Two Insights Into How Consumers Are Shopping for Tableware
James Surowiecki in this week's The New Yorker offers some insights into how buyers shop–thereby helping us serve this audience. He writes:
In an experiment in the early nineteen-nineties, people were first asked whether they preferred a $110 microwave oven made by Emerson or a $180 oven made by Panasonic. Only forty-three per cent chose the Panasonic. But when a higher-priced Panasonic model, costing $200, was introduced into the mix, people’s choices changed in a curious way: suddenly, sixty per cent wanted the $180 oven. Just adding a more expensive model made the medium-priced version look more attractive and boosted Panasonic’s total sales. Change what surrounds a product, in other words, and you can change what people think of it.
Lesson: Sell three tableware lines–not just one. When pitching products, offer at least three choices.
He continues:
What [the Internet] has changed is how we shop, for a simple reason: it has created informed shoppers. In the past, retailers could make profits from what economists call “information asymmetry”: sellers knew much more about prices, quality, and value than consumers did, in large part because good information for consumers was either hard to obtain or just not available at all. Today, it’s easy to research and comparison-shop, and most consumers do it for at least some of their purchases. A recent study by Accenture found that two-thirds of those surveyed compared products online.
Lesson: Consumers are more likely to competitively shop, so keep prices reasonable. Furthermore, create a search engine friendly website, and in turn people will continue to walk through your doors. Don't, and you increase the likelihood they will go next door.