Electronics chain designs store for women
on October 10th, 2008 at 11:09 amUS electronics giant Best Buy has opened a trial store format with a difference. It’s a store packed with electronics goods designed by women – for women.
Reflecting the fact that women make or heavily influence the majority of consumer purchase decisions these days, a number of companies have begun exhibiting signs of female fever, as online trends monitor trendwatching.com puts it.
The new store is in Aurora, Colorado. The company asked 40 local female customers and its own Women’s Leadership Forum—or ‘WoLF pack’—to participate in the design of the new store, reports springwise.com online.
Among its findings over the nine-month effort were that female customers wanted more help seeing how products could work together and fit into their lives, for example; also that the term “home theatre” suggested technologies suitable only for the very wealthy, according to the Associated Press.
So the new store features electronics products working together in homelike settings, and “home theatre” has been renamed “family room.”
Gone are the chain’s typical warehouse-style blue interiors and metal shelving, replaced instead by wood panelling, carpets featuring earth tones and skylights for natural lighting.
Family-friendly restrooms and race car-shaped shopping carts are also among the additions to the store, which is reportedly putting a new emphasis on making eye contact with customers as well, following its female advisors’ recommendations. The cost of building the women-friendly store was higher than usual for the company, but Best Buy says it expects customer loyalty will make it worthwhile, AP reported.
Ginger Sorvari Bucklin, Best Buy’s director of Winning With Women, explains: “Best Buy’s roots 40 years ago was with high-end audiophiles. Because technology has changed so much, we know women make 45 percent of electronics purchases. This is about serving women better.” A worthwhile—and clearly profitable—goal for traditionally male-focused industries far and wide. What is your brand doing to appeal to women…?
