How you drive that extra item into the shopping basket

How you drive that extra item into the shopping basket

Alistair Agnew |April 23 2014 3 min

The ability to get a shopper to buy just one more item, when they are in the store, is the holy grail of retail. When you consider how many millions of shoppers visit stores every day week and year, it’s easy to do the math.

I have been asked the question on a many occasions by retailers, how do you drive extras sales in store.

Some of the things you can do are simple, in fact so simple you may be excused for laughing.

Shopping basket

Just take a look at where the shopping baskets are placed. If customers don’t pick one up they will pick up less items. Who likes juggling stuff across the shop floor. How often do you see no baskets at all, or the baskets are hidden out of sight. An understandable error is placing shopping baskets too early in the process – shoppers need to get time to adjust to the retail store before they pick up a basket. Simple things that can help increase the purchases.

Enough about shopping baskets, my point is that it’s all about understanding the customer journey and equally what are the important things that need to be right at every point.

Understanding the customer journey and managing shopper time is at the heart of everything. One scenario is where the item they are buying is low value and they expect the transaction to be fast. That means to you need to deliver fast, fair service but allow time for the customer to pick up that extra item. You need to give fast service but control the process for additional sales.

The second scenario is where the items are of high value and where the shopper appreciates the service will take a little longer. Even more need to use the right approach, manage the shoppers time, match the right staff to the service needed and let the shopper relax and enjoy the experience.

Most shoppers like buying that extra item but managing the process based on the transaction type and customer journey is the trick.

We’ve done a lot around this is Qmatic and it works.

Alistair Agnew

Alistair Agnew

PR Director Qmatic UK, 2007-2017.

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