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Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN13: 9781416595243
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Revolutionary retail guru Paco Underhill is back with a completely revised edition of his classic, witty bestselling book on our ever-evolving consumer culture -- full of fresh observations and important lessons from the cutting edge of retail, which is taking place in the world's emerging markets. New material includes:• The latest trends in online retail -- what retailers are doing right and what they're doing wrong -- and how nearly every Internet retailer from iTunes to Amazon can drastically improve how it serves its customers. • A guided tour of the most innovative stores, malls and retail environments around the world -- almost all of which are springing up in countries where prosperity is new. An enormous indoor ski slope attracts shoppers to a mall in Dubai; an uber luxurious Sao Paolo department store provides its customers with personal shoppers; a mall in South Africa has a wave pool for surfing. The new Why We Buy is an essential guide -- it offers advice on how to keep your changing customers and entice new and eager ones.
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| Round out your MBA |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Confession: my first contact with Envirosell was to discuss viability of applying defense tracking "technology looking for a problem" to retail environments. Underhill dismissed this entire practice as glibly on page 56 as his staff dismissed my meeting request. I've since read his book for a more nuanced understanding of his perspective.
Underhill rightly criticizes business schools (US in particular). "Among the many pieces missing from an MBA education is an understanding of the fundamentals of the packaging and that affects the brand " (pg 84).
The book is compelling because of its memorably humorous case studies. What is "butt brush" is and how does it impact your bottom line? (no pun intended) How can you discern the gender of a store manager in one glance? He draws from clients in diverse industries and geographies to serve us universal guidelines we can test in our own businesses. Despite a background in architecture and urban planning, most of the suggestions he makes are not big budget redesigns, but tactical tweaks you could begin implementing in less than 24 hours. Even for casual shoppers, this book will make you savvier about the tactics retailers use to decrease your abandon rate as well as giving you tools to be a more perceptive people watcher.
There are just two improvements standing between this book and a full five star rating.
* Match Expository Structure to Audience. This book reads like an Envirosell business development travelogue. As mentioned by a prior reviewer, the "Come Fly With Me" chapter covering Envirosell's international expansion detracts from the flow and would work better as an introduction or postscript. This book should function more like triage in an ER. It should calmly identify quick experiments, benchmark data, and organizational priming that a patient could process while waiting for the Envirosell surgeons to help with more intractable challenges. The material is there, but too scattered to hang together as a coherent how-to guide.
* Soften Luddite Stance on Technology. Underhill's heart is in the right place; we've all felt that "top level executives [crunch] numbers but never even once [bother] to visit the actual floor" (pg 275). He's even added a few additional chapters about eCommerce and technology to this version as a concession to his Amazon reviewers. Yet one can't ignore the potential for technology to nurture a culture that embraces the observation and experimentation he applauds. For instance, Underhill mentions, "Without conversion rates, you can't tell whether you're Mickey Mantle or Mickey Mouse." (pg 31) Fair. However, his current methods of observation limit him to measuring store conversion rates at the per visit level while wistfully speculating about the potential of calculating customer's value based on their in-store and online activity (pg 245).
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| It's the best for any Retail Business to know |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I've been a Retail Visual Merchandiser and Stylist for 34 years and Paco Underhill's science is absolutely accurate. I live by this "science". It was great to know that I've been doing it right for all these years and even learned some new stuff from this book. It's a MUST READ !
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| Fascinating, albeit mistitled, book |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I somehow imagine a team of marketers and sales strategist at Simon & Schuster sitting with Underhill's manuscript and trying to make the book seem snappier, a little more soundbiteable. After all "Observations on Shopping Mannerisms by Anthropologist turned Retail Consultant" doesn't have the same tone as "Why We Buy" which rings with a promise to explain our deepest desires for material goods. Alas, the title misleads (not living up to Underhill's explanation of the function of the sign, even if it is only three words short...and in some ways, one must consider every book cover fulfilling the function of store signage).
