Get on the floor

By Jacqui Gray

And no I don’t mean throwing some signature moves on the dance floor at the Christmas party, I mean the shop floor.  I’m talking specifically about getting out onto the floor of a grocery retailer, and as often as possible, as there really is no substitute for experiencing the shopping experience first-hand. 

So I am suggesting that put your shoppers hat on. I’m not talking about the one that allows you to go around the store on automatic pilot, I mean the one that makes you conscious of every facet of the experience, the one that gives you the green light to dawdle around the store and take it all in, from how the store is laid out, to any products that leap out of the shelf. You never know you might find it interesting.  

The things that I found interesting on a recent dawdling trip included the massive display units featured to promote the DVD release of one of the Pirates of the Caribbean films (not sure which, but they were impossible to ignore); the gorgeous Lindor chocolate truffles from Lindt that were being handed out (one per customer apparently); the new augmented reality stations showing clips of games and films (a great innovation, albeit no one was there to show customers how to use it); and then the opportunity to have my eyebrows re-shaped (I didn’t go for this, I find the Dolmio day monobrow works well for me).  

Have a look at the Tesco augmented reality trial:

All these mini experiences added up to a very different shopping trip and albeit grocery shopping is not exciting it was certainly less tedious than it used to be, so a big thanks to the retailers and brands that are really starting to understand and invest in the customers journey.

And when you’ve done being a shopper feel free to shake your limbs in an erratic manner to the latest tunes, be it Bublé or the genius that is Florence and the Machine.  Quick question are dance floors still illuminated, it’s been a while?