Are you considering opening a dollar store? If so here is a secret that I learned the hard way. In fact this secret was learned only after totally stocking a new store from top to bottom and then finding that shoppers were unhappy with the way merchandise was displayed in the store. That customer dissatisfaction with the store led to a total restock of the store.Almost instant increases in sales followed.
We found that customers have very defined shopping patterns. Those patterns translate into buying patterns. Those patterns translate into whether you will make money after opening a dollar store.
The patterns that the majority of customers follow are:
They enter the store.
They immediately turn right and move to the wall.
They walk the store aisle by aisle, one aisle at a time.
They look at items as if they are being ‘read’ looking from right to left.
They do some up and down movement as they look, but very little.
If items are not easy to return to the right location they will be left where the customer stands – on the floor, the bottom of racks, and placed inside other items.
Opening a dollar store requires that you stock the store in a manner that supports the patterns of your shoppers. As a result merchandise needs to be placed in a striped pattern, in rows from top to bottom. Impulse and high-margin items should be placed in high-traffic areas. Low-margin items should be placed away from the highest traffic areas. Everyday items should be placed to draw shoppers through other higher margin items.
By understanding shopper patterns when opening a dollar store it is possible to significantly increase sales and profits. Take the time to incorporate traffic and shopping patterns into the placement of your merchandise.
