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Enhance your shop with scent marketing

As a retailer you are busy making the customer experience as pleasant as possible. Yet scent marketing in retail is often ignored. You design the shop perfectly and choose the right music. But what we smell has the biggest impact on how we feel and behave. So to make your shop stand out from the competition, good scent marketing is essential. How to use scent marketing in your shop and for what purposes you can use it read here.

 

Scent in the brain

Our environment largely determines how we feel and behave. When we hear a nice song or see a beautiful painting we feel more cheerful. Although we are often less aware of what we smell, it has a much greater effect. This has to do with where our brain processes odours. This happens right next to our so-called “emotion centre“. Therefore the connections between emotions and smells are strong. When we smell something, our brain immediately sends signals to our emotion centre. Scents therefore have a strong influence on how we feel. Think about how you feel when you smell the fragrance of a fresh forest in a garden centre. Scent marketing in a shop should not be underestimated!

 

What effects does scent marketing have in my shop?

Scenting has all kinds of concrete effects. Customers find shops more pleasant when there is a pleasant fragrance. They also judge the products offered as better with a nice fragrance. Another important effect has to do with memory. People remember things better when an emotion is linked to them. Because odours have such a strong influence on emotions, memories are also strengthened. A pleasant smell creates a positive association with your shop or showroom and people remember your brand better. With scent marketing in retail, people come back to your shop more often. This increases customer loyalty.

 

 

Does scent marketing increase the turnover of my shop?

Besides the fact that people experience the environment as a lot nicer, scent marketing in a shop also has commercial applications. Several studies have investigated the effects of olfactory marketing in retail. It appeared that the number of impulse purchases increases with almost a third. People also stay longer in shops with a strong pleasant fragrance. At the same time this time feels shorter: people underestimate how long they have been in a shop with scent marketing! This actually results in a higher turnover, estimated on average 14% more.

 

Does shop scent marketing also have an impact on my staff?

Customers are not the only ones who benefit from a nice fragrance, your employees do too. After all they work all day in for example your clothing shop. Different smells can also be used to make your staff more productive. When there is an uplifting smell such as coffee in the room the cognitive skills of people improve. Some fragrances also help to reduce stress and increase concentration. When people work in an environment that smells good, they are also more ambitious and work more efficiently. In addition, all the previously mentioned benefits about emotions also apply of course. A pleasant smell makes your employees happier and they work with more pleasure. So scent marketing does a lot for your shop.

 

The five advantages of retail scent marketing at a glance:

• Create a nicer environment for your customers and staff
• Increase sales through more impulse purchases
• Keep your customers coming back more often through stronger associations with your brand
• Increase the concentration of your staff
• Create more fun at work!

 

Which fragrance should I use?

Different fragrances have different effects on people. Some of it is personal. If you have a good memory with a specific fragrance, you will like that fragrance more than someone who does not have that memory. However, there are some general trends. Lavender provides better concentration and people work longer productively. A citrus scent is related to harder physical work and faster reaction time. For cognitive tasks, stimulating fragrances such as coffee are very suitable. The effects on customers do not have much to do with which scents are used. It is especially important that the customers experience the fragrance as pleasant.

 

How do I use scent marketing in my shop?

There are many ways to use scent marketing in a shop. Basically it is nothing more than spreading specific fragrances through your shop. Candles, sprays or scented sticks all have an effect. However, the best method is a scent appliance. A good fragrance appliance spreads the scent in a very constant way through the space. This is due to the cold mist method with which it works. The appliance converts liquid essential oil to a cold mist. As a result, it does not sink to the ground but spreads throughout the room. This way, you make sure that all the nooks and crannies in your shop have the scent you want.

 

 

Which fragrance machine should I have?

For larger shops, the Scent experience is the best choice. This appliance is suitable for spaces between 100 and 800 square metres. So not only is it very powerful, the possibilities are also very diverse. Thanks to its many possible settings, you don’t have to limit yourself to just one scent. You can create your own scent plan to achieve your goals. If you want to do scent marketing, but you have a smaller shop, choose the Smartscent. This is a smaller version with a range of up to 100m2, but does offer all the benefits of retail scent marketing.

 

Do you need advice or more information?

Do you have questions about scent marketing? Or are you convinced and would you like some free advice on what scent marketing can do for your shop? Discover the possibilities on our product page or call us on +31 20 646 4028.