12 psychological tricks from supermarkets to earn more

In previous articles we tried to explain the 10 tricks restaurants use to make you pay more, and we also discovered, following in the discipline of consumer psychology, why you should never order the second cheapest wine on the menu.

How do they cheat us in supermarkets?

Today we propose to unravel the 12 most common psychological tricks used by department stores and supermarkets so that you end up buying more than you need.

Regardless of where you reside, department stores practice identical techniques to maximize their revenue. More than half of the purchases we make in supermarkets are not planned in advance, this statistic being even higher if we are going to buy together with the partner or with the children.

The strategies hypermarkets employ to increase their sales are almost as old as the exchange between consumer goods and money, but the discipline of marketing in the sector always evolves and new tools are generated to encourage consumers to be more predisposed to spend more.

1. The cart, better if it is bigger

Right after parking in the supermarket parking lot we found the carts. But it would be convenient to start talking about ‘cars’, since their dimensions are increasing.

This invention appeared in the 1930s and was quickly implemented, but the size of the cars has been increasing over the years. The motivation for this increase in dimensions is evident: the bigger the car, the more it costs to fill it, and most consumers are not satisfied if they do not fill the cart.

2. The price, with many nines

This trick is so popular that it seems like it no longer has any effect on the client, but it turns out that it still works. Consumers pay attention to the first figure but not to the cents, therefore an item whose price is 9.99 euros (or dollars, or any other currency) is displayed as € 9, and not as € 10.

This penny of difference qualifies the perception of how cheap or expensive a product is. In fact, in an investigation at Colorado State University, in the US, participants were asked to choose between two identical pens. The first cost $ 2, while the second was priced at $ 3.99. 44% of subjects chose the 3.99 pen. So it seems that the 99 cent trick has not stopped being effective.

3. The items they want you to buy are located at the level of your eyes

The products that the surfaces are responsible for highlighting are those that they are most interested in selling, since either because their profit margin is higher, or because it is a stock that they want to get rid of more quickly. To get it they are placed at head height so that they are more visible.

Other items that could be a purchase alternative are more hidden, cost more to find, and that is uncomfortable for any consumer. On the other hand, not all eyes are on the same level, and stores know it. They know that children have great power to convince their parents to buy some products in concrete, and for this reason they place items such as toys and sweets at the height of the little ones consumers.

4. The essential items are always in the most remote corner of the surface

Another traditional technique in the organizational arrangement of hypermarkets is to place basic necessities, such as eggs, milk or vegetables, in the back of the store. Being these products that everyone will acquire, they will be forced to go through the entire surface, coming across multiple offers of products that they had not planned to purchase before.

5. Expendable products are at the entrance

Those items that provide a higher profit rate, such as flowers, pastries and precooked dishes, are usually found at the entrance of the supermarket.

The reason for this strategy is that they are articles that are consumed at the moment, its visual impact is great and consumers tend to afford it, even more so if the cart is still empty.

6. Cash boxes are located on the left

90% of people are right-handed and the natural tendency is for them to ride on the right. The medium and large surfaces are designed with the aim that the consumer walks in the counterclockwise and walk as many aisles as possible before paying in box.

The longer the journey and the longer the customer is in the store, the higher their spending will tend to be.

7. Change the location of commodities periodically

When a user already knows the distribution of the supermarket and you already know where to go to pick up the products you need, is when the distribution of the supermarket changes.

The supermarket thus ensures that the customer wanders for a longer time through all the aisles, finding items that he can decide to purchase.

8. The figure of the friendly clerk

Although the kindness of the clerk seems more from other times and nowadays a much colder and more professional demeanor is styled (consistent with the change in the nature of labor relations and consumer habits), the truth is that some more sophisticated surfaces, such as shops from Manzana, brimming with knowledgeable employees who do not charge commission per sale and take care of answer all customer questions or problems without using marketing techniques invasive.

This exclusive and friendly treatment is a marketing strategy more, especially in surfaces that sell items with high prices and with a large profit margin.

9. Plastic bags and pollution

One of the main state supermarket chains announced years ago that they would start charging for plastic bags, as it was a commitment of the company to care for the environment. It was a wide-spread campaign.

However, the motivation for this campaign was not so much the environmentalism of the macro-company, but simply be able to monetize an "article" that was previously delivered "free". They were also in charge of offering reusable bags with which to obtain an extra income, with their very large stamped logo, thus obtaining free publicity. A guaranteed profit strategy.

10. The discounted products, distributed in a chaotic way

If you want to find truly discounted items, you will need to search and rummage. Supermarkets have turned clearance product spaces into a mess of thrown and run-away items. The technical reason for this practice is that the consumer understands the search for these bargains as a game, as if you were trying to unearth a treasure.

If you are able to find an item that is not faulty or worn, you will feel the urge to buy it. These sections are designed for consumers with low purchasing power and a lot of free time. If, on the other hand, you have a good salary but little free time, you will be able to find all the items perfectly ordered and much more expensive on the main shelves.

11. "We bring you home shopping for free"

The home delivery service for grocery shopping is booming, free of charge. That implies making a purchase of a minimum value, for example, € 50.

If your intention was to make a purchase of € 30, you must spend the remaining € 20 on something, You probably don't need it urgently, to have it delivered to your home.

12. Final colophon: the products in the boxes

After wandering through the whole supermarket and bringing a cart full of items, there is still something left that they can try to sell you: chewing gum, sweets, magazines, energy bars ....

These products are not of great value, but are those that proportionally report the highest rate of profit to the surface. In the world of consumer psychology, these types of articles fulfill a function of icing on the cake: batteries that I will surely need; I like these chewing gums, these sweets for when the nephews come home... The surface is always attentive to these techniques to sell you as much as they can.

And there is not the thing ...

Of course, there are many more tricks supermarkets use to try to get you to spend more than you had planned. Have you detected any other psychological strategy focused on encouraging consumption? You can send it to us in the comments section.