The oldest multi-sensory retailer in the world
Multi-sensory retailer of all times and peoples. The reliable interaction formula
Successful retail today is more than the correct display of products on the shelves. This is the retailer’s awareness of the importance of multi-sensory communication between the brand and the customer. This is an understanding of how multi-sensory perception affects people and their decisions.
Multi-sensory retailer with a sales floor
The most successful multi-sensory retailer appeared in the IV century B.C. It had its own history, a sales hall, provided customer journey and customer experience. The ancient retailers answered a large number of questions related to the bright future of each buyer. The “loyalty of their target audience” depended on how talentedly they created and shaped that bright future.
Temples began to appear in the fourth century B.C. throughout Mesopotamia. The greatest success in temple construction was achieved by the ancient Sumerians, who lived in the south of the lower Mesopotamia. They were the first to build shrines according to a multi-sensory model.
The multi-sensory model is the ability to work with the five senses of a person, to form his/her perception of space on the trading floor and beyond.
The picture shows an example of the interior of a successful retailer. We perceive it with the help of vision, which immerses us in a certain atmosphere, makes us feel and pay attention to details. It is through vision that they transmit their very simple idea — the idea of salvation.
In temples, a person feels like a small defenseless creature against the background of a monumental structure. Their salvation lies beyond their own capabilities, at the mercy of higher forces.
A modern retailer doesn’t have to adopt this idea. However, the tool is undoubtedly effective and offers a large number of opportunities.
A part of multisensory perception is the natural perception of space through light. Every temple of any religion uses this tool, because properly constructed light fulfills the most important task of the shrine — it creates an atmosphere of maximum immersion.
An important tool, of course, is music. Without it, it is impossible to imagine modern retail. When we come to the temple, there is activated our next channel of perception — hearing. Spatial perception and music that sets us up with its specific course, rhythm, and tonality, and puts us in a trance state. Music is an instrument that retail has been using for 6 thousand years. That is, a 6-thousand-year-old tool that we should use without being shy about how it works.
Each temple or church uses specific flavors. Interacting with music, light, and space, they put us in a certain hypnotic state: we enter the flow, enjoy it, and want to return to it. This is another tool that a modern retailer should learn from a “prehistoric” retailer.
Creating a goal
When a retailer has attracted all the channels of human perception, they need to somehow manage this tool, build a path of interaction with the client. You should start by setting a goal. For example, an ancient retailer’s goal was salvation. They were supposed to save a person, while forming a certain model of their behavior, to provide “instructions” for rescue.
Sensory contradictions
When creating an atmosphere inside a retail space, it is important not to cause sensory contradictions: when one sense organ is too involved and the other is not, or they will send different signals to the body. For example, low light levels will slow down metabolic processes, while rhythmic music, on the contrary, will speed them up.
It is music that controls your heart rate. Accordingly, the lower the rhythm, the longer a person stays in the hall, the more they are involved in interaction.
Changing reality-building a picture of the future
The oldest retailer has been offering pictures of the future for several thousand years. Churches use this tool very well — paintings and frescoes in churches depict paintings of paradise, the promised grace. Similarly, retailers can use images, various pictures in which they will also show the future that awaits their customers.
According to research, if a part of the retail space and retail shelves is given for images or looks (peculiar icons), then sales in some cases can grow up to 38-40% even if the number of product items located there is reduced. Undoubtedly, this is a complex issue. However, images in Egyptian temples, Sumerian temples, or icons in churches that show the path to salvation or the rewards that await after salvation are another tool to use.
Most often, we are embarrassed to talk about this, because any issues related to religious topics are not perceived or a taboo in society. However, you need to understand that there are tools that you just need to use. Retail has changed a lot over the past 20 years, and it is changing according to the scheme that has existed for 6 thousand years.
Creating a ritual
Each purchase is preceded by rituals. They are important for creating corporate cultures, social norms, and behaviors. Rituals simultaneously activate all the sensory systems of a person and all their sensory perception.
The ideas of any religion are similar: obedience and salvation. The retailer doesn’t have to follow them, but the set of tools has proven to be effective. You make an action that must necessarily precede the act – a purchase.
When you create a ritual in the sales hall, the buyer will definitely not leave without a purchase. The client will want to thank you and spend their money in your sales hall. Therefore, rituals that are well planned, predicted and are an integral part of the buying adventure always come to the most important thing — an act.
The oldest multi-sensory retailer remains the most successful in the entire history of mankind. All the tools through which it works are necessary for every retailer that plans the client’s path and interaction with the brand. Therefore, do not hesitate to use this experience in order to increase your sales and make a profit from every square meter of the retail space.