Wow! Experiences

How to create WOW experiences while shopping?

WOW experiences while shopping lead to customers returning. And they contribute to a higher recommendation rate to a great extent.

Shopping only becomes fascinating for us when it's not just about a sober shopping list. When shopping, we want to be surprised, experience something, fall in love, be enchanted
– in short: We want to have WOW experiences.

How can WOW experiences be systematically created?

What is perceived as a WOW experience depends on situations, environments and preferences. As an example, you will find brief descriptions of two psychological product types from our systematic analyses. We have exchanged the presentation with fairy tales because the psychological 'mechanics' of the types can be illustrated so well.

Example: Luxury items – The Emperor's New Clothes

Buyers of luxury products and luxury brands are often concerned that their coveted luxury items may not actually be worth that much and that the proud luxury prices are not justified in the end. It is like in the fairy tale 'The Emperor's New Clothes': There remains a residual concern about falling for clever fraudsters who only pretend to manufacture sensational new luxury products and clothes. But how can the opposite be proven?

Paradoxically, this concern can only be dispelled if buyers of luxury products get something for free. If the seller of the suit from a luxury manufacturer takes back and replaces the good piece without complaint even after 1½ years because a seam has come undone, then he gives the luxury buyer a WOW experience. Because the dealer shows him that he himself also has high expectations of the luxury product and that a corresponding service is a matter of course for this luxury item. The buyer will come back and tell others about the great service. The same applies to the care of high-quality jewelry and watches. Services and invitations from the jeweler that are not charged "prove" psychologically paradoxically the value of the objects, precisely because they are not charged.

Example: Mainstream Outfit – Goldmarie & Pechmarie

Buyers of mainstream products often seek security when they orientate themselves towards what is “common”. Like Goldmarie in the fairy tale, they don't want to do anything wrong and meet expectations. Because they are worried that they will otherwise be ostracized like Pechmarie if they do not take care of the norms, expectations and wishes of others.

Even if these buyers often appear adapted and 'easy to care for', they still have demanding wishes: because they want to be rewarded for their adapted behavior. Adapting should pay off, like Goldmarie, who is showered with gold in the end in the fairy tale for her behavior.

WOW experiences for this buyer clientele of mainstream outfits therefore often arise precisely when they are offered a very special, individualized shopping experience. This can be produced in a variety of ways – here are a few examples: “samples” that are particularly nicely packaged, shoes or clothes that the dealer has set aside specifically for this person; individualized discounts. With a few correctly used individual rewards, great WOW experiences can be created.

Analyze the psychology of the contexts and create WOW experiences!

There are many other psychological areas: status products for representing, lingerie products for private intimacy, baby products for being a mom and dad. If you know the psycho-logic of the buyers in these areas, shopping experiences can be created systematically and in a targeted manner.