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The DAST Framework for Retail Atmospherics: The Impact of In- and Out-of-Store Retail Journey Touchpoints on the Customer Experience
Abstract
A proposed design–ambient–social–trialability (DAST) framework for retail atmospherics broadens conceptualizations to encompass not only the in-store experience but also out-of-store experiences that the retailer can control or influence. In turn, it expands understanding of retail atmospherics to incorporate multiple retail touchpoints that a customer may encounter during a journey. This framework also introduces a new dimension to conceptualizations of retail atmospherics, namely, the notion of trialability. By integrating literature on store environment cues with notions of the in-store sensory experience, this study also reveals some mediating and moderating factors that clarify how the DAST factors influence consumers’ shopping behavior.
... Nevertheless, online retail stores cannot be considered a direct substitute for classical brick & mortar retail stores as web-based online retail stores have been found to demonstrate some issues (Haenlein & Kaplan, 2009). Many studies (Wang et al., 2007;Vrechopoulos et al., 2009;and Dad et al., 2016;Roggeveen et al., 2020;and Giao et al., 2020) highlighted the limitations of product images in Web-based online stores such as the absence of 3D representation, the lack of social cues, and the resulting dissatisfaction by shoppers with their shopping experience. ...
... Since the year 2003, virtual worlds and 3D VRR stores exist; however, research on these retail atmospherics is still limited, as indicated by studies conducted by Krasonikolakis et al. (2011), Hassouneh andBrengman (2015), Dad et al. (2016), Roggeveen et al. (2020) and Giao et al. (2020). Past studies have focused on exploring many aspects of virtual worlds, however, there is a significant dearth of investigation into the impact of 3D VRR atmospherics on avatars' emotions and behaviour. ...
... Past studies have focused on exploring many aspects of virtual worlds, however, there is a significant dearth of investigation into the impact of 3D VRR atmospherics on avatars' emotions and behaviour. A limited number of scholarly investigations (Vrechopoulos et al., 2009;Krasonikolakis et al., 2011;Hassouneh & Brengman, 2015;Dad et al., 2016Dad et al., & 2018Krasonikolakis et al., 2018;Roggeveen et al., 2020;and Giao et al., 2020) have examined the atmospherics within 3D VRR stores. Dad et al. (2016) introduced the concept of '3D Servicescape', which incorporates the comprehensive 3D VRR atmospherics. ...
This study carefully employs a One-Group Pre and Post Test approach of Quasi experimental research design to investigate the effect of ambiance (specifically colours) on avatars’ emotions and behaviours in 3 dimensional (3D) Virtual Reality Retail (VRR) stores. In order to conduct an analysis of the data collected from Second Life (SL), a highly advanced 3D Virtual World, this study employed the PROCESS tool. The research provides empirical evidence supporting the significance of colours as a prominent environmental cue in three-dimensional virtual reality retail stores. This study examines the influence of colours on the emotional states and behaviours of avatars. It specifically focuses on the significant impact of colours on approach/avoidance behavioural intentions, which is mediated by arousal and pleasure. It provides a significant contribution to the current body of literature on retail atmospherics by enhancing comprehension of 3D virtual reality retail environments and the significance of colour schemes. It is important to mention that the impact of arousal in isolation was determined to be statistically not significant. The present study offers interesting insights; however, it is important to acknowledge certain limitations. These limitations include the narrow focus on a certain type of specialised 3D VRR store, and the constraints imposed by a very small sample size. Future research within this subject should aim to address these limitations.
... The social aspect considers the presence of other customers, store employees, and online reviews. Trialability relates to the ease of trying new products or services, both in-store and online, often facilitated by innovative technologies [5]. ...
... Retailers often prefer consistent designs across their stores to minimize costs and planning efforts. For instance, planograms are frequently used to determine the placement of products on shelves or displays [5] . ...
... Visual design elements play a significant role in capturing customers' attention [5]. The store layout, signage, and website organization are visually perceived elements that strongly influence human perception and cognition [13], [14]. ...
The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between in-store environment and consumer satisfaction. To accomplish this goal, the research integrates existing literature on shopping experience, store environment and customer satisfaction. It proposes an innovative conceptual framework that combines the different aspects of in-store environment factors and customer satisfaction into a unified framework. A quantitative approach was used, collecting data through a survey from visitors of sports equipment stores. The results of the path analysis indicate that the in-store environment factors (such as the design, ambient, social, trialability) have a positive impact on customer satisfaction.
... With the growth of social media platforms, the physical presence of friends and family can be replaced by virtual ones via social networking (Pantano and Gandini, 2017). Social media platforms allow customers to virtually connect with friends and family, to receive real-time feedback and suggestions (Argo and Dahl, 2020;Roggeveen et al., 2020). This study is the first to consider the impact of virtual social presence on customer response within physical luxury retail shopping interactions (Hamilton et al., 2021). ...
... Virtual social presence positively moderated the effect of TEISA (AR) on emotion (H5a) and perceived value (H5b). These findings provide empirical evidence for the pervious conceptual research Roggeveen et al., 2020;Hamilton et al., 2021), particularly in how luxury customers use social media platforms to interactive with their family and friends to share their experience. Notably, the results of this study demonstrate that the moderating effect of virtual social presence on customer responses is greater than physical social presence in luxury retail. ...
... First, the S-O-R framework, is newly extended to consider TEISAs as stimuli to understand the impact of interactive technology on emotion and perceived value and continued CEBs. The results demonstrate that the TEISA(AR) have a positive effect on emotional responses and perceived value in the context of luxury fashion retail, adding corroborating evidence to the results of Poncin and Mimoun (2014) and to the call by Roggeveen et al. (2020). A pivotal contribution is made to the literature and methodology in the AR field, since its findings are based on actual shopping experiences. ...
Purpose
Few studies have examined technology-enhanced atmospheres for strengthening customer experience and brand engagement in physical store settings. This study builds on the social presence theory to test for the first time the moderating effects of virtual social presence on customer responses, through AR adoption in-store. Our study aims to understand the impact of technology-enhanced in-store atmospherics (TEISAs) with emphasis on AR elements and virtual social presence on customer experience and engagement behaviours (CEBs) in luxury settings.
Design/methodology/approach
Hypotheses are developed and a survey using 566 responses were collected using Qualtrics. T -tests, two-way ANOVA and structural equation modelling were used for analysis of CEBs. Moreover, using PLS-SEM, we test whether virtual social presence moderates this relationship in a cross-country context; Britain and China, two of the largest economies for luxury growth.
Findings
The findings demonstrate that TEISAs have a positive impact on emotion and perceived value, with virtual social presence moderating this relationship. The cross-cultural comparison results show that the impact of TEISAs on emotion and perceived value is stronger for British than for Chinese millennials.
Originality/value
Our model is the first to incorporate technology into various store atmospherics, to employ virtual social presence as a new moderator, and to provide empirical evidence on the effects of AR on customer experience and CEBs in the real-time luxury retail environment. This study is also the first to consider virtual social presence on social media as a moderating variable.
... This experience allows customers to feel the care and intention of the brand, which enhances their brand experience. Roggeveen et al. [118] indicate that gustatory cues are a critical factor in consumers' perception of brand messages following a taste sampling experience. In recent years, an increasing number of brands have attracted consumers seeking personalized experiences by launching limited edition or customized flavors. ...
... Spatial not only refers to the physical environment but also to a platform for brands to establish meaningful interactions with consumers and a medium to enhance brand awareness and foster emotional connections. The environment or design elements as a behavioral subject can influence the sensory brand experience in the physical environment [118]. Using fonts, colors, or images as actors affects the brand experience in virtual environments [146]. ...
This study investigated the impact of Octomodal Mental Imagery (OMI) on brand experience and authenticity in advocating sustainable development and responding to the lack of brand experience and customers’ growing demand for authentic brands. The research employed online questionnaire surveys and data collection via Sojump, resulting in 428 valid responses. The collected data were subjected to quantitative analysis, and the study’s hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. The results showed that all the sensory attributes of OMI (visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, olfactory) positively influenced customers’ brand experience. All the structural attributes of OMI (autonomy, spatial, kinesthetic) positively influenced customers’ brand experience. This study also found that customers’ brand experience positively influenced brand authenticity, while social presence positively moderated the relationship. This study provides branding managers and scholars with a new reference point and scientific data support for companies to implement brand strategies and marketing models, which will help brands to maintain sustainable development in a competitive business environment.
