How Turning A Table At 45 Degrees Boosted Beer Sales By 15%
I once had William J. Walter — a sausage shop — as a client. They were truly struggling with their beer sales. The beer fridge was at the worst spot possible and it had to stay there. They asked for my UX design skills to provide a solution.
User experience — aka UX — is mostly about psychology. To influence people’s behaviours, you need to look at what they do in context and find why they do what they do first. It is surprising how quickly assumptions considered logical at first are falling flat after a simple test.
Let me show you a powerful example.
I went to William J. Walter’s shop in Quebec City and sat on the right side of the entrance for two hours. I wanted to see the path the customers take first.
Here’s a sketch of the path.
As shown in the image above, their natural path was quite simple. They came in, they bought the sausages, they paid and they left. Almost everyone was doing the same thing.
Now let’s see how they behaved along the way.
Quickly, I noticed that most of them acted like new customers, even though some of them were not at their first visit. As they came in, they did not seem to know what to do. They appeared lost. But why? Weren’t they there to simply buy sausages?
Indeed, they were all heading straight to the counter to buy sausages. But something was wrong. Something was unnatural. I felt friction. I thought they felt like they were forced to go to the counter despite their will, like it was wrong. +1 friction
Feeling that something is wrong is rarely enough for someone to act or react the properly. Your job as a UX designer is to define and remove those moments of friction and replace them with “aha” moments to empower the customers with clear choices.
Then at the counter, they chose the sausages with some difficulties. They knew nothing about sausages. +1 friction
Finally, on their way out, they noticed the beer fridge for the first time. Or maybe they forgot about it. Nonetheless, it seemed to be disappointing for some of them. They missed the opportunity to buy beer because those who eat sausages like beer. It’s a fact… Yeah… +1 friction
It’s important to understand that the customers will not go back to buy beer after having paid for the sausages. They will rather go to the convenience store even if it is more complicated.
Ironic, right? That’s the beauty of psychology!
Leading customers with “aha” moments
After defining the moments of friction, I knew why they were acting and reacting like they did. The problem was clear. I substituted these moments with beer moments along the way in order to help them find out what there were there for: sausages.
Leading people with beer. Perfect world isn’t? Let’s see how I hacked the mind of sausage eaters with alcohol (evil laugh).
The tasting experience of mixing the right beer type with the right sausage type is one of the most valuable knowledge William J. Walter’s owners had. The owners knew it and it was an added value they wanted to provide to their customers. They had an experience to offer, not only a basic sausages selling experience like in any other shop.
So far, the only thing they did with that knowledge was to have a beer fridge. So I thought “Why not bringing the beer and the sausages altogether? Why not leading them with beer?”
After a quick assessment of the situation, I suggested to simply turn the table at 45 degrees, to put some beer bottles and packs at the entrance and to add bottles of beer beside the sausages in the counter. I also asked the clerk to promote this simple sensory experience.
Let’s see what changed.
Magically and instantly, the customers entering the shop were acting quite differently. It was already changing, right at the beginning.
First, we broke the psychological corridor that the straight table was creating by making a pivote of 45 degrees. That made the customers feel invited, not forced to consume. It was an empathetic change. They were not going straight to the counter anymore. They were waiting a few seconds to scan the environment due to the table acting like a stop sign. They felt like they could take the time to look at the entire shop before making the right move. -1 friction. +1 aha moment.
Secondly, we gave them clear choices. Arriving at the counter, they noticed the beer besides the sausages. With no knowledge about sausages, they could make a better and quicker choice because they knew what type of beer they like. Everyone does! -1 friction. +1 aha moment.
Finally, we kept them noticing that beer was available along the way to the cashier. Before paying, some of them reached out to the beer fridge to finalize shaping their tasting experience. They left the shop with beer and sausages in their hands and a smile on their face. -1 friction. +1 aha moment.
Empowering customers with clear choices and moving “aha” moments will give them the confidence to take action that will positively change their life. You business will greatly benefit from this change.
The True Value of UX
My old client recently told me that after these minor changes, their beer sales grew up to 15%. I charged them 150$ for the analysis and the recommendations. This is NOTHING compared to the profit they made.
So let me clarify one single thing.
Investing in user/customer experience is proved to be 10, 100 and 1000 times worth the investment.
User/customer experience is just a skill to help people find what they want in the most positive way and at the right moment. Whether it is for an app, a website or a store, customers are looking for something. You might have what they want, but if the user/customer is confused, frustrated or disappointed in their journey to find what they want, he is not likely to buy and come back. That is a subtle and powerful threat to any business. Improving the paths and the flows will have a considerable impact on their actions and will greatly improve the business’ incomes.
By knowing what the customers did and mostly WHY they did it, we just tweaked the environment in order to influence their behaviours. We created a simple and compelling experience for the customers so they find what they want in a frictionless journey. Moreover, we replaced the fiction moments with “aha” moments. And trust me, they will remember it. William J. Walter started to have a better relationship with their customers from that day.
In the end, the customers just saw the beer as the guide to get sausages, not just another thing to buy. They wanted beer but not only because it was everywhere. They wanted beer because it mixes well with sausages and it guided them to these tasty little things called sausages. Because those who eat sausages drink beer. It’s a fact!
If you liked this article you might want to look at some of my other articles about UX. Feel free to check them out or to follow me. :)
