Most of us have sat through multiple saree shopping sessions, either shopping for ourselves or tagging along with someone else for their shopping.
Personally, I enjoy tagging along for such trips. I love the anticipation of finding the perfect saree. This emotion is mainly for sarees because there are so many fabrics, colours, prints, places of origin, occasions and budget ranges to choose from. Like any seasoned salesperson would say for every saree they show “एकदम वेगळा look” (“very different look” in Marathi).
It can get very confusing or very easy depending on the salesperson tasked with finding the perfect saree for you.
Anyone who has sat through even one session will realise just how tedious selling sarees can get. Especially if the customer has nothing more to say than “काही वेगळा आहे का?” (Marathi for “is there some more variety?”). The customer might give a budget range which filters the sarees to some extent. But then out of those minimum 1000 sarees, is the salesperson going to find the perfect one? Time also factors in here. There is a threshold. If it’s taking too long then the customer is going to get bored or restless and will want to move on to the next shop down the lane. Offer them water or a cup of tea. Anything to distract and prolong their stay.
Now to the actual goal – what is the perfect saree? The first filter is often easy – occasion and budget. A few types are presented. They like one or two out of those? Great. Show more colours for the same and also present similar types. This must go on until we find the One. If it’s more than one customer shopping together, then they are going to talk to each other and comment about the options presented. The salesperson needs to pay full attention here, trying to catch words that might help narrow it down. The customer may even offer a word or a phrase out loud. For example “Only bright colours” / “More?” / “Not for wedding, it’s for festival”. Good luck differentiating an Indian wedding from an Indian festival. Sometimes an expert salesperson (expert at managing customers) is brought in to advise.
As a Product Designer, I could not help but draw parallels between selling sarees and conducting user research. Everything I just described is exactly what happens in user research. You will also see it mimicked in e-commerce shopping experiences (Social Norm)
People expect most online interactions to follow the same social rules as person-to-person interactions.
https://growth.design/case-studies/mental-models
User Personas, Card Sorting, Expert reviews, Eye movement tracking, Qualitative research, Prototyping (draping the saree on the customer or on one of the salespersons), Task Analysis, etc.
What is the user goal?
What are they looking for?
Who are the competitors?
How much time are they ready to put in?
Is the user relating to specific keywords?
What does the user consider as worthy incentives?
Will they want to return?
What will make them speak about us positively?
And just listening to them while they navigate through the piles of sarees can sometimes present useful insights.
Honestly, you have to be there to see eyes shine when the salesperson walks in with that Perfect saree. Eyes following the saree from the shelf to the table. I’m not sure how the salesperson feels once they have achieved the impossible but it sure feels fulfilling to me as a designer.
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