... according to khan et al. (2021), the sensory experience encompasses the feelings related to the joy and excitement of customers when experiencing the brand through hearing, tasting, smelling, seeing, and touching. studies of consumer experiential environments demonstrated that sensory experiences greatly impacted consumer responses (roggeveen et al., 2020;Vadakkepatt et al., 2021). experiential marketing assisted researchers in understanding the transfer of meaning in sensory experiences (Batra, 2019), which were largely unconscious and precognitive but significantly affected consumers' sensory brand experience behavior (Biswas et al., 2021). ...
... the correlation analysis results between brand experience and brand equity presented in table 3 show that sensory experience (se) has an insignificant statistical impact on brand association (λ = 0.03, p = 0.559 > 0.05) and brand trust (λ= −0.08, p = 0.125 > 0.05), leading to the rejection of hypotheses h1.1 and h1.2. the elements of sensory experience are not sufficient to establish the value of brand association and brand trust for customers. Previous studies confirmed the positive impact of sensory experience on cognitive engagement (huang & chen, 2021), as well as its significant contribution to consumer responses (roggeveen et al., 2020;Vadakkepatt et al., 2021) and brand equity (amer et al., 2023). however, in the context of this study, the findings indicate that sensory experience has an insignificant effect on perceptions of brand association and brand trust. ...
Businesses are increasingly focusing on brand experience due to its dual role in directly creating customer value and shaping customers’ perceptions of brand equity. This study investigates the impact of brand experience on brand equity in Vietnam’s e-commerce sector. Primary data were collected from respondents with prior online shopping experience on e-commerce platforms. The research identifies four critical dimensions of brand experience in e-commerce services: sensory, affective, intellectual, and behavioral experiences. These components positively influence brand equity, particularly in terms of brand association, brand trust, and brand loyalty. Moreover, the study confirms the mediating roles of brand association and brand trust in the relationships between affective experience and brand loyalty, intellectual experience and brand loyalty, and behavioral experience and brand loyalty. This research offers a valuable contribution to the literature on brand experience and brand equity, especially within the e-commerce context. Managerial implications are also provided to guide businesses in enhancing customer brand experiences and strengthening brand equity.
... Retailers shape the in-store Customer Shopping Experience (CSE) through various store attributes within their control (Terblanche, 2018) [10] , including pricing, product assortment, display, sales personnel, knowledge provision, product trials, store layout, and atmosphere. The in-store Customer Shopping Experience (CSE) can be enhanced using the DAST framework, which encompasses design (including store layout, architectural design, and furnishings), ambient factors (environmental elements that affect consumers' senses), social aspects (interactions between individuals within the store), and trialability (customers' ability to engage with products and services), as proposed by Roggeveen et al. (2020) [9] . Bustamante and Rubio (2017) [5] developed and validated a comprehensive scale to measure in-store customer experience. ...
... Retailers shape the in-store Customer Shopping Experience (CSE) through various store attributes within their control (Terblanche, 2018) [10] , including pricing, product assortment, display, sales personnel, knowledge provision, product trials, store layout, and atmosphere. The in-store Customer Shopping Experience (CSE) can be enhanced using the DAST framework, which encompasses design (including store layout, architectural design, and furnishings), ambient factors (environmental elements that affect consumers' senses), social aspects (interactions between individuals within the store), and trialability (customers' ability to engage with products and services), as proposed by Roggeveen et al. (2020) [9] . Bustamante and Rubio (2017) [5] developed and validated a comprehensive scale to measure in-store customer experience. ...
... The trained staff having better knowledge about the stocked products help retailers to properly market their products and customers on the other hand also feel eased in their shopping [6]. Many a time, retailers also create an ambience and offer space for recreation for their customers in an endeavor to offer more socialized retail shopping experience [13]. The retail stores also contend to retain their customers by offering certain incentives through several loyalty programs and because of which the customers are also inclined to visit the retail stores ( [9]; and [14]). ...
... Roggeveen et al. [13] Explored on retail environment and in-store sensory experience which can greatly impact the customers' purchasing behavior Shamim et al. [15] Studied in-store shopping experience along with service experience of the customers which can greatly impact customer satisfaction. Kokho Sit et al. [27] Interestingly examined the phenomenon of showrooming from positive view and used picture stimuli to understand realistic perspectives during-shopping process. ...
Retailers who are part of supply chains are crucial in attracting customers to physically visit their stores and thereby increase supply chain revenue. Retailers in supply chains are responsible for handling a high volume of transactions and high customer contact, thus better management of retail operations is necessary to provide greater convenience and experience for customers. In this regard, retail operations must be properly managed, particularly during times of crisis like COVID-19, to ensure that customers purchase their basic needs promptly and safely. Since customer contact is high, the retail operations can have a greater say in improving the customer convenience and experience but this perspective has not been specifically emphasized both in research and practice. Thus, the current study attempted to evaluate how well retail operations can improve customer convenience and experience so that retailers can do well even during times of uncertainty. The study, which is grounded in the resource-based view theory, thus looks at how well retailers' competency and efficiency in running the operations help in achieving better customer convenience and experience. In this regard, sample data from 416 practitioners belonging to the Indian retail industry has been selected to examine the mediating role of retailers' efficiency to retailers’ competence in achieving better customer convenience and experience. This study importantly confirms that while more competence can help retailers operate more efficiently, it cannot, by itself, provide customers with greater convenience or a better shopping experience. This study found that retailers concentrate on streamlining their operations in order to overcome capacity limits because it is expensive and limited. The empirical evidence shows that retail operations have significance say in offering better convenience and experience customers.
... Analysis of innovative spatial clustering characteristics of Freshippo stores Based on field investigations and kernel density distributions, Freshippo stores exhibit diverse spatial clustering patterns and a complementary spatial distribution. Clustering differences among store types are influenced by consumer groups (income, age, online awareness) and factors like store rental prices [29,30], commercial environment [49], road traffic convenience [50], community distribution [51], and government administrative centers [52]. These differences align with the service positioning of the stores. ...
... Some researchers believe that factors such as the commercial environment, rental prices, and traffic accessibility greatly influence physical store locations [23,26,29,30,32,[49][50][51]. However, to achieve a precise spatial distribution of retail locations in new retail formats, additional urban elements need to be considered [8]. ...
The diversified innovative strategies adopted by the new retail format in urban spaces have significantly driven retail transformation and innovation. The combination of online platforms and physical stores provides a substantial advantage in market competition. This paper takes “Freshippo”, a typical representative of China’s new retail, as an example. Based on multi-source data and using tools such as GIS spatial analysis, statistical analysis, and geographical detectors, this study comprehensively examines the spatial clustering characteristics and influencing factors of Freshippo physical stores in Shanghai. The findings show that Freshippo has significantly expanded in the Shanghai fresh food market by innovatively opening various types of stores. However, there are substantial differences in the proportions of different types of stores, with 94% of the stores having online retail capabilities. Each offline store in the new retail format presents a multi-level “complementary” spatial distribution feature across the urban space, with distinctive clusters in the urban central districts, urban periphery areas, and outer suburban districts. The radiation range of logistics and distribution services exhibits characteristics of “central agglomeration and multi-point distribution”, providing residents with diverse and accurate services. Additionally, the comparison of multiple model results shows that the location selection of various types of new retail stores is significantly influenced by multiple factors, especially the nonlinear amplification effect of factor interactions on store agglomeration. These findings provide an important scientific reference for understanding the development of new retail formats and offer new ideas that promote the transformation and innovation of the retail industry, thereby achieving sustainable development.
... Valente and Nogueira (2023) and Salin (2021) emphasized the role of accessible information through product displays and chatbots in supporting confident Volume 49 Issue 2 (April 2025) https://powertechjournal.com decisions. Frameworks like DAST (Roggeveen et al., 2020) provide insight into how digital and sensory atmospherics shape behavior across channels. ...
