Why We Buy Summary

The book Why We Buy by Paco Underhill expresses massive depth in knowledge and understandings of their research on shopper’s behavior on why and how people shop. His company Envirosell, researched actual behaviors of each customer at stores, and by using their trackers, they recorded every detailed actions shopper made in the stores. This book was divided into five parts, the science of shopping, mechanics of shopping, demographics, dynamics of shopping and last the culture of shopping. It delivered great illustrations and salient points of understanding the science of shopping, whereas, adequately covering the five W’s and one H (what, where, why, when, who, and how) of shopper’s inspiration, behavior and their psychological reactions towards the merchandise.
By looking at shopping in a scientific perspective, I was able to absorb how consumers interacted with their retail environment, emphasizing the importance of observation on how people were led to the store, how long they stayed, products they touched, and overall reactions towards the products. In
Likewise, shoppers want to experience the products before purchasing, for this reason, providing free samples are beneficial and enhance consumer’s education options. Further on, Underhill also mentioned about the big three dimensions (design, merchandizing, and operations), stretching good times for the customers, positioning the cash and wrap areas, separating tasks depending on the customers wants (ex. returning items and checking out items), two most important aspects of merchandizing (getting products off shelves and adjacencies), online shopping benefits and more on. Therefore, I was able to learn about the differences and realize the importance of store services and what they have to