According to Women’s Wear Daily, we are shopping less.
Evan Clark, deputy editor of business at WWD, reports that it’s not just a recession thing, either.
She’s talking about time. On average, Americans spend 22 minutes a day buying consumer products. But according to the Labor Department, retail is losing precious minutes to sleep, TV and eating, which take up more of our day.
Add the Internet, where we click to buy in a matter of seconds, and Clark says retailers are challenged to create stores that people actually want to spend more time in.
I have a formula for that, and it has nothing to do with placing accessories near the cash register and sale items in the back.
A better idea is to make stores more social.
Just saying… When there is no place to hang while you wait for a friend to try on clothes, I am more likely to look for the exit. And I don’t like those boring chairs in a back corner, either.
Put cushy couches in the center of the store and I’m pretty sure people would use them. But once they use them, what will they do while they’re there?
That’s the key to my brilliant retail strategy. Since we are spending more time resting, eating and watching TV, the answer is right there.
Run fashion videos — and not just runway fare. If your business is denim, short lifestyle films of dreamy people in denim doing simple things like eating ice cream or walking on the beach could be fun to watch and might inspire shoppers once they see how your clothes are worn.
Scatter the store coffee table with lookbooks, where shoppers can see all of your collection including the parts you’ve got stuck in the corners.
That coffee table also could be a place to display merchandise. For instance, a shopper could get off her feet for a few seconds and fall in love with a pair of earrings sitting right in front of her.
Have some groovy sort of coffee brewing, bottled waters available, a cookie collection. Anything in the snack department might keep shoppers lingering longer.
And employees should talk to the couch crowd while they’re there. Everyone wants to swap stories about shopping finds, insteading of enduring one more round of, “Can I help you?”
Plan events – and I’m not talking about your next blowout sale or designer collection. Have experts show us how to tie a scarf 21 ways, transform one outfit for work and play, mix and match like the pros, get personal advice from a stylist.
All this might sound silly since I’m no retail expert.
But I am the shopper, and wouldn’t I know what I wanted?
Cindy McNatt writes about fashion, beauty, and celebrity news for The Orange County Register, and about gardening at .