This research investigates the influence of online store interactivity on consumer choices in the fashion industry, focusing on how digital touchpoints affect purchasing decisions and consumer engagement. As the fashion industry continues to embrace e-commerce, the role of interactive features such as personalized recommendations, virtual try-ons, and real-time customer support has become crucial in shaping consumer behavior. The study employs a quantitative methodology, gathering data through surveys conducted with fashion e-commerce consumers in India. Using statistical analysis techniques such as SPSS and VOSviewer, the research identifies the key factors driving consumer decisions in the digital space. The findings indicate that interactive features significantly enhance consumer engagement and purchasing intent, with features like personalized shopping experiences playing a pivotal role in building trust and satisfaction. The VOSviewer analysis further reveals the strong interconnectedness between different digital touchpoints, such as product customization tools and online customer service, which collectively influence decision-making. This research provides valuable insights into the evolving nature of online retail and its impact on consumer choices in fashion. It highlights the increasing importance of integrating interactive features into online platforms to foster greater consumer interaction and improve sales performance. The study contributes to the existing literature by offering a fresh perspective on how digital touchpoints influence consumer behavior, particularly in the fashion e-commerce context. However, the research is limited by its sample size and regional focus, suggesting that future studies could explore this topic in different geographic locations for more comprehensive insights. DOI : https://doi.org/10.52783/pst.1843
... In click-and-mortar retail environments, customers engage in both online and offline behavioral processes. In modern marketing, the in-store experience is a critical retailrelated experience [36]. In-store SST can provide customer value and be an optimal strategy for providing an alternative means of accessing goods and services. ...
Past literature has advocated the integration of channels through the offline-to-online and online-to-offline models. However, little research has investigated the interrelationships effects between the two channels. Drawing on the literature from self-service technology (SST) and expectation–confirmation theory, this study aims to investigate key attributes of SST and assess their impact on consumer evaluations across offline-to-online and online-to-offline channels. A questionnaire survey was administered at convenience stores and 360 user responses were collected through a physical self-service kiosk. Two-stage structural equation modeling with linear structural relations (LISREL version 8.54) software was used for data analysis. The empirical results verified the attributes of physical SST (physical system’s service quality and perceived convenience) and online SST (virtual system’s service quality and perceived ubiquity) as critical antecedents of satisfaction and attitude and the subsequent behavioral intentions toward each channel. However, some transitional effects from offline (physical kiosk use) to online (kiosk app adoption) intention were not as significant as hypothesized. The offline attributes of perceived convenience and satisfaction had no significant impact on online SST significantly (kiosk app), except for the physical system’s service quality. Discussions and implications are provided, including strategies for concise functional design and essential SST services.
... Customer satisfaction/ Service quality [30] In-store atmosphere and customer emotional responses Emotional [32] The cognitive, emotional, affective, social and physical responses that customers experience when interacting with a retailer. ...
... Integrating AR technology into different industrial settings is made more accessible to entrepreneurs through the development of cutting-edge technologies like Apple AR and 5G glasses (Javornik 2016;Pantano et al. 2020;Roggeveen et al. 2020). From the late 2000s forward, augmented reality has been utilised to investigate marketing strategies (Javornik 2016), especially the fashion retail sector reaping the positive effects of this research. ...
Metaverse is no more a science fiction today. Rapid advancements of the digital technologies like digital twins, internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML); edge and cloud computing; digital networks (5G/6G); blockchain; virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are making the parallel existence of human civilization in a virtual platform in addition its existence on the real world. Instead of connecting with the social media on internet with the help of mouse and keyboard as it is done at present by the netizens, Metaverse will take them within the internet as avatars roaming virtually, socialising and living in a parallel world. This creates a new avenue for digital fashion and establishes a new industry and market for fashion professionals. This chapter digs into the development of VR/AR and Metaverse technologies and explores the opportunities for fashion industry in Metaverse. While reading this chapter, the readers will travel from the historical background of VR/AR and Metaverse technologies through their present state of the art to their foreseeable outlook.
... That's the reason I still prefer in-person buying groceries and vegetables". Physical stores inherently enable consumers to engage all five senses (Roggeveen et al., 2020;Breugelmans et al., 2023). However, recent advancements aim to bridge these sensory gaps in the metaverse. ...
Purpose
This study aims to enhance our understanding of customer expectations and experiences in grocery shopping within the metaverse. It investigates factors influencing customer satisfaction and driving continued engagement with metaverse platforms, offering insights into the drivers of customer adoption and barriers to usage.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting a qualitative netnographic approach, this study analysed customer reactions to Walmart’s virtual store demonstration. Data were collected from user comments on YouTube, TikTok, Twitter and Reddit. Thematic analysis was employed to identify key factors contributing to satisfaction and dissatisfaction with metaverse grocery shopping experiences.
Findings
The study reveals three major drivers shaping customer satisfaction and subsequent positive intentions toward grocery shopping in the metaverse: social, functional and hedonic stimuli. Eight critical barriers affecting the metaverse shopping experience are identified: functional, hedonic, social, financial, privacy, safety, ownership and store atmospherics concerns, including tactile, acoustic and visual elements.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are derived from a qualitative analysis of customer comments on social media platforms, which may limit generalisability. Future studies could adopt a mixed-methods approach to validate these findings across broader datasets.
Originality/value
This work is the first research to examine customer satisfaction with grocery shopping in the metaverse. It offers valuable insights into customer expectations, adoption drivers and critical barriers, laying the groundwork for further exploration of metaverse applications in retail.
... Ein physisches Geschäft bietet die Möglichkeit, Produkte auf eine Weise zu entdecken, die online nicht möglich ist. Hier können Interessierte Produkte anfassen, mit allen Sinnen erleben und direkt ausprobieren ("trialability"; Roggeveen et al. 2020). Zusätzlich können Händler den Einsatz von Produkten innovativ gestalten. ...
... (Krishna & Schwarz, 2014) menyoroti pentingnya "pemasaran sensorik dan kognisi yang diwujudkan," yang menggambarkan keyakinan bahwa pengalaman konsumen terhadap dunia dipengaruhi oleh penggunaan indera dan sensasi fisik yang mempengaruhi keputusan konsumen tanpa disadari. Secara kritis, sensory marketing menciptakan pengalaman sensorik bagi pelanggan yang tidak hanya meningkatkan konsumsi mereka tetapi juga memberikan nilai tambah yang berarti (Roggeveen et al., 2020). ...
Tujuan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh sensory marketing terhadap repurchase intention melalui brand experience sebagai variabel intervening pada brand KKV Indonesia Metode. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kuantitatif dengan pengumpulan data primer melalui kuesioner yang diperoleh dari responden. Responden dalam penelitian ini adalahh konsumen yang pernah membeli produk KKV Indonesia. Analisis data akan dilakukan menggunakan Structural Equation Modelling - Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS). Hasil. Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah terdapat pengaruh antara sensory marketing, brand experience, dan repurchase intention Implikasi. Implikasi praktis dari penelitian ini akan membantu perusahaan dalam merancang strategi pemasaran yang lebih efektif untuk meningkatkan loyalitas konsumen dan keberhasilan merek
... The findings demonstrated that the ETC interaction touchpoint was significantly correlated to customer experience, which coincided with previous research, where the customer perception of employee interpersonal behaviours, such as listening behaviour and customer orientation, are integral (Yi, Yeo, Amenuvor & Boateng, 2021). Furthermore, the findings revealed that the atmospheric touchpoint significantly enhanced customer experiences, thus propounding the importance of physical and visual elements in retail stores to attract and retain customers (Roggeveen, Grewal & Schweiger, 2020). Hence, creating a unique model of retail atmospherics that encompasses various retail touchpoints during shopping trips would highly engage customers . ...
Study Background
The innovative design of customer touchpoints along the customer journey yields unexpected benefits. Contemporarily, customers tend to interact with firms through multiple touchpoints, which increases the complexity of providing a positive customer experience. Hence, measuring each customer touchpoint along the customer journey is essential to ensure a positive experience.
Purpose
The current study aims to investigate the critical customer touchpoints that significantly influence customer experience in retail stores in Klang Valley, Malaysia.
