The importance of the in-store experience.

Saturday, being the first day of the term holidays I gave myself a break from the stresses of all my homework and assignments and took an off day. Not quite an off day, I was still relatively active traveling off to various places, but off from anything school related at least. First a property auction with dad, then to a computer store to hopefully get my Vaio serviced to be told that it must wait till Monday, then to another computer store to find that they weren't even open, and then finally, to the Sony store. I didn't take my Vaio to the Sony store to get it serviced as their quoted price was light-years beyond what we considered to be an appropriate price point, but we dropped in just so dad could check out some camcorders. That's all.

Initially it was intended to be a go in, get out sort of affair, and that was the kind of experience that I had become accustomed to when visiting the Sony Centre. In the past there had never been anything striking that had achieved successfully to stray me from my sense of focus. Our intention was to have a look at various camcorder models and then straight back to the car. Though there was something pleasantly different about my experience at the Sony Centre that day, I was distracted.

Distraction is generally a notion that is frowned upon, and is associated with a lack of productivity or a blatant unnecessary usage of time, but when it comes to creating a good store, distraction is truly an achievement. Why is it that in a supermarket all the essentials are located at the end, advertently forcing you to walk past a collection of 'distractions' subtly screaming at you to be purchased. Why is it that at any store products are never boxed and price labelled vacuously, but are open and set up to be seen, touched and experienced. I'm sure stores are designed with this 'distraction' factor in mind.

As I mentioned previous visits to the Sony Centre never evoked this pleasant distraction factor. However most of my visits to JB Hi-Fi or the Apple Store are initiated upon distraction. I never have any intention of dropping into these places or purchasing anything when I do, but I always drop in when I walk past, because the excitement of playing with something new or seeing something new is enough to pull me in. At my visit on Saturday to the Sony Centre the first thing I noticed was the usual wall of camcorders to the left, the table of Vaio's in the centre and the wall of Bravia televisions at the very end. Though the interesting thing to my left was a display, and above it it said something along the lines of 'smile to take a photo'. It was meant to advertise the smile detection feature on some Cyber-shot models, basic concept was that you smiled at the Cyber-shot and it would automatically take a photo of you displayed on the big screen. My sister and I had a lot of fun with this, and it was only then that the monumental importance of the in-store experience really struck me.

There was a young couple, no older than 25 years old that didn't appear to be your usual geeky tech consumer. They were having an absolute ball playing with the contagiously fun device and I recall one jokingly saying 'I feel like a kid again'. I had never realised what really made a great product or experience until then. Of course you have the usual generic factors like 'it has to look good' and 'it has to be durable and enjoyable to use', but it is really those products and experiences that change people that can be truly considered to be successful. The couple were there completely in a world of their own pulling faces at the camera, dancing around, creating hand gestures to try and fool the camera into thinking it was a smile, with a complete disregard to the people including me, looking at them amused. My sister by nature isn't a consumer electronics guru, as long as the product works, then it works for her. Even she though was entertained by this most infectious contraption. I had never seen my sister so voluntarily occupied by what was nothing more than just a digital camera.

I always knew the store experience was important, customer service has to be good, products have to be displayed and able to be experienced and touched. But I didn't think it was this important. Consumers open up to new experiences whether they're a fan or not in the first place. I'm sure if I saw a real working Teletubby outfit in a Supre (teeny clothing chain) store I would have a new found respect for Supre, even though these stores are bottom of the barrel in my collection of displeasing venues. From this, it's appropriate to conclude that the store experience is almost equal in importance to the product itself. Creating the product is one thing, but if people aren't able to experience it to its full potential before purchase then consumers can't appropriately evaluate what they're paying for.

Amidst all my ramble you might be struggling to see the point behind this article, but the idea is that the experience when a consumer walks into a store is crucial to how a consumer feels about a product, a brand and can make or break a potential purchase. Had that camera been cheaper or we had been less lacking in funds, that camera very well might have been an impulse buy. Sony can't simply go with the assumption that stores are merely a place to purchase items, they are much more, they are a place to learn, experience and maybe even have a little fun. Sony realise this, and they've responded especially with the opening of the first 'Sony Store' in Los Angeles, but Sony's store presence in Australia is still really lacklustre. My sister walked in grudgingly, the mere notion of an electronics store upset her, but in the end it was all smiles, pun intended. The young couple were distracted like little children at this painfully addictive contraption; I'm sure they hadn't walked in with the knowledge of the existence of such a fun device, perhaps they hadn't even walked in to have a look at cameras at all.

Bottom line is, a great store isn't just a place to take money from your buyers, but a place to capture your potential consumers. This, is the importance of the in-store experience.