5 Reasons Why You Need a Custom In-Store Music Solution

Many businesses play music in their stores to create a pleasant atmosphere for customers, often this just means using a playlist from your ipod or putting on a CD. But, most store chains and well-known brands know how important a store’s ambience is in influencing customers’ buying behavior, and the sound that surrounds them in-store is a crucial element.

Never underestimate the importance of playing the correct overhead background music to compliment your brand. Think of your background music as an extra member of staff, creating just the right atmosphere to improve customer dwell time, encourage repeat visits and increase sales!

Check out these five ways music can improve your business and why you should consider a custom in-store music service as your top sound choice.

Increase Sales

Random music (like just turning on the radio to a popular station) is perceived as noise by customers, driving them away to reach a place without sound pollution. However, curated music falls in-line with your brand. It’s just as valuable to the experience the the products you sell or the staff you hire. This creates ambiance that customers appreciate.

Music as a whole has the power to increase your average sales. According to one study by HUI Research, playing a carefully curated soundtrack of songs can increase sales by nine percent in some cases. When music is curated carefully and ties into your brand, environment, and overall vision, your customers respond. They react more positively and take action with their wallets.

Influence Customer Behavior

In-store music does more than just create atmosphere, it directly influences customer buying behavior. Music also affects shoppers and how interact with your brand.  The right in-store music will make customers linger, ask questions, and consider different products with your sound choices.

The right music can easily lead to an increase in the maximum prices consumers are prepared to pay: if the atmosphere is properly created to stimulate customers to purchase certain products and if the customers enjoy what they see inside the store and how they fell, they are more likely to pay for a higher price because they perceive it as being suitable and right.

A recent study by Nicolas Guéguen found that while classical music makes customers buy more (versus pop music or no music), it also artificially inflates their perception of how expensive the store is.

Reduce Perceived Wait Times

Another significant benefit of incorporating in-store music is the decreased perceived wait times that people experience when they listen to music.  One study found that the type of music you play has an impact on how long your customers are willing to wait.

Companies that play fast, upbeat music noticed that customers would wait longer. Meanwhile, companies that played slow music had more impatient customers than if they had played no music at all.

If you want your customers to wait patiently until you’re able to help them, your best bet is to play cheerful, fast-paced music to make them think they haven’t been waiting as long as they have.

Increase Dwell Time

While some businesses certainly want to reduce perceived wait times like a doctor or dentist office, but other companies want to keep customers lingering, shopping, and enjoying their products. In this case, slower music is better for the brand.

Slower music makes people move slowly through a store. They take their time browsing through different items and departments looking for items to buy.

In one study, a supermarket noticed a 38 percent increase in sales when it played slow music for shoppers.

No Rival Ads.

While there are plenty of psychological benefits to playing music in-store, one of the forgotten benefits is that your music is free of competitors ads. Gone are the days where your customers have to listen to your competitors ads while they are in your store. With your very own custom music channel, everything can be customized to fit with your brand, sales promotions or discount offers.

In fact, while your customers are in your store, is an ideal opportunity to use audio marketing messages between tracks to promote specific goods in order to impact their shopping actions. It gives you the perfect opportunity to communicate & sell to likely and current buyers while they’re at the point of sale.

Final Thoughts…

So there you have it! Our 5 reasons why your business needs a professional in-store music service. We should have added a 6th top reason, and a very important one that is that an in-store music service provider will ensure your music is legal, and avoid music copyright lawsuits from the organizations that police the industry – ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. Don’t think it can happen to you? Think again, because you could be next and it can be costly! Check out these two articles on 25 Tampa Bay area businesses that were sued , and in Ohio dozens of Dayton area bars were sued for playing music without the proper license to do so. One business alone had to pay in excess of $68,000 in fines.

Whether you’re looking to energize your in-store experience, enhance your customers dine in or waiting experience, improve your patients waiting room experience, or make guests feel welcomed from the moment they arrive, it’s important to take your music choices just as seriously as other elements of your branding, or else you could miss out on growing customer loyalty and increasing your sales.

Our music directors will take the time to get to know your business and deliver custom branded music solutions that will help you increase your customers experience while they engage with your company to add to your top line sales. Want to learn more about in-store music? Visit the in-store music page on our website, or contact Original On Hold today!