Design/ Methodology/ Approach
This study was conducted in Klang Valley, Malaysia, which is a cosmopolitan city. The study sample, which was calculated through a formula, encompassed individuals who visited the Klang Valley malls. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed through the convenience sampling technique, which resulted in 269 valid responses for SPSS and PLS-SEM analyses.
Findings
The findings revealed that employee-to-customer interaction touchpoints significantly impacted the retail customer experience. Simultaneously, the atmosphere, brand, customer-to-customer interaction, communication, and technology touchpoints significantly enriched the customer experience. Nevertheless, customer social responsibility and process touchpoints might not contribute to the customer experience.
Practical Implications
This study recommended mall retailers focus on critical customer touchpoints to develop credible brand images, personalised services, appealing promotions, effective loyalty programmes, and store environmental cues to provide a positive in-store sensory experience.
Originality/ Value
This study applied cognitive appraisal theory (CAT) to understand customer experience in the retail setting. The findings contributed to the existing knowledge corpus by highlighting the critical dimensions of customer touchpoints defining customer experiences.
... Over the past decade, the significance of atmospherics in physical and online retail environments has gained increasing recognition (Ballantine, Parsons, and Comeskey 2015;Basu, Paul, and Singh 2022;Roggeveen, Grewal, and Schweiger 2020). There is a growing perception among consumers that physical and online spaces are interconnected and alike, with expectations for consistent experiences in both (Childers et al. 2001). ...
In the digital era, online atmospherics have emerged as a pivotal factor influencing consumer behavior and engagement in online platforms. Online atmospherics refers to the strategically designed elements of a web environment aimed at stimulating the senses to create positive user experiences and enhance consumer responses. Given the dynamic nature of consumer interactions and technological advancements in digital commerce, the need to study online atmospherics is ever evolving, demanding continuous exploration to adapt and optimize the online shopping experience. A comprehensive review was conducted on 80 articles published between 2000 and 2023, utilizing the integrated ADO–TCM framework. Through the antecedents, decisions, and outcomes (ADO) framework, this study reveals what we know about online atmospherics. The theories, contexts, and methods (TCM) framework reveal how we know about online atmospherics. Moreover, this study aims to identify significant gaps in the current literature and recommend specific future research avenues. This systematic literature review (SLR) serves as a crucial resource for practitioners by providing a comprehensive analysis of effective online atmospherics, aiding in the development of more engaging digital shopping experiences. Simultaneously, it offers scholars a consolidated foundation, facilitating further exploration and innovation in the domain of online atmospherics in emerging channels.
... Cognition involves consumers' mental processes, such as attention, memory, and problem-solving, which are critical to decision-making (Verhoef et al., 2009). However, the degree to which sensory touchpoints engage cognitive processes depends on the context and the consumer's involvement level (Roggeveen et al., 2020). In this case, sensory touchpoints act as the selected media to satisfy consumers' desires for both information and emotional connection, thus increasing the likelihood of engaging in cognitive tasks, such as evaluating product attributes, comparing alternatives, and making informed purchasing decisions. ...
Purpose
To successfully implement omnichannel strategies, companies are required to use physical and online touchpoints effectively. This research aims to explore how consumers interact with various omnichannel touchpoints and identify the positive outcomes for firms.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the perspective of MRT and UGT, this study developed a comprehensive framework based on hypotheses and employed structural equation modeling to test it in Study 1. To further examine the effects of omnichannel touchpoints on customer experience and shopping behavior intentions, Study 2 used a between-subjects experimental design.
Findings
The results reveal that particular touchpoints positively influence specific dimensions of customer experience, affecting brand attitude, purchase intention and experience sharing. Findings also indicate that product types moderate the relationship between omnichannel touchpoints and customer experience, as well as the relationship between customer experience and brand attitude.
Originality/value
This research enriches interactive marketing literature on customer experience and omnichannel shopping, providing companies seeking omnichannel touchpoint design with solid theoretical insights and empirical evidence.
... Lam (2001) noted that the store environment includes internal and external aspects, merchandise layout, and elements like music or lighting. Roggeveen et al. (2020) integrate place atmosphere with sensory stimulation experiences, dividing it into design, internal ambiance, social factors, and trialability. Calvo-Porral and Lévy-Mangin (2021) divided the atmosphere in the context of store environment studies into the external environment, internal environment, merchandise layout, in-store personnel, and crowding. ...
This study examines the effects of place atmosphere on place attachment and loyalty, considering the mediating role of place image. This study employs a structured questionnaire methodology, dividing the instrument into five sections: place atmosphere, place attachment, cognitive image, affective image, and loyalty, as the basis for questionnaire design. The measurement of each unit within the questionnaire adopts a Likert five-point scale, with 258 valid questionnaires collected from coffee shop customers. The analysis encompassed descriptive statistics, reliability and validity assessments, goodness-of-fit, and hypothesis testing. The empirical findings revealed the following: (1) Place atmosphere positively influences place attachment. (2) Place attachment positively affects place image. (3) Place image had a positive impact on loyalty. (4) Place image acted as a full mediator in the relationship. Furthermore, the study findings reveal that place attachment does not directly impact loyalty, and place image acts as a complete mediator. This differs from the commonly perceived outcomes; hence, managers should emphasize the establishment’s image creation.
... Generally, the functional layout and speed have been proven to be significant for the website's success or failure in the e-retail environment, but they do not apply to the store environment in physical retailing (Roggeveen et al., 2020). Also, the website's aesthetics is crucial in the online shopping environment compared to the aesthetics of offline stores, which are governed by a different set of rules (Dittmar et al., 1996;Tuyet et al., 2003;Xisng et al., 2016). ...
... We consolidate these variables and define surprise complexity as the degree of cognitive resources and effort required by customers to understand and resolve unexpectedness/uncertainty through cognitive integration (Kahneman & Miller, 1986). The complexity level dictates the amount of cognitive effort and mental resources necessary to bridge the information gap created by surprise marketing, varying from low to medium to high (Roggeveen et al., 2019). ...
... Sometimes they have a strong emotional attachment towards the product which is also based on prior experiences (Jung et al., 2009). An online customer has a different experience because they do not interact the company salesperson, so they purchase the product through different online applications some customers have a bad experience about the product but they have good experience about the medium of purchase, some customers have good experience about a product but they have not good experience about the purchase application, so online customer has a different experience and emotional attachment about the product (Roggeveen et al., 2020). Hausman and Siekpe (2009) discussed that intentions associated with website utilization are called being repeated purchases from the website; repeated browsing of the website online, recommending the net web page to others, and commenting clearly or giving favourable feedback approximately on the internet web site. ...
This study investigates the mediating role of information search within the relationships of hedonic values, utilitarian values, and purchase intention in Pakistan's online food industry with a focal sample of Food Panda customers. The questionnaire was distributed among 400 Food Panda users; 280 questionnaires were received. Smart PLS was used to conduct SEM to analyse the data. The results indicate that hedonic and utilitarian values have positive influences on purchase intention, which reflects that the higher the hedonic and utilitarian values are, the greater the intentions to purchase become, and vice versa. This study also supports information search as a partial mediator in the relationship between hedonic/utilitarian values and purchase intention. The findings reveal that customers who successfully go through information searching are likely to register higher hedonic and utilitarian motivations, which then dramatically increases their purchase intentions. The study contributes not only to the literature on hedonic and utilitarian values but also to the context of the Pakistani online food sector. It also enriches the discussion of information search as one of the pivotal factors affecting purchase intention within this industry.
... (Stead S. et al., 2020) explored how schemas influence customer experiences in new service environments across the customer journey, utilizing an ethnographic schema elicitation technique to reveal schemas at various levels. The DAST framework for retail atmospherics was proposed by (Roggeveen A. et al., 2020) and takes into account both in-store and out-of-store touchpoints that affect the customer experience. Within the context of the smart tourism management framework, (Shen S. et al., 2020) concentrated on the impact of smart technology on the visitor trip at tourist sites. ...
