Make It a Treasure Hunt!

All business owners want to create “buzz” about their stores. If you were selling shoes, you’d like people to tell their friends about new shoe styles in your store, interesting displays, and expert advice. In other words, you would like an excited shopper to tell friends about their great experience.
Costco, the wholesale club, has taken this concept in an interesting direction. “For pizzazz, Costco uses a ‘treasure hunt’ approach, peppering its stores with unexpected, limited availability items- ranging from designer jeans to $80,000 diamond rings- that keep shoppers coming back.” The firm’s CEO feels that this approach requires balance with customer expectations. “When you start suggesting that it’s not important to save the customer money on this because they’ll never know the difference, you start to fool yourself. The customer trusts us. You don’t want to give up on that type of reputation.”
He describes the treasure hunt approach this way: “We constantly buy (some types of merchandise) and intentionally run out of it from time to time”. Bottom line: The customer keeps coming back to see what new items are displayed, and are more serious about buying them.
The Lesson: The Treasure Hunt approach can create buzz and customer interest, but business owners should carefully manage the process to maintain client relationships.
Your Homework: Do you have a product that always seems to sell well when it is available? Is it a seasonal product- maybe not produced year-round? Can you think of other products that are popular that could have a “limited run” in your store?(Source: “Turning Shopping Trips into Treasure Hunts”, Wall Street Journal, 8/27/07