In a recent article, I had spoken about the Retail experience and what I thought a Store Owner should do, to ensure that the customer walk in & buy the products the store is selling.

In parallel, I put up a quick query on LinkedIn to check on what some of my contacts (there are a few), thought about buying in Retail and what they looked for.

Here is a quick summary- and frankly, this feedback to me was slightly different from my perspective. But here it is anyways-

1. It appears that Feature & Configuration play a key part. My reading is that most customers who buy in a Retail Store- already do their ground work & plan on the feature sets & the configuration that they will go with.

2. The 2^nd important criteria is Price!

Other factors like Brand, Sales People knowledge, Store reputation were highlighted, but not the primary criteria.

In my personal opinion, the customers who buy in Retail, would look have decided on a configuration that they want to buy, and then scout around for the best offers that come closest to their requirement. If you have a good ecosystem, to get the customer in- and offer him the product he requires, he will buy. If you are a little more expensive than the shop next door- then you better have an option that helps to build that premium – great support, visibility in the market and great sales people who sell value.

Interesting learning this!