Why We Buy, Updated and Revised Edition

The Science of Shopping

By: Paco Underhill

Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain

Length: 12 hrs

Publisher's summary

Revolutionary retail guru Paco Underhill is back with a completely revised edition of his classic, witty, best-selling book on our ever-evolving consumer culture—full of fresh observations and important lessons from the cutting edge of retail, which is taking place in the world’s emerging markets. New material includes:

• The latest trends in online retail—what retailers are doing right and what they’re doing wrong—and how nearly every Internet retailer from iTunes to Amazon can drastically improve how it serves its customers.
• A guided tour of the most innovative stores, malls, and retail environments around the world—almost all of which are springing up in countries where prosperity is new. An enormous indoor ski slope attracts shoppers to a mall in Dubai; an uber luxurious São Paulo department store provides its customers with personal shoppers; a mall in South Africa has a wave pool for surfing.

The new Why We Buy is an essential guide—it offers advice on how to keep your changing customers and entice new and eager ones.

©1999 2000, 2009 by Obat, Inc. (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“At last, here is a book that gives this underrated skill the respect it deserves.” ( New York Times)

very insightful

this was a very informative book things that seem simple in North America are rarely done that would improve a customer's experience and businesses bottom line

Design Thinking as applied to the Science of

Would you listen to Why We Buy, Updated and Revised Edition again? Why?

Yes. Since it's a very thought provoking book, sometimes the next point is introduced while I'm still letting the last thought sink in. There's so much in it that it can easily warrant a second listening.

What other book might you compare Why We Buy, Updated and Revised Edition to and why?

I remember when Alvin Toffler's "Future Shock" came out in the early 70's - and the way it was thought provoking then is similar to how this book is though provoking now. It gets you thinking, teaching you to fish rather than giving you the fish.

What does Mike Chamberlain bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I think he did a great job. Good pace, the intonation kept my attention and it sounded like I was being spoken to, rather than read to. That's tougher to pull off than I think most people give credit for.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

I would not make it a film.

Any additional comments?

Just that anybody listening to this book shouldn't be looking for a list of how-to's. The book is written to enable you how to see the ways you can tweak your interface with customers to maximize their enjoyment and desire to pay for whatever you offer if only you realized what they themselves they may not realize. It could be an amusement park, a book shelf, a cup of coffee, or a dog biscuit - but whatever it is, it gets you thinking about what questions you need to ask and what you need to look for in your environment if you want to design spaces that are not only better compared to your competition, but how to do it in ways that could yield greater profits in a rapidly changing commercial environment. It's a book that helps you ask better questions more than being a book about answers.

Good content overall, but a little outdated

The book was originally written in the 90s so it just needs to be updated with consumer behavior from the 2000s.

It’s more history than anything else…

…which I enjoyed. I think if you’re in the retail industry this is not the book you want to pick up first to scale your knowledge quickly.

More a promotional tome for Underhill's company.

The author dedicates more space to trying to land new clients for his company than space for his actual findings.

Little outdated but a staple for anyone in retail

Some of the things talked about are a little outdated, but they’re outdated BECAUSE of the methods under hill talks about. This book will always be relevant and is a must read for anyone professionally in storefront retail

The author dedicates a whole chapter (>1 h) to explain why eComm will never take off. Really?!

The parts about offline shopping experience are decent. But I was looking specifically for something that would cover online shoppers behaviors. If you’re searching for the same thing, don’t bother buying this book. The only chapter that is dedicated to eComm is Chapter 17. And the only insight you’d be able to drive from it is that the author doesn’t like, doesn’t trust and doesn’t want to believe that there’s future for online sales. Disappointed

Over reaches the author's ability

I debated on how many stars since I enjoyed the first part of the book. The book lost so many stars because of the hubris of the end of the book. If you don't know a subject you should at least get it reviewed by experts in the field before publication. Most of the mistakes the author made were well known at the time he wrote and published the book!

Example - the top online companies today have used analytics for decades. The analytics they use are far more sophisticated than the weak suggestions provided by the author. I had to stop a moment and laugh when he talked about Netflix's correlation of zip code and user suggestions. Netflix at that time was already using a far more sophisticated algorithm of correlation of behavior types and user suggestions. This was one of many mistakes on this subject.

Learn How Stores Market To The General Public

My husband and I were recommended this book for a long trip. Neither one of us are into marketing or retail or anything like that. In fact, I am a legal assistant and he is a network administrator. So we were curious why a friend was so enthusiastic about this listen. WOW! We learned a lot and, have since then, listened again several times and turned others on to it.

If you ever wondered why grocery stores are basically laid out in the same way, or grouping of items occur the same in stores, this book will answer that and many more questions.

I wish this book would get updated every ten years. I would surely buy each revised edition!

Very enlightening and highly entertaining

Everything you didn't know you wanted to know about shopping and retail, but you really do. Plus a lot of interesting facts about human behavior.