Why We Buy:
The Science of Shopping

by Paco Underhill
published by Simon & Schuster, 1999

ESC Software Marketing Book Club's March, 2009 selection.

Paco Underhill's book is about how people buy stuff in retail stores. But the lessons that he teaches us apply to buying software on the Internet, too.

Little changes to a store's layout can make huge differences in sales. Changing signs can increase or decrease sales. Lots! It stands to reason that the same principles apply to web site layouts.

Underhill's clients include Saks Fifth Avenue, The Gap, Hallmark, The US Postal Service, Wal-Mart, and Starbucks. We don't have to pay his company tens of thousands of dollars to learn how to sell more software. Instead, we can spend a few fun hours reading his book and talking about it.

Paco Underhill has an unusual job. Retail stores hire him to observe their customers, and suggest ways to increase sales.

In the days before digital cameras (1992, in this case), Underhill's company spent $60,000(US) on Super 8 movie film. Kodak told him that he was the world's largest consumer of Super 8 film.

Underhill is interested in everything about retail stores - "every rack, shelf, counter and table display of merchandise, every sign, banner, brochure, directional aid and computerized interactive informational fixture, the entrances and exits, the windows and walls,..." The list goes on, but you get the picture.

His company has measured nearly 900 types of customer-store interaction.

Change even the smallest thing, and people's buying patterns change.

No doubt, the same is true on the Internet, and we can all learn a lot from Underhill's research.