Mysteries of new product promotion; effects of layout on buyer behavior

This article studies effects of store layout in a department store on buyer behavior towards new products. Shelf layout -in terms of parameters which influence buyer behavior- is formulated by two variables; pattern of prices and pattern of popularity. A novel method based on previous works of authors has been developed to measure these two factors, so that they can be compared against shares of department sales statistics. Investigating this relationship helps both retailers and marketing agents to better understand effect of shelf layout in promoting a newly developed product. Results show that correlation between price difference and department share is strong. There is also a weaker correlation between pick (popularity) difference and share from department sales. Finally we have tested prediction power of our model. A set of recommendations for shelf layout is developed based on the results of the research for marketing professionals.