Rather than "Why", the book is more of a "How". In what ways do consumers function within a retail space? What are the deterrents, the subtle incentives to stay in a retail space, the final closing environment for the sell? How do consumers function based on demographics? What is the architecture of the retail environment? What makes a consumer buy or not buy? These are some of the questions that Underhill seeks to answer with his team of field observers who track (unbeknownst to the shoppers), tape and interview shoppers.
Some reviewers have mentioned how commonsensical some of the observations are. Yet, it's one of the aspects that is always surprising about retail: that the commonsensical is ignored because so many of the decisions are made by corporate executives who do not spend enough time in the retail environment. Yet, on the rare occasions when a corporate executive will spend time in his/her company's retail executive, genuine observations will not come easily as an employee's perception is colored by his/her own preconceived ideas about what the company is. Additionally, it's difficult to perceive judiciously every single reaction one has but each easier to perceive on a surface level the reaction of others. For instance, when I read Underhill's observation for a need for a "transitional space" between the parking lot and actually starting to be absorbed in the retail space, I immediately understood what he meant, remembering my own shopping experiences and needing some time to take off my coat, close my umbrella, etc. Yet, I could never have articulated that in the way Underhill has done after minute observation.
I loved the chapter on the senses and shopping. One might say that the boom of the farmer's market in recent years can be partly attributed to a more interesting sensory experience than the often sterile, air-conditioned supermarket experience (of course, there are also political agendas and food issues that come into play). Yet, when I go to an interesting farmer's market with tables displaying a bounty of produce, freshly baked goods, beautiful flowers, handspun yarn...the displays of multiple colors, smells, as well as the varying characters of each vendor all make the farmer's market a more pleasurable experience than shivering through a supermarket where I am confronted with mediocre produce, food hidden under too much packaging, or aisles and aisles of frozen goods.
Underhill includes some great observations on dressing rooms, from its awful interior design and architecture to the shabby daily maintenance. The one further item I wish he had explored as a natural complement is the existence of bathrooms. It strikes me that too often independent businesses lose out by not having a public bathroom, even if it were just one small lavatory. While Starbucks helped invent the "third space" concept, I also think that it has a restroom is crucial. I can't count the number of times I went into a Starbucks to use the restroom and bought a coffee as I felt I would too shameless to just use their facilities.
For those who are interested in the minutiae of the retail experience (and I use the word minutiae in the most complimentary manner), this is a superb and tremendously enjoyable reading.
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| Seems to me I've heard this song before |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Paco Underhill is a crack analyst of consumer behavior, and an engaging writer who has introduced terms like "butt brush" (the undesired physical contact one experiences in narrow-aisled stores like Walmart) into the American language. I really liked the original 2000 WHY WE BUY.
So why only four stars this time? Because a lot of this book is not truly new. And much of what there is, may be more useful as a current-events survey than as a guide for consumers or merchants. For example, back in 2000 Underhill bemoaned the vapidity and unoriginal character of most shopping-mall stores and even the monotony of the allegedly trendy kiosks that clutter the hallways.
Underhill is vindicated -- the shopping mall did not keep pace with consumers' needs and desires and now, as a retail insititution, many of them are in deep trouble, with unconquerably high vacancy rates and even higher apathy rates among budget-stressed Americans. Underhill the author is too big to say "I told you so" even though he has the right to. And this new WHILE WE BUY is honestly billed as a revision, but that doesn't make it particularly compelling.
In any past recession or depression, enterpreneurs have made millions by figuring out how to cater to consumers in new ways. Steak 'n' Shake was founded in 1934 to offer a table-service restaurant that is clean, honest, and low priced, and the company has never looked back. Interesting retail phenomena are going to happen, but whether even the best consumer analysts and sociologists of shopping will predict it, remains to be seen. Underhill still seems more interested in rehabilitating the mall movement rather than finding radical alternatives to it. -- a.s.
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| The Science of Why We Buy |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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This book makes really interesting reading for anyone, not just for retailers. It pursues the human angle, humorously exploring the psychology behind why we shop versus how we merchandise products. The author uses dry wit to describe often unanticipated results as well as the obvious and sometimes not so obvious solutions. Research is based on gazillion hours of recording minutiae in the retail environment. (Makes you wonder who's watching you shop.) Very informative. A must have for every new retailer.
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