Attractive Salespeople May Scare Away Customers
Are we always drawn to physically attractive salespeople? According to a study by Prof. Lisa Wan and Prof. Robert S. Wyer, good-looking salespeople may actually scare customers away. Find out more from the media coverage on this study.
It is generally considered good practice in the retail world to hire beautiful and handsome salespeople as much as possible. Some stores have taken this strategy to the extreme, basing their hiring practice on the idea that hot sales staff equates big sales revenues.
However, a research paper titled “Consumer Reactions to Attractive Service Providers: Approach or Avoid?” published in the Journal of Consumer Research and written by researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School indicates that in some cases, attractive salespeople can actually scare away shoppers, making them abandon their prospective purchases and flee.
The authors, Lisa Wan, Assistant Professor of School of Hotel and Tourism Management and Director of Centre for Hospitality and Real Estate Research, and Robert S. Wyer, a visiting professor of Department of Marketing at CUHK Business School, conducted five field and laboratory studies, examining the spending habits of shoppers while in the presence of same- or opposite-sex store employees who were good-looking.
“Contrary to conventional belief, attractive service providers can lead consumers to become self-conscious or embarrassed,” said Prof. Wan.
The study reveals that female customers are less likely to buy personal items that are considered “embarrassing,” such as feminine hygiene, birth control or weight-loss products from attractive male cashiers and opt to approach relatively less handsome ones instead. When faced with attractive women, shoppers had feelings of dissatisfaction over their own appearance.
The authors argue that shoppers’ anxiety over their own appearance or the mere action of showing interest in personal care items can dissuade them from interacting with salespeople, minimising or skipping purchases altogether. In one of their studies, fewer customers stopped to look at a fat-eliminating thermal waist belt when the salesperson was pleasant-looking, whereas twice as many bought one when it was being offered by a more plain-looking cashier.
“This is especially true when the [store employee] is of the opposite sex,” added Prof. Wan. “Even when the attractive salesperson is of the same sex, consumers may feel a sense of inadequacy through self-comparison. In either case, the shopper may avoid interacting with physically attractive [service] providers, rendering the salespeople ineffective.”
The study also monitored 164 Otaku, or “socially inept” men with an obsessive interest in computer technology, when they visited a shop selling figurines based on Japanese comics. It was found that when the shop was staffed by beautiful women, just 57 percent of the men plucked up enough courage to enter. This compared with 80 percent of the men who entered when less attractive women were working. The team also found that those who did enter were less inclined to speak to attractive women, ending conversations around 90 seconds earlier than those who entered the shop when less attractive salesladies were tending the shop.
These interesting findings by CUHK Business School have been widely reported by a variety of influential local, regional and international media outlets, spanning from Hong Kong to Australia, China, France, India, Italy, the United States and the United Kingdom. Publications that have run articles on the findings include Money, The Times (PDF), The Telegraph (UK) (PDF), The Asian Age (India), The Drum (UK), Yahoo! Style, Yahoo! Style France (France), Mental Floss, D’Marge (Australia), Linkiesta.it (Italy), on.cc (Hong Kong), Oriental Daily News (Hong Kong) and toutiao.com.
The on.cc, Oriental Daily News and toutiao.com stories are in Chinese and the Linkiesta.it (Italy) one is in Italian and the Yahoo! Style France one is in French. Please click the image below to read the story published in Oriental Daily News‘ print newspaper on 22 April 2016.
This paper was featured on the School’s China Business Knowledge (CBK) website as a feature article titled “Does An Attractive Salesperson Always Boost Sales?” The Marketing and Communications Office at CUHK Business School distributed the article to more than 128 journalists/10,764 distribution points in the United States and over 21 countries in Asia Pacific, it has been widely picked up by the media around the world, with 274 clippings generated so far. Publications that have picked up the story include Bloomberg News, Thomson Reuters, Business Standard (India), Yahoo! Finance, Sina and more.
The Journal of Consumer Research disseminated a press release titled “When Are Shoppers Turned Off by Attractive Salespeople?” on 20 April, 2016.
Source: Bloomberg News, Money, The Times, The Telegraph, Thomson Reuters, Business Standard (India), The Asian Age, The Drum, Yahoo! Style, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Style France, Sina, Mental Floss, D’Marge, Linkiesta.it, on.cc, Oriental Daily News and toutiao.com
Date published: 20 April, 2016 (The Telegraph), 21 April, 2016 (Money, The Times and on.cc) / 22 April, 2016 (The Drum, Oriental Daily News and Mental Floss), 24 April, 2016 (The Asian Age), 26 April, 2016 (Yahoo! Style, Yahoo! Style France and Linkiesta.it), 27 April, 2016 (Bloomberg News, Thomson Reuters, Yahoo! Finance and Sina), 28 April, 2016 (D’Marge, toutiao.com) and 2 May, 2016 (Business Standard)
Photo: Don Arnold/Getty Images