Pupil Tracking Experiments Help Merchandisers with a Time Crunch

How do you create a captive audience when you have less than a second to attract the viewer’s attention? That is the question retailers everywhere are trying to find the answer for. Using pupil tracking devices to record eye movement, merchandisers are conducting consumer behavior research to evaluate which retail display tactics are effective and which fail to attract the shopper’s gaze.

A recent article entitled Gone in 3 Seconds, by Gary McCartney, explains an experiment conducted by an eye tracking research company in a retail setting. Shoppers were asked to wear a special pair of goggles that contained tiny cameras. The microcameras monitored the shoppers’ gaze as they browsed through the store as they normally would without the goggles. The store staff, of course, were aware of the experiment and the reason for the number of customers wearing peculiar glasses. The results from the pupil tracking cameras showed that customers rapidly scan the store for the item they are looking for. This means that high tech or detailed merchandise displays have less than a second to make an impression as the consumer glances around.

With this being the case, McCartney recommends that merchandisers keep it simple. The communication needs to be straightforward and quick. Strategies like displaying a popular item away from the rest of the category won’t attract the intended attention. It only takes a few seconds for a shopper to assume you don’t have the product they’re looking for if they can’t find it right away. So, place products where the average consumer will expect to find it.

Gaze tracking technology can give insight to consumer shopping patterns. By detecting where shoppers look and for how long, researchers can give retailers the information they need to create displays that will capture consumer interest. It is easier to design displays to match existing consumer behavior than to try to convince consumers to change their ways

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