I'm doing my monthly orders this weekend. Once again, I'm reminded of a phenomenon I'll call the "Highlight Effect."

Everything in the catalog looks sumptous. Wow. I want that. I want two of that. Why not three?

Everything is highlighted individually, every item has to be considered individually. I can make the case that almost every item will sell in my store, given the right spacing and promotion.

But there's the rub. I have limited room to 'highlight' any particular product. It is the whole reason that marketing in the mass market often revolves around which merchandise gets a special place on the tables, or at the endcaps, or face out. Companies pay for that privledge. But in a catalog or on the internet, EVERY SINGLE item can be highlighted. You can present the product in its most alluring way, shiny and new and just out of reach.

Its one of the reasons that the internet is such a formidible competitor when it comes to specialty items. Cyperspace is endless -- there is no concern about how much of the book to show, every item can be presented in the best possible manner, right there at eye height.

Here's what happens when that shiny new stuff shows up in my store. A selected few are chosen to be put in places of honor -- eye sight, face out, in the most prominent parts of the store.
Everything else is slotted into their proper space; mostly spine out, mostly NOT at eye level. I always have this experience of getting thousands of dollars worth of merchandise, putting it away, and having it simply go 'poof', gone, as if it never showed up. Most of it is pretty average stuff, really, some of it you get an "Oh, Heck," moment when you realize it stinks, and a very few you get, "Oh, Cool!" moment when you realize that product is even neater than you thought it would be.

Once it's in your hands, it has to speak for itself. It's no longer alluringly just out of reach.

An example that if it's happened once, it's happened a thousand time, a customer comes in and says, "I saw an item on the internet (or in the catalog) that looked really cool. Can you get it for me?"

And I say, "Yes, in fact, if you'll look to your right, you'll see it right there."

Customer picks up it, looks at it with a frown, and puts it back. "It's not what I expected...."

That same customer could easily pull the trigger on E-Bay, and be vaguely dissatisfied when it showed up, but probably wouldn't admit that a mistake was made.

HEAVY METAL Magazine is filled with alluring ads. I can't tell you how many times a customer has pointed to an ad and said, "I want that...." I go over, pluck it off a bookshelf and present it to him. "Oh...." the customer says.

See what the ad doesn't show is that the cover is the BEST part, that the art doesn't continue inside, that the book is much thinner and cheaply made than it looked in the ad.

Another example is the Todd McFarlane Toys. His website poses these figures with beautiful surroundings, accessories, and just the right lighting and presentation. The same toys show up in the store, squeezed into plastic containers. It takes imagination that most people don't seem to have to visualize how that toy will look when it is taken out of the plastic and assembled.

Add to that, the problem I've often alluded to: that the internet can basically pretend to have an item in stock, whereas I can't. I either have it or I don't, and the customer can verify it on the spot. The Internet? "Sure, I have that! I'll get it to you immediately." When in reality they may have it On The Way, or that may have the ability to Order it, probably from the same place I order it -- except they charge you postage and I don't. Very frustrating. The internet can give you a 'date' that may or may not have anything to do with reality. They can muddy the waters with shipping times, or excuses.

I'm as big a sucker for shiny stuff as anyone. I'll order something, or too much of something, and when it shows up, I'll often wonder what possessed me to buy it. Except in retail, it's not just a buying mistake, it can be a survival issue.

Everytime I buy the wrong thing, it makes it that much harder to buy the right thing.