The world’s biggest industry — retail — keeps evolving, but it has witnessed maximum transformation during the past couple of years. Today, the retail process has changed and so have consumers. From brick-and-mortar stores, the world has transitioned to e-commerce, which is overflowing right now and in a good way. E-commerce is the name of the game today and the day doesn’t seem far when what we buy/sell gets to decide the way we live.
With online shopping and live video shopping reigning supreme, sales are up, more shoppers seem to be steering away from traditional retail and online shopping platforms are thriving. However, despite the ease and convenience of virtual shopping, customers will always have a soft spot for in-store, brick-and-mortar experiences. There’s a lot that goes into designing the ideal spending environment to promote spending.
So, we have compiled a list of fun and interesting facts about in-store shopping as well as online shopping, which will make you realize just how far we have come. Let’s jump right in!
1. Shoppers are more comfortable purchasing items from an empty shelf because it indicates that many other people have already purchased the item.
2. While Amazon and eBay are widely regarded as the first online retail stores, Pizza Hut was the first to introduce an online shopping site on the Internet in 1994.
3. Designers feel that if women hear their shoes tapping on polished hard surfaces, they would buy more, so they often use hard flooring hallways. Customers are known to be attracted to carpeting and softer textures because they make them feel at ease.
4. Shopping malls — like casinos — are built to make people lose track of time by obstructing views of the outside world by removing clocks and windows. The Gruen Transfer is a term for this kind of “scripted disorientation.”
5. According to studies, shopping has a strong impact on a person’s pleasure centres in the brain. When you go shopping, your brain is filled with dopamine, just like when you get high on drugs.
6. When a shopper buys something on his or her shopping list first, he or she is more likely to buy random things later as a reward.
7. The first shopping catalogue was created in the 1400s by Aldus Manutius, an Italian publisher who compiled a handprinted catalogue of the books he published for sale and distributed it at town fairs.
8. Red is an excellent marketing colour because it inspires people to spend money. As a result, marketers will use red in their commercials and displays on intent.
9. Shopping online isn’t always better for the environment. “Home shopping has a greater effect on the transportation sector than the public would suspect,” according to a 2016 report from the University of Delaware.
10. In shopping centres, the location of the escalators is carefully considered. Customers would have to go through most storefronts if they use them.
11. The first thing to be auctioned on eBay.com was a broken laser pointer. It was purchased for $14.83.
12. 55 per cent of consumers would rather interact with technology in store than a sales associate.
13. 88 per cent of shoppers consider detailed product information to be extremely relevant.
14. Some Roman gladiators read product endorsements before fights. Gladiator’s producers wanted to reveal this, but they decided against it because they were afraid that viewers wouldn’t believe it.
15. In Mesopotamia, 4000 years ago, the earliest customer service complaint was printed on a clay cuneiform tablet. (In it, a customer called Nanni complains about receiving subpar copper ingots.)
So, there you have it — these 15 fun facts about virtual shopping and brick-and-mortar retail can awe anyone. Technology has evolved the world so much, it’s hard to imagine life with cuneiform tablets and Roman gladiators reading out product endorsements.
Online shopping platforms and live online shopping have caused a paradigmatic shift in the retail universe, with experts now pegging them as the future of retail.
