By Jennifer Tomlinson
I'm from Washington, DC and have been living in Guangzhou for more than one year. I believe that Guangzhou is one of the great cities of the world, and Southern China is an enormously important region for industry and trade. I'm also very impressed with the high level of education. It's easy for me to see why more foreigners are interested in coming to Guangzhou to live.
Since I've lived in big cities such as New York and Hong Kong before, I didn't find it difficult to adjust to living here. But there is one thing about living in china that I am still not used to. For me, the most difficult thing is shopping. I will use an experience I had in a very large, crowded store, as an example.
I went to the department store to buy some laundry detergent because their prices and selection are very good. There were nine workers standing in the aisle where the detergent was. It was hard to see the products with so many workers blocking the view. I knew that brand I wanted, but I wandered to compare the prices and sizes. A worker immediately attempted to show me another brand, which she thought I should buy instead. With so many workers standing around me and watching my every move, I really couldn't make a decision or think at all. I felt in a rush to get out of the store. This is a loss for the store. If I felt more comfortable I would surely have brought more.
I am not trying to suggest that store change their business in order to make a few foreigners happy, but I would like to recommend a few ways in which I feel stores could sell more. In my opinion, there are three things that stores could do that would encourage foreigners to buy.

Give space
As soon as I enter a store in china, a clerk will often move very close to me and watch everything I do. I assume this is to offer me their assistance. But it makes me very comfortable. If I haven't had time to see the merchandise, I probably don't need their assistance yet, and I would really like the freedom to look around on my own.
The worst case is when a clerk follows the customer around the store. This has happened to me a few times. The feeling I have is that they are afraid I will steal or perhaps break something. I definitely get the feeling they don't want me in the store, so I just let them follow me out.
If you enter a shop in the United States, the clerk will probably say "hello" to you. They may also say something like, "let me know if I can help." This tells the customer that help is available but they have the freedom to look around. If they want to talk to a customer they will often make "small talk" like "where are you from?" rather than directly confront them about buying. If there are no other customers in the store, and the customer does not ask for help, it would be considered polite for a sale clerk to pretend to be doing something else while the customer looks around.

Allow time
Americans often spend long periods of time in stores just looking around. They consider each item carefully before they buy it. Maybe it seems rude or strange, but I can give an explanation for this. Taking a lot of time to decide will increase our satisfaction with the purchase. If it results in customer satisfaction, I think it's in the interest of the store to accept this kind of behavior. If a customer spends a lot of time in a store but does not buy anything, this is still a good sign. It means that the customer feels comfortable enough to examine everything in the store. There is a good chance they will return and end up buying a lot.

Reduce pressure
The reason a relaxed atmosphere is so important is the customer will feel comfortable taking the time they need to decide what they really want to buy. Shoppers in the U.S will rarely feel pressure to buy something in a store. When they go to another country and feel pressure to buy, they may not enjoy shopping there.
The best example I can give is the popular tourist town of Yangzhou in Guangxi province. They have many nice stores there with interesting items, but when I go there I seldom buy much. I would like to spend more time shopping and buy more things, but I feel uncomfortable in every store. It always seems that the sales clerks want to make a very quick sale. This puts the shopper under pressure to buy, when they really just want to enjoy looking.
Especially to a foreigner on vacation, shopping will be recreational activity. This is something done just for the fun of doing it. I think the sales clerks would be very surprised to know that the customer would end up buying more if they were not put under pressure. If the shopper feels comfortable and is enjoying herself, he/she is more likely to buy and return with his/her friends to shop again. And while there are some foreigners who really want to bargain for the lowest price, there are just as many others who will find bargaining unpleasant and be happy to pay and reasonable price. In my opinion, creating the right shopping environment is more important than lowering the price.
A business in china is likely to have a different approach to customer service than one in the United States, and that is understandable. But I do feel that by gibing customers some breathing space to wander around a store and take their time to make a decision, Guangzhou stores might do more business in the long run. At least I know they would sell more to me.