New Book by Pam Danziger, Shopping: Why We Love It and How Retailers Can Create the Ultimate Customer Experience, Answers the Big Question in Retail—How Do We Sell More?

Business Wire, Oct 5, 2006

STEVENS, Pa. -- Americans love to shop! At least the majority (70 percent) do who say they often or regularly shop just for fun. In the last few years as the retail industry approaches $4 trillion in sales, the number of retail shopping destinations has exploded. With many more stores available to them, shoppers today demand more when they shop than just to select merchandise Co they want new experiences too.

Some of the nation's largest retailers, notably Gap, Pier 1, Sharper Image and Zale, have been slow to respond to the new trends in shopping. Others are making historic changes to transform shopping in their stores to make it more fun. For example, Macy's has just gone national, rebranding its 800 regional department stores and launching an aggressive advertising campaign to the upbeat tune "Dancing in the Streets", while Wal-Mart has abandoned it's 'one-store-fits-all' model for a local initiative based upon a neighborhood demographics that gives local managers more control over the stores' merchandise and the shopping experience.

Today the retail industry is at a crossroads. Shoppers expect more from retailers than just stocking more product on their shelves. For anyone in retail, the big question is, "What's next?" How can retailers please today's savvy shoppers who have little real 'need' for the products they sell, but a growing desire for a fun, engaging shopping experience?

In ShoppingCoWhy We Love It and How Retailers Can Create the Ultimate Customer Experience, ($27.00, Kaplan Publishing, October 2006) author, entrepreneur and nationally-renowned consumer insights expert Pamela N. Danziger reveals the next major shopping trend: the shopper's experience.

Today success in retail is less about what you sell and more about
how you sell it

"Retailers big and small face the same basic challenges: shoppers demand more than just low-priced merchandise when they shop," Danziger says. "In the past retailers' success has largely been a function of offering the right products at the right price in the right location. But those factors are less important today as shopping becomes one of our favorite forms of recreation. Today success in retail is less about what you sell, and more about how you sell it. My new book, Shopping, gives retailers the insights they need to be successful in today's experientially-motivated shopping environment."

Through qualitative and quantitative research among more than 1,000 consumers who love to shop and profiles of dozens of exceptional retailers, Shopping presents key strategies for retailers to use in their stores to turn shopping from a chore for the customer to a pleasurable and memorable experience.

Written for retailers large and small, Shopping studies the consumer to find out what it is about shopping that people love. It profiles retail trendsetters that create extraordinary shopping experiences for their customers Co retailers large and small, including The Apple Store, Barnes & Noble and Saks 5th Avenue to small independent retailers like Charleston's Tiger Lily florist, Atlanta's Boxwoods Gardens & Gifts, Rapid City's Prairie Edge, Atchison, KS' Nell Hill's and Worthington, OH's Damsels in this Dress. Danziger reveals the seven qualities that these exceptional shopping destinations share that make them such a special shopping experience. Danziger calls these stores "Shops that Pop!"

Most importantly, Shopping describes more than 30 principles or action steps that retailers can use to transform the shopping experience in their store from ordinary to extraordinary. Shopping is a must have guidebook for savvy retailers, marketers, advertisers and product developers who want to be on the cutting edge of the future of shopping.

Danziger's new book helps readers hone their retailing strategies by revealing:

* The "Quantum Theory of Shopping" made up of the four essential factors that explain why people buy.

* How retailers, such as Nordstrom, Target, Aerosoles, Godiva and Best Buy's Magnolia Audio Video stores, play each of these four critical variables to their advantage.

* The five shopper personalities, including Ursula the Uber Shopper and Theresa the Therapeutic Shopper, who have unique drives and motivations when it comes to shopping and how retailers can use psychology to attract certain types of customers to their store and get them to buy more.

* The seven distinctive characteristics that transform an ordinary store into an extraordinary 'shop that pops' - called the Pop Equation.

* How specific retailers, large and small, can use the 'Pop Equation' to make their stores a destination for passionate and loyal shoppers.

"Retailers need to create a totally new business model to stay competitive in this fickle industry and my new book will help put retailers on the path to success by answering the question: How to be successful in the future of retailing," Danziger says.

Author and entrepreneur Pamela N. Danziger is founder of Unity Marketing, a marketing consulting firm that specializes in consumer insights (www.unitymarketingonline.com). A nationally recognized expert on consumer spending and motivation, she is frequently sought by the media for her expertise and has appeared on programs such as Today, CBS News Sunday Morning, and NPR's Marketplace and has been called on for commentary and analysis by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes and USA Today, among others. Additional titles by author Pamela N. Danziger include: Why People Buy Things They Don't Need and Let Them Eat Cake: Marketing Luxury to the Masses - as well as the Classes.