My wife and daughter can happily go through a dozen stores, looking through the racks, trying things on and may or may not buy anything. In fact, if they even have something to get, they might end up coming back with something completely different. Talk about cross selling and increasing basket size.

In liquor stores, people want to try out new products - just look at the dramatic increase in breweries, distilleries and vineyards. But people typically buy their go-to products every time. Why?

Let's look at the stats...

OK, stats is a strong word but sampling three types of stores using Google maps which tracks people, we get the following typical values:

• standalone clothing store:  15min - 1hr
• convenient store:  15min (who's goal is to get people in and out as quickly as possible)
• liquor store: 10min (which seems like the minimum amount of time they report)

Obviously people aren't browsing through their local liquor store - no surprises here.

But consider how the market has changed. Consumers definitely want to try microbrew beers and there's so much variety. The popularity of micro-distillers has taken off too and that's only going to increase as they have more time to age their products. And it doesn't seem like the number of wine options has decreased.

So consumers really want to try new products but aren't taking time to look around at what's available.

And the small brewers/distillers find it almost impossible to get a foot hold in retail, even when their tasting rooms are spilling over with people.

Packaging isn't the answer. Packaging in the retail liquor industry is arguably the best. Actually, that might contributing to the problem. The packaging is so good and the product mix on shelves is so dense, it's overwhelming.

Having someone help each consumer would be greatly appreciated but it isn't economical.

Aisle cap displays and standalone displays are great at introducing products to consumers and influencing their buying decision, but there's only so much space in the store.

There needs to be another way to economically influence consumer purchasing decisions that's independent of floor space. That's where the BottleRoom 3 app comes in. With it, the consumer has a virtual VIP room with a small number of recommended products. Rather than being overwhelmed, the limited number of options guides the consumer to the right products for them (and you). In addition, by offering a few other products in a different area of the store, the option for cross selling sky rockets.

So why do most consumers want to get out of a liquor store so fast with the exact same product(s) they always buy?

I don't know. Share your thoughts with me, send me an email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..