Social Marketing inspires changes of attitudes and behavior. It is not commercial. Social marketing encourages non-commercial organization to create social good. Social Marketing does not sell or advertise commercial product or service, it offers and promotes healthy, harmony of life with its type of behavior and the attitude. But despite all of this it needs to study CRM data with a significant role. It was found a gap in the literature, considering the scarcity of pertinent case studies within the academic literature. Study delves into a range of performance indicators, including conversion rates, considerations, awareness levels, target sales achievements, quarterly sales figures, market insights (encompassing competition studies and PLI scheme evaluations), and accounts receivables. Additionally, study explore the lead scoring process and its repercussions on the outcomes of both won and lost orders, with a keen focus on funnel conversion metrics.
... Also, Ortlinghaus and Zielke (2019) report that research is still scarce regarding the design of multi-channel technologies towards enhancing the offered value to consumers. In this context, Grewal et al. (2020) reviewed the role of in-store technologies and provide a detailed list of future research perspectives. They note that the new and futuristic in-store technologies can positively affect customer experience. ...
Consumer behavioral patterns radically changed during the last decades, as well as during the COVID-19 pandemic. In parallel, digital technologies continuously substitute traditional business practices in the context of digital transformation attempts that were also significantly accelerated due to the pandemic. However, since technology cannot totally replace all human aspects in the retailer-consumer interaction process, an optimum blending of technical and human resources is crucial. This chapter reviews the latest developments and key aspects of this blending and emphasizes the consumers' needs for the provision of value-added services by retailers in the post-COVID-19 era. It advocates that retailing remains a retailer-consumer affair, where both humans and technologies take part in diversified interactions. It develops an integrated framework of human and technology components and channels between retailer-consumer interactions, aiming to provide a holistic view of the available capabilities and trends from both the retailer and the consumer perspective in the post-COVID-19 era.
... (c) Social features, namely interaction with people present in the environment (such as store employees and other customers) and (d) Acceptance, which refers to the ability of customers to test the product/service, such as tasting a food sample, trying on clothes, or using equivalent digital technologies through augmented or virtual reality, to discover products. Retailers create customer experience through several store features that they can control, such as pricing, assortment, product display, sales staff, knowledge provision, product testing, layout, and store space and many factors beyond their control, such as consumer motivation to visit the store, their mood and available time for shopping, the sense of entertainment and socialising in the store (Roggeveen et al., 2020). ...
... (c) Social features, which involve interactions with individuals present in the environment (such as store employees and other customers). (d) Testability, which refers to customers' ability to experiment with a product/service, such as tasting a food sample, trying on clothes or using digital equivalent technologies through augmented or virtual reality to explore products (Roggeveen et al., 2020). Retailers create the customer experience through several controllable store characteristics, such as pricing, product display, sales personnel, knowledge provision, product trials, layout and store ambiance, as well as multiple factors beyond their control, such as consumers' motivation to visit the store, their mood and the time available for shopping, the sense of enjoyment and socialising, all of which collectively shape the customer experience in the store (Terblanche, 2018). ...
... However, it is still unknown whether they fuel consumer wellness solely through their product assortment or if other key elements highlighted in the retailing literature (e.g. Bitner, 1992;Roggeveen et al., 2020), such as the store environment and its staff, play a role in shaping it. These stores are characterized with a heterogeneity in their store environments, some capitalizing on a greener minimalistic setting, others on rustic or country style d ecor, for instance. ...
Purpose
This paper aims to deepen the knowledge of consumer wellness by conceptualizing this construct in an everyday retail setting, specifically a health food store. With wellness seeking being a central theme in the positioning strategy of many food retail stores, this study aims to investigate the development of an everyday wellness pursuit in a retail setting, identify its underlying dimensions in a health food store setting and establish the key managerial drivers that nurture it in such context, from the consumer standpoint.
Design/methodology/approach
The research design uses a qualitative approach. In-depth interviews with 20 customers of six multibranch health food retailers were carried out.
Findings
The findings show the holistic and multidimensional nature of wellness in an everyday consumption setting and highlight the development of physical, emotional, intellectual, social and spiritual consumer wellness in this context. They also bring to light how, in an everyday activity such as a health food retail store visit, retailers can co-create and nurture consumer wellness through their product assortment, store environment and employees’ orientation toward customer wellness.
Originality/value
The main contribution of this study lies in the conceptualization of the retail wellnesscape, defined as a retail space that consumers choose to visit in their daily lives that contribute to their holistic wellness journey. This paper emphasizes both the importance and the feasibility of cultivating consumer wellness on an everyday basis, for both consumers and retailers, while it has traditionally been associated with more occasional and out of the ordinary settings such as wellness tourism.
... Moreover, studies have highlighted key elements of consumer experience in the retail sector, including the social environment, service interface, specific in-store atmosphere, product diversity, pricing policies, promotional offers, and loyalty programs (Roggeveen et al., 2020;Lyu et al., 2022;Paz, Delgado, 2020;Karasan et al., 2022). On the other hand, other existing research has emphasized that pricing strategies, product quality, supply chain management, geographical location, and promotion are key elements in shaping customer experience in this sphere (Jimo et al., 2022;Bonfanti et al., 2023;). ...
The study focuses on evaluating the level of customer satisfaction of the Kaufland retailer using the SERVQUAL method. Through a comprehensive analysis, various aspects of the quality of services provided by Kaufland will be examined, including reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangible aspects of the shopping experience. Respondents were surveyed through a specially designed questionnaire to assess their perceptions and expectations regarding service quality. The conclusions obtained will provide insight into how Kaufland satisfies its customers and will offer valuable suggestions for improving the shopping experience and customer loyalty within their chain of stores.
... Within this, the sensory dimensions -sight, sound, taste, touch, smell -of customer experience are important in creating a memorable retail experience (Ballantine et al., 2015;Helmefalk and Hultén, 2017;Spence et al., 2014). More recently, Alexander and Alvardo (2017) and Roggeveen et al. (2020) ...
Background
This study examines the role of multisensory design in shaping the spatial atmosphere of batik boutiques and its impact on consumer experience and purchasing behavior. Unlike conventional retail spaces, batik boutiques offer culture-based products for a specialized consumer segment, where shopping involves a highly immersive sensory experience. By analyzing sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste, this research explores how sensory stimuli influence emotional engagement, consumer perception, and decision-making within experiential boutique environments.
Methods
This research adopts a qualitative case study approach to analyze experiential retailing in batik boutiques as a brand differentiation strategy. Using an intersubjective paradigm, the study explores sociocultural consumer engagement through semi-structured interviews, direct observations, and photo-elicitation techniques. Data were collected over six months in a batik boutique in East Java, Indonesia, involving purposively selected participants to capture long-term consumer interactions with the store atmosphere and sensory elements influencing their shopping experiences.
Result and Conclusions
The findings indicate that batik boutiques serve beyond commercial spaces, offering culturally rich, multisensory experiences that enhance consumer attachment, emotional connection, and brand loyalty. Sensory engagement through lighting, music, scent, and tactile interactions significantly impacts consumer perception and purchase behavior. Additionally, nostalgia, identity projection, and social interaction reinforce prolonged engagement, with retail spaces functioning as cultural hubs for heritage appreciation. This study highlights the importance of sensory-driven retail design, demonstrating how store atmosphere influences consumer emotions, cognitive responses, and purchasing intentions within experiential fashion retailing.
Our research examines the influence of pleasant and stimulating atmospheres on purchase intentions, store revisit intentions, and spending behavior. A quantitative field study was conducted at a fashion retailer. The findings underscore the direct and positive effects of a pleasant atmosphere on purchase intentions, revisit intentions, and satisfaction. In contrast, a stimulating retailer atmosphere does not have a direct impact on consumers’ spending behavior. The results demonstrate the mediating role of satisfaction in the relationship between atmosphere and consumer reactions.
This chapter examines the multifaceted influence of AI on the fashion industry, exploring its transformative potential across various domains, including design, production, marketing, and customer experiences. The chapter focuses on three primary areas where AI implementation is most prominent: Operations, Supply Chain Management, and Marketing. Within Operations, AI is revolutionizing creative design and trend forecasting, material innovation, fabric and material selection, pattern generation, and optimization, and ultimately enabling the industry to adopt a broader set of sustainable practices. In Supply Chain Management, AI fosters efficient inventory management and supply chain optimization while also playing a crucial role in fraud detection and security. Regarding Marketing, the transformative effect of AI is evident in its ability to improve customer experience and enable personalization, deliver fashion styling, facilitate phygital experiences, and enhance customer service through AI-generated content.
