All consumers can relate to certain stores more than others. Often people have found themselves drawn to stores, wanting to spend more time within its walls. Buyers will even begin to create associations with brands and define their favorites. Clearly, brick and mortar stores are not designed just with aesthetics in mind; display locations, floor materials, lighting, aromas, and everything involved with the store’s interaction has been meticulously planned and placed. The aim of this post is to explore how e-commerce and brand’s sites can implement a decompression zone, the pitfalls they may encounter, and how they can overcome these obstacles in order to successfully drive sales using a decompression zone.
Decompression zones can be found at the entrance of a store, often being the first interaction with a customer. Renowned consumer culture expert, Paco Underhill, describes an individual’s internal process when confronted with this transition area:
“You can’t see it, but they’re busily making adjustments – simultaneously they’re slowing their pace, adjusting their eyes to the change in light and scale, and craning their necks to begin taking in all there is to see. Meanwhile, their ears and noses and nerve endings are sorting out the rest of the stimuli – analyzing the sounds and smells, judging whether the store is warm or cold. There’s a lot going on, in other words, and I can pretty much promise you this: These people are not truly in the store yet. You can see them, but it’ll be a few seconds more before they’re actually here.” (Underhill, 2008)
In other words, the change in environmental stimuli overtakes the shopper’s concentration, pushing secondary factors out of mind. This adjustment environment allows consumers to stay in their automatic, System 1 state while they’re acclimating to the new environment. When optimally utilized, this space is used to allow shoppers to adjust to the newest stimuli and influence their buying behavior. However, lack of foresight in this area can cause loss of promotional value or even be a deterrent to passersby.
Online, however, poses many complications that can make decompression zones difficult to implement. For instance, consumers do not have the opportunity to physically interact with websites, making touch and smell sensory experiences impossible. Yet exploiting audio and visual components such as website design, customer greetings/interactions, navigation, and power displays can imitate transitionary space. First, website design and layout conveys specific brand messaging, user journeys, and allure. Physical stores have the luxury of depth, three dimensional space, and exterior, whereas websites can only be seen once entered. Underhill emphasizes that smaller stores have less space to implement a transition area. Online, there is even less space, which can cause large visual contrasts for entering users. This lack of depth and sharp contrast can cause users to move out of their automatic state into a cognizant mindset, System 2.
To create “more space”, certain websites have employed pre-entry landing pages, known as splash pages, to help users prepare for their experience on the website. Examples of brands using such strategies are Harvard Business Review and Forbes, which gives a small quote and won’t allow users to enter without specific system requirements. Unfortunately, Ballantine agency found most splash pages have high user drop-off rates, because it causes frustration and prevents visitors from reaching their content. Conversely, websites may choose to forego a splash page and instead apply a layout similar to a splash page on their homepage. This can create transitionary space by implementing minimalistic designs that allow visitors to adjust. Some companies that have taken advantage of this for their homepage design are FreshBooks, Mint, and Evernote. These websites make the primary visual simple and make navigation easy to understand. For additional user benefit, these sites also provide information below the initial display that help inform customers about what they can expect from the site. For example, the text below the FreshBooks logo reads, “Small business accounting software designed for you.” This simplistic design is consistent with the goal to avoid shifting customer mindset into System 2.
Another way for e-commerce and brand sites to implement a decompression zone on their website is to greet users as they enter. Acknowledging a visitor at the entrance of a brick and mortar store has several benefits: it discourages shoplifting and appears more personal to the customer. With online shopping, a tactic to avoid shoplifting is unnecessary. However, the action of greeting users that enter into the website is a great way to establish a connection with online visitors. Not only does this tactic reinforce a user’s choice to come to the website, but it also begins the subtle seduction that can encourage potential sales. Shopify has found that many websites have had success with pop-ups in driving more action from their visitors. Popups can also be used to inform consumers about navigation options, site capabilities, or even simple greetings. Many sites have also used a less interruptive approach in greeting their customers with simple text stating “Welcome” or “Hello”. This method can be seen on e-commerce sites like Amazon and Target, who even greet users by name when they are logged into their site account. This is the preferred greeting methods, as customers feel less interrupted and more at ease with the e-commerce site.
Underhill states that a transition zone can be a prime opportunity for stores to not only greet customers, but also offer them a map to the store. The most important trait found in online shoppers is convenience (Brashear, Kashyap, Musante, & Donthu, 2009). Making sure that a user feels at ease and can sufficiently explore areas that they are interested in is crucial. If an e-commerce site has difficult navigation features that don’t allow for convenience, such as deep, unsearchable content, online visitors may end up becoming more aware of their displeasure and frustrations. This shift in mentality can lead to reconsideration of purchases from the website, lower the consumer’s opinion of the brand, and potentially even affect brick and mortar store loyalty, if the website has a physical store. Though it may seem like core feature, a site’s navigation plays a vital role in a user’s experience.
Visual content can also play a fundamental role in the digital decompression zone. One great use of visuals in this area is called a power display, which Why We Buy (Underhill, 2008) suggests “acts as a barrier to slow shoppers down. Kind of like a speed bump. It also functions as a huge billboard. It doesn’t necessarily say, ‘Shop me.’ It says, ‘Pause a second to look at what you’re walking in on.’” Because online shopping lacks the three-dimensional, life-size experience, the visual effect may be slightly lessened due to the smaller size of display. However, websites can apply visuals that are not expected to slow down visitors. One opportunity to attract attention is by using short, continuous video displays. Implementing a small, high-definition video loop that automatically plays can cause users to pause and look at the movement without feeling interrupted. An example of this is Amazon’s Dress Shop, with a moving model to draw the eye without interrupting the visitor’s journey. Websites can also use large, high-definition photos that may help align the brand message with chosen imagery. As stated earlier, the power display doesn’t have to be about pushing a product or promotion onto users, but about creating time, curiosity, and potentially interest in something that was not a part of the shopper’s original intent.
Overall, the function of a decompression zone as it relates to brick and mortar stores can also be useful to online stores and websites. The physical stores are able to use physical space, cart and greeting areas, and life-sized, tangible power displays to keep entering customers in a System 1 mindset while adjusting to new environments. Similarly, online websites can utilize web design, welcoming content, intuitive navigation capabilities, and unexpected digital power displays to achieve similar effects. With this in mind, it is recommended that all of these factors, along with the main function of the website be smooth and integrated to maintain both customer satisfaction and automaticity.
References
Underhill, P. (2008). Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping. New York City, New York: Simon & Schuster
Brashear, T. G., Kashyap, V., Musante, M. D., & Donthu, N. (2009, June 1). A Profile of the Internet Shoppers: Evidence From Six Countries. Journal of Marketing Theory & Practice, 17(3), 267-281