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Store comparison observations
- 1.
- 2. Ease of Transportation Twoplaces I visited had two floors for the store so they used escalators or elevators to allow convenience to their customers. Barnes & Nobles was just loaded with books so had escalators to moving upstairs easier. And H&M used stairs or an elevator to get upstairs. I believe the elevator was installed for parents that had strollers. Since their second floor was all children’s clothing.
- 3. Customer Service Desk Hereis the photo from previous slide again which shows the perfect placement for a customer service desk you can pretty much see it from every angle in the store so it’s easy to find, some stores it’s much more difficult to find an employee to help you.
- 4. Smells One store Ididn’t go visit but it is at the same mall is Teavana. This store before sucked me in just by the delicious tea smell they purposely leave the door open and have samples right at the door the first and only time i visited this shop I bought something.. Pretty expensive so I avoided it at all costs this trip.
- 5. I went toa skate shop called Industrial they had the brightest color scheme (black and yellow) which makes their sign easy to spot when you’re browsing the mall. I wasn’t wearing my glasses and out of all the shops it was the easiest to spot, Other than the Dollar Tree which I went to a different day and was in a different complex than the mall.
- 6. Invitations to Chill Zumiez(on the right) and Barnes & Noble had sitting areas to hang out in the store. Barnes & Nobles atmosphere attracted lots of people to just sit and read or work on their laptops, like starbucks. Zumiez is a much busier atmosphere but employees are very friendly and will strike up conversations about anything even not product related.
- 7. Convenience I liked thisat H&M they had shopping bags instead of carts I have really only seen this before at big department stores but I am sure this influences customers to buy more than they can carry.
- 8. Ways to Drawin the Customer 4 of the 6 stores I went to had advertising or products outside to draw customers into the store. H&M and Tie One on were the only two that didn’t.
- 9. Ceiling and Feels Neverreally paid attention to the ceilings before but Dollar Tree and Industrial had the same ceilings, that gave it a warehouse feel. Dollar Tree is more like a warehouse with boxes everywhere over products. And I think Industrial has those ceilings to give it an indoor skate park feel.
- 10. Employee Moods &Attitudes One of the questions was how long before a salesperson initiates contact. Zumiez was instant, the second you walk in the door someone says hi, Industrial didn’t say anything until we were leaving. When I tried talking to one of the customer service reps at Barnes & Noble about sales percentages I felt lack of conversation or interest. Tie One On the clerks there were very welcoming and happy to talk about anything. The employee at the Dollar Tree gave us his entire life story once I asked a few questions, very friendly and H&Ms employees were very helpful as well.
- 11. For the percentageof sales by walk in customers For the percentage of sales from walk in customers I just talked to the sales staff. The clerk at big lots actually worked at Big lots prior said they did a study and to find those percentages. Big lots - 5/10 Dollar Tree - 6/10 Barnes & Noble - More than half H&M - 7/10 Tie One On - 100% (but she said it was probably because of Easter coming up but usually it’s 6/10) Industrial - 6/10 Zumiez - 6/10
- 12. To my photographers: Myphone’s camera was busted so I went with friends so they could take pictures for me but they both got super into this project as well so just giving credit to my friends Lauryn Mccomas and Sidney Magana for photos :-) Also bringing them helped me point out some things I could have missed as well by seeing things through different perspectives.