Consumer editor Emma McKinney meets a Midland shopping behaviour specialist who has revealed top tips to help us fight retailers' secret ways of getting our cash

AFTER decades of working as a merchandising manager for high street shops, Phillip Adcock had become fascinated about the way consumers shop and the decisions we, subconsciously, make when we splash our cash.

It was this interest in human behaviour that saw Phillip launch his Staffordshire-based business, Shopping Behaviour Xplained Ltd (SBXL), which carries out research to help retailers get customers spending in their stores.

That was 12 years ago, and now the company, in Lichfield Business Village, claims to boast a client list featuring some of the world’s biggest retailers and best known brands, all eager to know the secrets behind encouraging shoppers to spend more cash.

Using cameras – with permission – to film shoppers, together with specialist “eye tracking” technology to gauge consumers’ reactions and emotions to the produce and offers they see in stores, means Phillip has been able to advise retailers on a host of ways to boost business.

Tips have included the best colours to use to attract customers to offers, to the amount of produce that should be out on display.

In fact, he claims his research helped to boost a supermarket’s profits by £48 million a week through his research into the habits of consumers buying pre-packed sandwiches.

“Our cameras found that at lunchtime, if the supermarket’s sandwich shelves were fully stocked, 92 per cent of the people that looked for a sandwich bought one,” he said. “However, if the shelves were two-thirds full, then just 63 per cent of the customers bought anything.

In their minds, less produce on the shelves meant there was less choice, even though there was exactly the same variety of sandwiches as when it was fully stocked, there was just less of them.

‘‘The supermarket ensured its shelves were always fully stocked and its profits went up by £48 million a week.”

Now Phillip has decided to turn the tables on the retailers by writing a book to arm shoppers with his research in a bid to teach them how to avoid being sucked into offers they may not want.