different cities throughout the United States. Additionally, the observations were conducted during varied times of the day to observe the foot traffic of the beauty and cosmetics aisles of the stores. The team members visited drug stores such as CVS and specialty stores such as ULTA to conduct observations of five females shoppers each. Furthermore, the observation results revealed all shoppers observed were between the ages of 15-34 year old females who were dressed in casual attire and had light to natural makeup on. These female shoppers were either browsing and/or shopping alone or were accompanied with someone, perhaps a friend or family member.
Observations revealed that the way the beauty products were positioned had a lot to do with where the shoppers would gravitate to first to browse products. For example, the team members observed that products facing the outside of the aisle was where majority of people walk by to get to the cash registers. Additionally the next shelving section was reserved for other brands that pay more to be positioned in the specified areas. This area may have the most impulse purchases because shoppers need to walk past these displays to go to the checkout lanes. Marketers pay more for shelf space and slotting fees to ensure their product is either at eye level or in high traffic areas of the store which helps to create brand awareness and entice impulse buying.
The observed shoppers behaviors varied from browsers, consulting with the person they were with and impulse shoppers, who came into the store knowing exactly what products they wanted to put in their cart and purchase.
Browsing and buying decision-making times varied between two minutes to eight minutes, with the exception of a few female shoppers who took approximately less than two minutes to look for the product and put it in their cart.
One of the things noted in the observation had to do with the fact that older shoppers, those between the ages of 28-34 years of age, knew exactly what they wanted to buy and did