Cubic Interns Stephanee Rice and Meggie Clemens spent a whole Friday observing shoppers. We were comparing interactions between folded items (most often pants or sweaters) and hanging items as shoppers moved through the store. The GAP and Banana Republic were gracious enough to let us slink around their stores.

We spent 2 hours at each store and watched a total of 26 subjects; five were notated as groups or families shopping together but counted as one subject. Shoppers were watched as they moved through the store and their behavior was detailed on a checklist measuring how many times shoppers:

• Touched items casually – In passing or without looking closely at item
• Touched items with intent – Close inspection of item’s style, size, price, etc
• Picked up items – Unfolded or taken off hanging rack
• Held items up to the shopper’s body – Checking sizes or color against their body
• Tried on items
• Made a purchase – We could not observe what items were purchased to determine if they were originally folded or hung up.

GAP has an open layout with displays breaking the space visually, and Banana Republic has walls dividing it into several small areas customers maneuver through as they shop. We found that the layout differences did not affect the results and similar shopping patterns were found regardless of the store.

What we did find

Customers were at least 3x more willing to touch and pick up hanging items then folded ones. Our 26 patrons only touched 73 folded items with intent, and 40 were picked up and looked at more closely, as compared to 263 hanging items that were touched with intent and 129 taken off the rack and inspected. On average shoppers would touch 10 hanging items to only 3 folded items. So if you have the space and means to hang your clothing, please do so.

Shoppers strongly interacted with 30% of the folded items they picked up and 41% of hanging items. But 38% of subjects (10 of the 26) did not pick up any folded items. The range between these categories also indicates that shoppers don’t just touch more hanging items than folded ones. When shoppers touch and interact with folded items they do so with fewer total items then with hanging clothes.



Why do shoppers avoid folded items?

There are a number of reasons, but we think the intimidation factor of having to unfold and refold items could be the key.  There is a certain amount of effort in inspecting folded clothes, and let’s be honest if we don’t fold them back properly then we feel guilty.  So folded clothes require more time and effort that many consumers aren’t looking to spend.  Folded items may also look too much like a ‘display’ that is not to be touched while hanging clothes remind us of our closets making them more accessible. The major exception is folded pants, which are easier to fold than a cashmere sweater, and are often stored folded in our homes. We noticed that shoppers who touched primarily folded clothes were looking specifically for pants.

Display mannequins accompanied almost all of the tables with folded items. A mannequin may present the folded item in hopes of alleviating the unfolding burden for shoppers, but this does not increasing a consumer’s ability to ‘make it theirs’ which happens as they hold, feel, and interact with items during the shopping process.

Solutions: The trick is to remove the intimidation around a shopper ‘messing up’ a display and still allowing them to interact with the items. We only noticed two subjects acknowledge the mannequins and their contact was brief, although one did find the displayed item and take it.

• Having a ‘Tester’ item that is not on a mannequin or folded neatly with the rest should tell shoppers that it is okay to touch this and encourage interaction. This could be done with the ‘Tester’ being on a hanger near the table, or on a display that tells customers it is ok to touch.
• Having signage encouraging interaction will also help. ‘Touch me, I’m soft’ said the cotton crew neck. This blatantly tells customers that they should interact with the merchandise and can create a fun store atmosphere.
• Mirrors always make people stop and check themselves out. Having a mirror near folded items (perhaps with a sign that says, ‘How’s it look?’) will increase item interaction.

We had a great time observing shoppers, and learned a great deal about consumers and how they shop. We’d like to again thank the GAP and Banana Republic at Utica Square for letting us conduct our retailing research. Let us know of any other solutions you’ve found to this issue or if you would like the Cubic Interns to observe at your business.