The chapter provides a comprehensive review of the current state of research and provides real-world examples of companies and AI-powered tools that are leading the way in AI adoption. While acknowledging the numerous opportunities that AI presents for the fashion industry, the chapter also addresses several critical issues, including ethical considerations, transparency concerns, copyright and intellectual property challenges, bias in AI algorithms, and the potential impact on labor ethics. The chapter concludes by outlining potential future scenarios and research directions, emphasizing the importance of responsible AI implementation and the need for ongoing exploration of the evolving relationship between AI and the fashion industry.
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) has been at the forefront of many disciplines in recent years. Utilizing three different aspects of visual merchandising in the context of fashion retail, this study investigates the effects of (1) colours of mannequins, (2) sizes of mannequins and (3) the presence of a rainbow flag as signage in a physical store on consumers’ feelings towards the store and related clothing styles, in addition to their perceptions of the store’s commitment to DEI. Using an online survey, data were collected from a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial experimental design with 382 responses. Findings suggest that mannequin sizes influenced the participants’ overall feelings towards a store, in addition to mixed interaction effects among mannequin sizes, colours and/or use of a rainbow flag. Discussion and implications are provided.
The tag-based review summarization system (TBRSS) has been introduced and widely adopted by e-commerce platforms in recent years. However, limited research has been conducted to understand the design factors that influence consumers’ intention to use the system. Considering both the content and appearance attributes of the system, we developed an integrated model to investigate what affects consumers’ intention to use. The model combines both the content and appearance attributes of the factors and pathways. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyse the 297 samples obtained through an online experiment. Results demonstrate that both the helpfulness of the tags’ content and the consistency between tags and original reviews positively influence the intention to use through information quality. Design aesthetics affects the intention to use through system quality. Moreover, our findings indicate that confidence in initial beliefs serves as an important moderating variable, exerting a positive influence on the relationship between information quality and intention to use.
Si la digitalisation du commerce est plébiscitée par les producteurs qui commercialisent leurs aliments locaux en circuits courts alimentaires (CCA), qu’en est-il des acheteurs ? Pour répondre à cette question, cette recherche propose de comprendre comment les acheteurs réagissent à l’égard des circuits courts alimentaires digitalisés (CCAD). Une étude qualitative, via des entretiens semi-directifs, a été menée auprès de vingt acheteurs qui empruntaient un CCAD pour leurs achats d’aliments locaux. Ces vingt acheteurs d’aliments locaux ont été interrogés à deux reprises : avant et pendant le confinement de mars 2020. La contribution théorique de cet article réside dans la compréhension et la conceptualisation de l’attitude ambivalente des acheteurs à l’égard des CCAD. Si les acheteurs manifestent des réactions polarisées – positives ou négatives – à l’égard de certains attributs des CCAD, d’autres attributs génèrent des réactions à la fois positives et négatives. En outre, l’étude qualitative en deux temps met en évidence l’influence limitée du confinement sur l’attitude ambivalente des acheteurs à l’égard des CCAD. Cette observation est facilitée par un travail de quantification lors d’une analyse de contenu thématique dont nous soulignons l’intérêt méthodologique. Sur le plan managérial, nous proposons à l’attention des producteurs un cadre d’actions invitant à identifier les réactions à l’égard des CCAD, segmenter et cibler les clients, et communiquer efficacement.
Retail store atmospherics has grabbed the attention of both researchers and professionals due to its synergistic potential with digital media and its influence on consumer behavior. In the current study, bibliometric analysis was employed to quantify the conceptual framework of the retail store atmospherics literature to improve information transmission for researchers and professionals. The study examines 265 articles from the Scopus database and discovers that the existing research is highly diverse. The influence of authors, papers, and journals on literature and its conceptual foundations and notions is investigated. The results illustrate the following three themes as an outcome of keyword co-occurrence analysis in the store atmospherics research: internal elements, consequences of using store atmospherics as an instrument to achieve marketing objectives, and psychological influences of store atmospherics.
This paper employs the Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) theory to investigate how the pandemic has changed, for the long term, customer behavior when visiting the city center and which “jobs to be done” (abbreviated: jobs) customers now pursue during their visits. Using a literature review, we identified several direct pandemic-induced changes in customer behavior. To test the long-term nature of these behavioral changes and to explore the JTBD framework, we conducted a qualitative empirical study involving 18 German respondents of different gender and age profiles. We were able to identify several functional, emotional, and social jobs in the context of a city center visit. The last two job types are more important for women. While some of the pandemic-related behavioral changes became permanent, such as increased online shopping, others proved to be temporary. The differences in the customer groups can be employed to improve the city center by highlighting the benefits of product inspection and immediate availability and the hedonically valuable shopping experience.
The digital world offers consumers an increasingly practical, flexible and efficient option for purchasing consumer goods. While clothing and sports equipment represent the most popular products in Austrian online retailing, many consumers still feel insecure about buying groceries online. Due to this uncertainty, it’s essential to identify the key factors in digital grocery retailing that have a major influence on consumer’s trust and behaviour. The aim of this scientific work is to analy
se selected personal-related and product-related factors that influence consumers’ online grocery purchase decisions. An online survey is used to test the proposed model. The results show that the product-related factors of guarantee regarding freshness and quality, sustainability, website quality, price level and customer reviews as well as the personal-factor of attitude have a decisive influence on the trust in the retailer and thus on the digital purchase decision among people from the DACH region.
This doctoral thesis delves into the transformation of the customer journey—that is, the direct and indirect interactions between a customer and retailer over time—in the smartphone era. Using a socio-material perspective, it goes beyond current visions of the customer journey, which often focus on emotions and experiences, and instead explores how agency is distributed across elements that include consumers and their relationship with their smartphone as a device and a gateway to a digital market infrastructure. The research employs phone metering and interviews with informants to obtain insights into how individuals interact with their smartphones throughout their customer journeys, in what is known as “trace ethnography.” This approach unveils three modes of a contemporary customer journey: exploring what to buy, access to instant shopping entertainment, and smartphone-enabled purchasing. The thesis also demonstrates the influential roles played by three key enablers: the social actor, the brand, and the product. Moreover, it explores how customer journeys are integrated into daily life as consumers initiate and pause their customer journeys. Furthermore, it examines how customer journeys can intertwine. These findings reveal the intricate web of interconnections underpinning contemporary customer journeys as they unfold. This thesis introduces a perspective on smartphone-enabled consumers as hybrid actors who challenge traditional notions of sequentiality and phases in their customer journeys. This perspective leads to a nuanced understanding of agency as being distributed across a network of interconnected elements. Central to this thesis is the concept of “self-marketing,” which elucidates how customers use smartphones to assemble personalized marketing experiences, blurring the lines between traditional touchpoints and user-generated “marketing scenes.” In summary, this thesis posits that customer journeys are elaborate. While emotions and experiences continue to play crucial roles in customer journeys, the findings show that the actions taken are partly shaped by the digital device and the digital market infrastructure, which are accessed daily. The distribution of agency across a network of elements underscores the transformative potential of smartphones within contemporary customer journeys. The conclusions drawn from this research offer a socio-material view of these journeys, highlighting their complexity and dynamic nature, and emphasizing the active role of consumers in partly shaping their own experiences. These insights collectively enrich our understanding of the customer journey, providing perspectives and opportunities for businesses and researchers alike.
Marketing to the consumer senses is called sensory marketing. Notably, there has been a swell of interest in sensory marketing pertaining to (a) the role of senses in curating multisensory experiences for consumers, and (b) the recent sensory enabling technological advancements such as AR/VR and GenAI. The present chapter discusses the emergence, evolution, and emerging perspectives in the field. Specifically, the authors have found that the field of sensory marketing is derived from the hedonic consumption concept and emotional aspects of consumption. In addition, a sensory marketing mix has been constructed to delineate the working of senses in marketing. The study found that multisensory experiences form the core of buyer behavior in sensory marketing. Further, future research insights using sensory neuromarketing tools such as eye-tracking, EEG, GSR, and fMRI may be effective in growing the field. Lastly, the authors discuss the emerging perspectives and future directions for new marketing realities.
