"I'll have a look around and then
come back and buy that." How many times have you heard customers say that
and not return. Or, "Give me your card and I'll buy on line" but no
internet order turns up. These are examples of regular day to day sales
experiences and they highlight the importance of giving your customers your
complete attention while they are in your shop, but that's not what this
article is about. There are higher levels of potentially misleading customer
intent and at least one example occurred recently at QVM.
In the broader retail world there are
plenty of examples where customers have said one thing but reacted differently.
There is the famous instance of the world's largest retailer, Walmart, responding
to customer research that said customers wanted tidier Walmart stores. So
Walmart tidied up their stores. They removed the clutter, widened the aisles,
and made things generally more orderly and easier to navigate. Their stores
looked very tidy but sales dropped, and within 6 months Walmart had reverted to
their old format. Customers said they wanted tidy but in fact what really
attracted them were the piles of merchandise, and the no-fuss presentation that
made shopping a bit of an adventure rather than a sterile showcase.
There has been an example of misleading customer
intent right here at QVM and it relates to the presence of hand crafted goods in our
market. Social media is full of suggestions that there should be more handmade
craft at QVM. You know, the sort of artisan goods that you buy at neighbourhood
markets, or at Southbank, or St.Kilda foreshore markets. Traveller’s forum,
Trip Advisor, has many comments about the lack of craft at QVM, and
the first round of community engagement for renewal attracted similar
comments. Back in March, Melbourne's press attacked cheap souvenirs at QVM with at least one TV interviewee saying there should be more quality craft goods.
The special Sunday markets at the top of
A shed (now C shed) have included some of the best craft available in Melbourne
and appear to have been quite successful. But the big test came at Christmas
when a special craft market was established in L shed for the three Thursdays
leading up to Christmas. The first Thursday attracted a full set of craft traders but by
the final Thursday, that had dwindled to 1/3rd of the original number with the absentees
obviously very disappointed with their sales.
The customers who said they wanted more craft had not followed through.
Now there could be many reason why that experiment didn't work, but the result
certainly didn't meet with organiser's expectations.
