There are many goals in business, with sales and customer retention (e.g., repeat business) and impulse spending being the top among them. If you’re not making money, you’re not going to be in business for very long.

It’s always nice when customers enter your retail store looking for specific items and find what they want, but while you’ve got them, it’s wise to encourage additional purchases. One proven way to do this is by facilitating impulse buys.

The question, of course, is how impulse buying works, or more to the point, why it works. Here are just a few tips that will help you to better understand and capitalize on the psychology of impulse buys and impulse displays.

Thoughtful Placement

Impulse buys tend to be small/inexpensive items that offer value greater than their price, and the best way to sell them is to put them in front of customers. This requires some strategy where placement is concerned. If you put impulse buys at the front of the store, shoppers are likely to pass by on their way to find items they came for and forget about them by the time they reach checkout.

It’s this reasoning that leads most retail stores to place impulse buy products near the POS, either on the counter near registers or in checkout lines where shoppers must wait to complete purchases. Of course, this isn’t the only place you can put impulse spending buy items, although it is the most common.

You can also put them near popular products or in high-traffic areas, particularly on endcaps, since you know there will be a lot of customer presence and attention in these areas. Don’t forget the importance of placing items at eye level to catch the most attention, and remember that not all shoppers are adults. If you’re selling impulse buys in a retail space centered around children, put them at the child’s eye level.

Enhanced Visibility of Impulse Spending

If shoppers can’t see your products, they’re not going to buy them, so increasing visibility is an essential component in encouraging impulse buys. Placement is an important part of this equation, but you also need to let shoppers know why they should buy, and signage is the best way to do it. Colorful signage that catches the eye and relates value messaging (i.e., sale or pricing) provides the best opportunity to make impulse buy items stand out and get noticed.

Products and Pricing of Impulse Displays

What you sell and how you price it are both important to facilitating impulse buys and showcasing impulse displays. These products should offer some manner of universal utility (or at least be aimed at your target audience), be easy to grab and add to a cart, and be priced to move.

With low pricing and proper signage, you can create an urgency to buy, as well as convey the value proposition, and you could always create a sense of novelty with the items you choose to sell. Sometimes surprising customers with innovative products can help to spur impulse buys.

In Conclusion

Capitalizing on impulse buys requires you to understand the psychology behind this specific shopping activity, but when you know what compels such purchases, you can use product placement, enhanced visibility, and selective products and pricing to boost impulse buys.

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Updated September 9, 2022.