The study of the customer journey has evolved through time and has been approached through different research methodologies. The studies have used a combination of research techniques, including data analysis, suerveys, and in-depth interviews to examine the customer journey from different perspectives. The purpose of this work was to identify the main research methods and techniques from published papers in scientific journals that belong to the marketing area between the years 2012 to 2022, in which the main topic was the customer journey. This was done through a systematic literature review. The conclusions help understand the way this concept was been studied through the last years and allows us to propose future research lines among this topic.
This article examines whether and why organizing product categories according to the consumption goal they serve (i.e., complement-based assortment organization) may increase purchases compared with organizing product categories according to their attributes or physical characteristics (i.e., substitute-based assortment organization). Across two field experiments, a virtual reality experiment, and a lab experiment, the authors show that a complement-based assortment organization, compared with a substitute-based assortment organization, leads to increased numbers of purchases and increased expenditures. Ease of visualization of the consumption process mediates the results. The impact of the complement-based organization on purchases is more pronounced for less involved consumers and for consumers with a less specific shopping goal. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications.
Online firestorms pose severe threats to online brand communities. Any negative electronic word of mouth (eWOM) has the potential to become an online firestorm, yet not every post does, so finding ways to detect and respond to negative eWOM constitutes a critical managerial priority. The authors develop a comprehensive framework that integrates different drivers of negative eWOM and the response approaches that firms use to engage in and disengage from online conversations with complaining customers. A text-mining study of negative eWOM demonstrates distinct impacts of high- and low-arousal emotions, structural tie strength, and linguistic style match (between sender and brand community) on firestorm potential. The firm’s response must be tailored to the intensity of arousal in the negative eWOM to limit the virality of potential online firestorms. The impact of initiated firestorms can be mitigated by distinct firm responses over time, and the effectiveness of different disengagement approaches also varies with their timing. For managers, these insights provide guidance on how to detect and reduce the virality of online firestorms.
Creating effective online customer experiences through well-designed product web pages is critical to success in online retailing. How such web pages should look specifically, however, remains unclear. Previous work has only addressed a few online design elements in isolation, without accounting for the potential need to adjust experiences to reflect the characteristics of the products or brands being sold. Across 16 experiments, this research investigates how 13 unique design elements shape four dimensions of the online customer experience (informativeness, entertainment, social presence, and sensory appeal) and thus influence pur- chase. Product (search vs. experience) and brand (trustworthiness) characteristics exacerbate or mitigate the uncertainty inherent in online shopping, such that they moderate the influence of each experience dimension on purchases. A field experiment that manipulates real product pages on Amazon.com affirms these findings. The results thus provide managers with clear strategic guidance on how to build effective web pages.
Managers are using ambient scent as an important strategic element in various service settings, with food-related scents being especially common. This research examines the effects of food-related ambient scents on children’s and adults’ food purchases/choices. The results of a series of experiments, including field studies at a supermarket and at a middle-school cafeteria, show that extended exposure (of 2+ minutes) to an indulgent food-related ambient scent (e.g., cookie scent) leads to lower purchases of unhealthy foods compared to no ambient scent or to a non-indulgent food-related ambient scent (e.g., strawberry scent). The effects seem to be driven by cross-modal sensory compensation, whereby prolonged exposure to an indulgent/rewarding food scent induces pleasure in the reward circuitry, which in turn diminishes the desire for actual consumption of indulgent foods. Interestingly, the effects reverse with brief (<30 seconds) exposure to the scent. While prior research has examined cross-modal effects, this research adopts the novel approach of examining cross-modal sensory compensation effects, whereby stimuli in one sensory modality (olfaction) can compensate/satisfy the desire related to another sensory modality (gustatory).
This research examines consumers’ general in-store mobile phone use and shopping behavior. Anecdotal evidence has suggested that mobile phone use decreases point-of-purchase sales, but the results of the current study indicate instead that it can increase purchases overall. Using eye-tracking technology in both a field study and a field experiment, matched with sales receipts and survey responses, the authors show that mobile phone use (vs. nonuse) and actual mobile phone use patterns both lead to increased purchases, because consumers divert from their conventional shopping loop, spend more time in the store, and spend more time examining products and prices on shelves. Building on attention capacity theories, this study proposes and demonstrates that the underlying mechanism for these effects is distraction. This article also provides some insights into boundary conditions of the mobile phone use effect.
Research suggests that in-store crowding can lower customers’ spending, thus limiting overall benefits of high store frequentation. Here, we propose that this negative effect can be mitigated by adjusting store ambiance, specifically by using certain types of in-store music. To test this idea, we conducted a longitudinal field experiment in which we manipulated in-store music tempo and measured social density in six European retail stores. Analyzing over 40,000 individual shopping baskets, we found that social density had an inverted u-shape effect on customer spending. This effect was moderated by in-store music tempo, such that fast music strongly increased spending under high-density conditions. The increase in shopping basket value was driven by customers buying more items rather than buying items that were more expensive. Fast music thus alleviated negative effects of social density. We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings and describe how practitioners can use in-store music to counter negative effects of high customer density.
Previous studies on emotional effects of color often failed to control all the three perceptual dimensions of color: hue, saturation, and brightness. Here, we presented a three-dimensional space of chromatic colors by independently varying hue (blue, green, red), saturation (low, medium, high), and brightness (dark, medium, bright) in a factorial design. The 27 chromatic colors, plus 3 brightness-matched achromatic colors, were presented via an LED display. Participants (N = 62) viewed each color for 30 s and then rated their current emotional state (valence and arousal). Skin conductance and heart rate were measured continuously. The emotion ratings showed that saturated and bright colors were associated with higher arousal. The hue also had a significant effect on arousal, which increased from blue and green to red. The ratings of valence were the highest for saturated and bright colors, and also depended on the hue. Several interaction effects of the three color dimensions were observed for both arousal and valence. For instance, the valence ratings were higher for blue than for the remaining hues, but only for highly saturated colors. Saturated and bright colors caused significantly stronger skin conductance responses. Achromatic colors resulted in a short-term deceleration in the heart rate, while chromatic colors caused an acceleration. The results confirm that color stimuli have effects on the emotional state of the observer. These effects are not only determined by the hue of a color, as is often assumed, but by all the three color dimensions as well as their interactions.
Driven by the proliferation of augmented reality (AR) technologies, many firms are pursuing a strategy of service augmentation to enhance customers’ online service experiences. Drawing on situated cognition theory, the authors show that AR-based service augmentation enhances customer value perceptions by simultaneously providing simulated physical control and environmental embedding. The resulting authentic situated experience, manifested in a feeling of spatial presence, functions as a mediator and also predicts customer decision comfort. Furthermore, the effect of spatial presence on utilitarian value perceptions is greater for customers who are disposed toward verbal rather than visual information processing, and the positive effect on decision comfort is attenuated by customers’ privacy concerns.
A conceptual model is developed to predict how consumers respond to in-store displays as a function of the extent to which a product’s brightness level (i.e., its perceived light-emitting quality) contrasts with that of its background environment and the product’s level of disarray. We show that products whose brightness levels contrast more with those of the retail environment are more preferred because they visually “pop out” (e.g., a dark product in a brightly lit store environment). However, this preference reverses when the products that pop out appear in disarray (i.e., are perceived to have been previously touched by other shoppers). Because most stores are bright environments, darker (vs. lighter) products in disarray are more likely to be perceived as contaminated and less pleasant, leading to avoidance behaviors, evident in reduced sales and preference. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
Atmospheric in-store stimuli have been the subject of considerable empirical investigation for over 30 years. This research presents a meta-analysis of 66 studies and 135 effects (N = 15,621) calibrating the atmospheric effects of music, scent, and color on shopping outcomes. At an aggregate level, the results reveal that environments in which music or scent are present yield higher pleasure, satisfaction, and behavioral intention ratings when compared with environments in which such conditions are absent. Warm colors produce higher levels of arousal than cool colors, while cool colors produce higher levels of satisfaction than warm colors. The estimated average strength of these relationships ranged from small to medium. Effect sizes exhibited significant between-study variance, which can be partly explained by the moderators investigated. For instance, larger effect sizes were observed for the relationship between scent and pleasure in those samples with a higher (vs. lower) proportion of females. Data also indicated a tendency toward stronger music and scent effects in service settings as compared to retail settings. The results of this analysis, based on data aggregated across the research stream, offer retailers a guide to enhance customers’ shopping experience through judicious use of in-store atmospheric stimuli.
