At the same time, this also reveals how we can actually save money.

This Friday it’s Black Friday again: the day when shops advertise with attractive discounts. On the Black Friday weekend, shops are often overrun with greedy consumers stocking up on Sinterklaas and Christmas gifts at bargain prices. But it seems that retailers are missing an important trick if they want to increase their sales even further…

Spend money

Ahead of Black Friday, researchers have discovered how retailers can extort even more money from their customers. This is done by changing the position of the handles on a shopping cart. Parallel instead of horizontal handles on a shopping cart appear to ensure that people spend up to 25 percent more money.

Shopping carts

You are probably familiar with the standard shopping carts that you see a lot in the supermarket. These carts have a horizontal steering wheel that you have to push. You use your triceps: muscles that are located at the back of the upper arm. Psychological research has shown that using these muscles is associated with rejecting things we don’t like—for example, pushing something away from us.

In the new study the researchers designed a modified shopping cart with parallel handles, similar to how you hold a wheelbarrow. Here you use your biceps: muscles that are associated with things we do like – for example when we pull something close to ourselves.

A standard shopping cart with a horizontal handlebar—like you’ll likely find in a supermarket—results in people spending less than using a shopping cart with a parallel bar—similar to how you hold a wheelbarrow. Image: Bayes Business School

The researchers tested their customized shopping carts among consumers in a supermarket. And it leads to a surprising discovery. The customers who used the trolleys with parallel handles turned out to buy more products. On average, people who used the standard shopping carts spent $22, while people who moved around the store with the modified carts spent an average of $29. That is a difference of no less than 7 dollars.

More profit

The findings suggest that retailers can likely increase sales and profits by providing customers with shopping carts with parallel handles. “It’s shocking to find that making a small change in the position of the handles can have such a big impact on shoppers’ spending,” said researcher Zachary Estes.

Consumer

Leading shopping cart manufacturers said they hadn’t considered making parallel handles on their carts before and were surprised to learn that the position of the handles could affect sales. At the same time, the findings from this study are not only beneficial for retailers. “The results of this research could also be very helpful to consumers, especially with Christmas just around the corner,” Estes says. “If you want to limit your shopping visits as much as possible and buy your gifts in one go, it’s best to use your biceps as much as possible to literally pull stuff into your shopping cart.”

But if you want to save money in the run-up to the upcoming holidays and keep control over your expenses, it might be better to grab a standard shopping cart or a simple basket. “In that case, normal carts act as a welcome and probably unexpected way to keep unnecessary purchases out of the cart,” Estes concludes.