Time to cash in: Consumers spend up to $5,400 a year on impulse purchases
Want to tap into customers’ impulse purchases? If you do, you could benefit from those unplanned purchases, earning up to $5,400 annually.
That’s how much the average U.S. consumer spends each year on impulse buys, according to a new survey by Slickdeals.net. The study of 2,000 consumers shows they make three of those purchases a week, adding up to $450 a month and $5,400 per year.
According to a CNBC survey, most spontaneous purchases involve eating: 70.5 percent of survey respondents name food as their biggest impulse purchase. Outside of food, the most commonly purchased items are clothing, wine, magazines, books, shoes, and toiletries. Eighty-five percent of survey respondents said their impulse purchase involved taking advantage of a deal or discount.
How can retailers maximize this opportunity? Impulse merchandising. According to Paul Nunes and Brian Johnson, the authors of Mass Influence, up to 20 percent of the average household’s grocery bill comes from items that were purchased on impulse alone. Retailers can make their checkout counters generate more store revenue with increased display space to showcase impulse items or special product promotions. Additionally, impulse merchandising helps to:
• Increase sales of point-of-purchase items
• Entice customers waiting in line
• Control store traffic
The average person, over the course of a lifetime, will spend over $110,000 on impulsive purchases. It’s time for retailers to cash in on consumers’ spontaneous spending through effective impulse merchandising.
