Retail Observation

Table of Contents

1.        Background        

2.        Objectives        

3.        Procedure        

4.        Summary of Findings        

5.        Findings by store and comparisons across stores        

6.        Conclusions        

7.        Recommendation        

Bibliography.        

1. Background

The purchase motivation is the primary factor that comes from the consumer psychological factor which is the consumer’s desire for shopping. Some other circumstances can also motivate a customer to buy a product, such as a price, brand, service, image or promotion. Consumer behavior is a complex process. It can be defined as the way that consumers find, select, purchase, use and evaluate goods and services. The main purpose of this process is to meet the needs of customers.

Retail is the most important part of a supply chain. Recently, technology changed the way that consumers are shopping. Many consumers enjoy online shopping instead of going to physical stores. Therefore, creating a comfortable and convenient shopping space for customers is becoming more important. Retails have to reconsider their market segmentation, targeting, and positioning.

1. Objectives

Businesses which target women consumers are a red sea. It is very competitive between each retail. According to differences in marketing strategy, targeting and positioning, each store treats customers different, and it might affect the possibility that consumers buy their products or come back the store in the future.

This project focused on observing the environments and the circumstances of retailers. By doing this observation, comparing differences of environment between five beauty stores and understanding these environmental factors can affect consumers’ purchasing. There are five popular beauty stores in this project: Saks 5th Avenue, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Sephora, and Ulta. The store ambiance, image, product display, sales associates’ appearance and demeanor were observed in these five stores.

1. Procedure

As a consumer, I usually review print advertisings or research stores online before I go shopping. To make sure that I can get the best deal. However, in this project, I did not do any research before I visited these stores. In the past, I have attended some of these retailers for my personal purchases. As a result, I have already had general images for these stores. In this observation, I paid more attention to observing the ambiances, product displays, and sales associates. The appearance that I presented in this observation experience was wearing a dress, high heels and appropriate make up, hoped that could get more attention from sales associates.