to stop and make that purchase?  I know there are certain situations that are driven by both buying impulses.  There are times when a decision is made as a premeditated decision and other times it is a “crime of passion” as they say.  Scary but crime and retail have a lot in common some times.  Both are choices made by humans to satisfy a craving, desire or urge.

Traditionally we hope that we have a customer coming to our location as a destination customer and once they are in the store we can sell them additional items to increase the basket or average purchase.  We have destination merchandise advertised with signage, displays or loss leader pricing and we stack impulse product everywhere around it.  There are certain retailers that do have a very strong impulse draw and the retailer usually has a heavy density of stores in their markets to take advantage of that impulse.  Without density, the impulse could wither or the sale could go to the competition.  Usually these types of sales are for a generic product that could be gotten at a number of retailers.  There may be a slightly unique edge that a private label brand may offer but branded product has so far held the market.  The challenge again is to provide value to the customer whether that is by price, quality of product or service that is above and beyond their competition.  Impulse products have a low decision making effort before the purchase so small value added incentives can trigger the buying decision. 

What is your customer after when they come to your stores?  Are they a destination customer?  Does your product mix provide both impulse and destination purchase options?  Many smaller retailers do not think these primary marketing questions through.  Without thinking through how resources would  be allocated, product mix and inventory levels set and how they will be measured,   they will be leaving money on the table.