Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping and the Essence of Customer Service for Retailers

Once you hear the title, Why We Buy, you may immediately think to yourself and ask, “well, why indeed do I buy things? Of course, it's just because I want to buy something.” In fact, there is much to learn about shopping. Researchers have studied the shopping habits and psychology of consumers for sometime, and have developed a science that analyses shopping. First, let us tell you something interesting.

At America's retailer Wal-Mart, diapers and beer are sold together. Some of you might be wondering: “aren't all products in supermarkets neatly sorted? Why put diapers and beer together? This is a strange categorization.” Actually, however, this odd arrangement has led to a significant increase in the sale of both diapers and beer. Why? In the United States, some women usually take care of their children at home, and often call their husbands to buy diapers for the kids when coming home from work. And, often enough, men will buy a beer they like in the midst of buying diapers. Wal-Mart learned of this phenomenon, and so made adjustments to the layout of its goods and subsequently profited as a result of this.

But how did supermarkets find business opportunities, like putting beer and diapers together, when looking at a vast amount of chaotic data? Paco Underhill, the author of Why We Buy gives us the answer. Starting from looking at real-life and common shopping experiences, Underhill acutely analyzed the science of shopping seen behind these cases.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of consumers' shopping psychology and motivation. Furthermore, it studies the interaction between consumers and the sales environment, and describes how retailers and marketers use various strategies to keep customers and increase sales. This book acts like a Bible for retailers and is popular worldwide.