How music can affect the mood and habits of consumers is a science. The music you hear in-store can directly influence your mood and shopping behaviour, causing you to shop quickly, slowly, or even leave due to frustration.
Extensive studies have been done to document the link between in-store music and shoppers buying behaviour, and ultimately, retailers stand to benefit greatly from introducing in-store radio to their branches. Not only can it increase sales, but it can improve employees’ mood, build a relationship between the brand and the consumer, and make customers aware of store promotions and specials.
Music and Customer Behaviour
There is an art to finding the perfect music for your store, and you may even have different tracks for different times of the day.
Too many retailers choose music that they like or play the music you’d find on the radio. This is detrimental, and studies have shown stores make fewer sales when they play a random selection of music. Music playlists with no theme or careful structure just come off as white noise to customers and will make them irritable or worse, cause them to leave.
Therefore, stores should avoid playing mainstream music or radio stations in-store. It’s just a popular playlist with irrelevant adverts, and they may even promote your competitors over the radio.
Playing a curated selection of music can influence behaviour in a beneficial way. Slow-paced music, in off-peak hours, makes customers feel more relaxed and leads them to spend more time browsing your store. Fast-paced music at the end of the day will encourage customers to grab what they’re looking for, pay and leave.
Upbeat music can also lift one’s mood and decreases consumer perceived dwell time. This is great if there are long waiting times or queues, for instance in a doctor’s waiting room or at a motor repairs shop. Slow music in queues and waiting rooms will make people impatient and frustrated. A happy customer is more likely to buy from you, so don’t irritate them!
When you pick your music, keep a few questions in mind; what do you want your customers to do? What do you want them to think about your store? What do you want them to feel? And how do you want them to interact with your brand?
Music and your Brand
Just because certain music works for some people, doesn’t mean it will work for everyone. You’re not going to find pop music in a high-end jewellery store. Pick music that is in-line with your brand and that is likely to appeal to your target audience. The jewellery store will play slow classical music to make customers spend more time and money in the store. Trendy clothing stores will play pop and punk music to appeal to the youth and encourage purchases. Even then, your music must be carefully selected. Think hard about your brand identity, how you want customers to perceive you, and how you want them to feel.
The Tricky Waters of Music Licenses.
One can’t just play a CD of music in their store. Every song you play needs to be paid for in royalties to the artists. You can receive hefty fines for playing unlicensed music. By hiring a digital communications specialist to manage your in-store radio and music selection, you can rest assured that your curated playlist is fully licensed and paid for.
Not only that, but specialists can record high-quality in-store adverts and announcements for you. With a full setup and campaign consultancy, AVT will set up your in-store radio, assist with the creation of your playlists, and manage your licensing fees. By implementing an in-store radio solution you can better connect with your clients on every level, improving the consumer buying journey and bringing them back for repeat business.
