Boost Sales at Your Store With Overhead Background Music

Have you ever been in a silent store – with no music playing in the background? What was your impression? If you are like most people, you probably felt uncomfortable, and after looking around a bit, you quickly left, headed towards a friendlier, more welcoming store.

On the other side of the scale, have you ever left a store because the music was too loud or unpleasant, making you feel stressed and uncomfortable? Music is a key, if underrated, element in a store’s marketing mix: The right overhead background music has the potential to put people in the right mood, (re)define the brand’s image, attract customers and increase sales opportunities and revenue.

“A recent study by YouGov found that 78% of customers like background music. Furthermore, 71% of customers think background music creates a better atmosphere and in-store customer experience, and 68% say they will likely stay longer if there’s music overhead.”

Do You Know the Benefits of Overhead Music?

1. Keeps clients in store longer. Studies show that simply playing music in your store keeps people shopping longer. It fills the empty space and makes the environment more comfortable.
2. Affects shopping speed. Customers shop faster when you’re playing fast music and slower when you’re playing slow music. Keep in mind how fast you want them to shop when choosing your music.
3. Shoppers like it. Plain and simple – people prefer to hear music.
4. Emphasize your brand. You probably have a good idea of how your brand looks, but do you know how your brand sounds?  Music is just one of many ways to build an audio brand.
5. Shorten perceived wait times. Just like silence on hold makes telephone wait time seem longer, silence in your store can make waiting on line appear to last forever. 
6. Filter target customers. When you walk past a store at the mall playing excessively loud music, you probably think one of two things: “Wow! This store is exciting, I can’t wait to shop here!” or “That’s horrible – I can’t imagine shopping there.” In this situation, the store is filtering potential customers with music. Those who don’t like the music probably aren’t the Brand’s target customers. If they did enter the store, they would be unlikely to spend much money there.

Music Is a Powerful Way to Influence Shoppers? Yes, it’s Science!

With what you now know about the benefits of overhead background music, you might wonder: why do some stores play bad music? Often, it boils down to store owners misunderstanding the psychology behind the music in their establishments. Marketers with a sound knowledge of how in-store music influences shopper’s attitudes can harness its powerful effects on the human mind.

The Science:
One study on music’s effects on shopping behaviors – (Donovan and Rossiter, 1982), is also known as the pleasure-arousal-dominance (PAD) model. The results suggest that a store’s atmosphere affects the emotional states of consumers. For example, store music varies by volume, tempo, pitch, and texture and by the specific songs played. The study found that retail owners who appeal to the pleasure centers of the brain (the parts that control feel-good chemicals like oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin) and the parts of the brain that control arousal (those that release stress-response chemicals like adrenaline and cortisol), cause shoppers to behave in different ways.

How it Influences the Impression of Time
Customers who listen to music they like are more likely to feel like they had a positive experience, even if they spent time waiting in line or waiting to speak to a customer service associate. When humans are enjoying themselves by listening to music they like, it doesn’t matter what the setting is: that time automatically becomes more pleasant, leading to a perceived increase in the value of that time. In short: customers won’t mind waiting a little bit as long as you’re providing quality tunes.

Final Thoughts…

Music is an undeniably powerful way to change the environment in your venue. By using overhead music in your store, you have an opportunity to boost sales by engaging your customers. Audio is powerful because it can’t be ignored – while customers can overlook imagery, they can’t prevent themselves from hearing what’s going on around them. You can close your eyes, but you can’t turn off your ears.

From setting the tone of your business to boosting sales, overhead music can make customers feel more relaxed and comfortable with your brand, which sets your business up for success in the future. Contact us today to learn how Original On Hold overhead music can help your business.