Why We Buy is based on tens of years of experience observing shoppers throughout hundreds of retail stores. In the book Paco Underhill reveals what he has learned about the shopping behaviour and habits of consumers. Alongside this he provides details of the common mistakes made by retailers and the successful tactics that retailers can use to entice customers to buy.

Paco Underhill is the founder of Envirosell a consulting practice that specialises in consulting and research into shopping patterns of consumers and retail practices and strategies. Their customers range from Coca-Cola to Microsoft.

Reading this book will help you understand how shoppers shop and to analyse how you can improve your retail space to maximise sales. The book is broken into four parts and nineteen chapters. Each chapter addressing a specific area of retail.

The book contains a number of theories based on the authors observations, one such theory being the Bum-Brush Theory: Never place women’s products that require close scrutiny in a narrow aisle. Women will leave if they are brushed or bumped on the behind by passing shoppers. It’s obvious once you read it, but just wandering around the major high street chains in Bath last weekend it was clear that even top retailers are still doing so!

I believe all entrepreneurs should have read this book, especially anyone working in retail, in fact anyone working in an position of responsibility in retail should have read this book.

You can buy it from Amazon UK or Amazon USA.

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