Manufacturers and online retailers are readily availing themselves of new technologies to present their merchandise using a variety of formats, including static (still image) and dynamic (video) portrayal. Building on vividness theory, the authors propose and demonstrate that presenting products and services using a dynamic visual format enhances consumer preference for hedonic options and willingness to pay for those options. The dynamic presentation format increases involvement with the product/service experience in a manner presumably similar to that of the actual product experience. The result is an increased preference for and valuation of hedonic options. This holds true for experiential and search products in single and joint evaluations and carries over to subsequent choices. Across all studies, the results demonstrate that a dynamic (relative to static) presentation format enhances choice of the hedonically superior (vs. utilitarian-superior) option by more than 79%.
Would laterally displaying a healthy item to the left versus right of an unhealthy item influence choice and consumption? The results of seven studies demonstrate that displaying healthy items to the left (vs. right) of unhealthy items enhances preference for the healthy options. In addition, consumption volume of a healthy item (vis-à-vis an unhealthy item) is higher when it is placed to the left (vs. right) of the unhealthy item. We propose that a “healthy-left, unhealthy-right” (vs. healthy-right, unhealthy-left) lateral display pattern is congruent with consumers’ mental organization of food items varying in healthfulness, which enhances ease of processing, which in turn enhances self-control, thereby leading to relatively higher likelihood of choosing healthy options. While prior studies have examined the role of several factors in influencing choices between healthy and unhealthy options, the present research is the first to demonstrate the effects of lateral display positions of healthy/unhealthy options on choice and healthful consumption. The findings of our research have important implications for designing retail food displays and restaurant menus as well as for conducting research studies involving healthy and unhealthy food displays.
How we perceive our environment affects the way we feel and behave. The impressions of our ambient environment are influenced by its entire spectrum of physical characteristics (e.g., luminosity, sound, scents, temperature) in a dynamic and interactive way. The ability to manipulate the sensory aspects of an environment such that people feel comfortable or exhibit a desired behavior is gaining interest and social relevance. Although much is known about the sensory effects of individual environmental characteristics, their combined effects are not a priori evident due to a wide range of non-linear interactions in the processing of sensory cues. As a result, it is currently not known how different environmental characteristics should be combined to effectively induce desired emotional and behavioral effects. To gain more insight into this matter, we performed a literature review on the emotional effects of multisensory stimulation. Although we found some interesting mechanisms, the outcome also reveals that empirical evidence is still scarce and haphazard. To stimulate further discussion and research, we propose a conceptual framework that describes how environmental interventions are likely to affect human emotional responses. This framework leads to some critical research questions that suggest opportunities for further investigation.
Past electrophysiological and hemodynamic studies provide substantial evidence for dissimilar brain responses when viewing emotional compared to neutral pictures. This study investigated consumer brain responses underpinning passive viewing of luxury (high emotional value) versus basic (low emotional value) branded products when participants were Alone or with another person (Together). Conforming to social facilitation theory and using EEG methods, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while female participants passively viewed pictures of luxury and basic branded products. ERP amplitudes were examined in three time windows, corresponding to the P2 and P3 components and the late positive potential (LPP). Dissimilar brain responses were found for Together compared to Alone for the P2 and P3 components over visual cortex sites. LPP amplitude was greater for luxury than for basic branded products, but only in the Together condition, suggesting that the presence of another person magnifies the emotional effect of brand type. Taken together, the results suggest that LPP amplitude during passive viewing of relevant marketing images reflects increased attention allocation and motivational significance, both enhanced by the presence of another person, to stimuli with higher emotional value.
The results of five experiments reveal that when sampling a series of experiential products (e.g., beverages, music), consumers prefer the product sampled second in a series of two desirable products but relatively prefer the product sampled first in a series of two undesirable products. The underlying process for both outcomes is a recency effect, such that there is better recall for the most recently sampled experiential product. The recency effect observed for experiential products reverses to a primacy effect when sampling nonexperiential products (e.g., scissors). The authors also demonstrate that the placement of an undesirable experiential product in conjunction with two desirable experiential products can exaggerate preference for the later-sampled desirable product (when the undesirable product is sampled first) or result in preference for the earlier-sampled desirable product (when the undesirable product is sampled between the two desirable products). However, the preference for the earlier-sampled desirable product holds only if there is no time delay between the sampling of the products or between the sampling and the choice evaluations.
Visual and auditory information has dominated the field of virtual reality (VR). Evaluation of the role of sensory stimulation in VR has highlighted olfactory stimulation as a potentially powerful yet underutilized therapeutic tool. Early studies of immersive environments, which were run as experiments, incorporated smell in the virtual experience; however, olfaction in virtual environment design and development has arguably failed to maintain a position commensurate with its sensory capacity , exemplified by the paucity of research and possible application. A review of the literature suggests that olfac-tion as a component of virtual environment exposure therapy may be a useful addition in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) a mental health condition triggered by a terrifying event, either experiencing or witnessing it. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event. However, to investigate the role of olfaction further research is required in the formulation, display, staging and customization of scent, coupled with an in-depth analysis of the role of olfaction in cognitive function, memory, emotion and creation of presence, particularly in the context of VR treatment of PTSD. Benefits of olfactory therapy may, however, be compromised by the fact that olfactory identification deficit has been noted as a component of PTSD. Investigation is required into causative or reactive mechanisms that may underlie olfactory deficits and into suitable VR therapeutic protocols that could be designed to address these deficits. Additionally, ongoing VR technological developments may deliver increasing affordability and portability in terms of VR treatment options , particularly regarding head-mounted display units. A cyberpsychological consideration of the problem of PTSD, that is, an inter-disciplinary approach combining technology and psychology learning's may merit consideration. A review of findings suggests that research protocols fo-cused on olfaction as a variable in a multi-sensory VR exposure therapeutic program may positively impact on treatment outcomes in PTSD population.
This chapter outlines the two basic routes to persuasion. One route is based on the thoughtful consideration of arguments central to the issue, whereas the other is based on the affective associations or simple inferences tied to peripheral cues in the persuasion context. This chapter discusses a wide variety of variables that proved instrumental in affecting the elaboration likelihood, and thus the route to persuasion. One of the basic postulates of the Elaboration Likelihood Model—that variables may affect persuasion by increasing or decreasing scrutiny of message arguments—has been highly useful in accounting for the effects of a seemingly diverse list of variables. The reviewers of the attitude change literature have been disappointed with the many conflicting effects observed, even for ostensibly simple variables. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) attempts to place these many conflicting results and theories under one conceptual umbrella by specifying the major processes underlying persuasion and indicating the way many of the traditionally studied variables and theories relate to these basic processes. The ELM may prove useful in providing a guiding set of postulates from which to interpret previous work and in suggesting new hypotheses to be explored in future research.
Copyright © 1986 Academic Press Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Marketers are increasingly allowing consumers to sample sensory-rich experiential products before making purchase decisions. The results of seven experimental studies (two conducted in field settings, three conducted in a laboratory, and two conducted online) demonstrate that the order in which consumers sample products and the level of (dis)similarity between the sensory cues of the products influence choices. In the absence of any moderators, when sampling a sequence of sensory-rich experiential products (e.g., fragrances, chocolates, flavored beverages, music) with similar sensory cues (e.g., smell, taste, color, sound), consumers prefer the first product in the sequence. However, when sampling a sequence of products with dissimilar sensory cues, consumers prefer the last product. These findings (1) contribute to a better understanding of the role of sequential sensory cues on consumer choice formation, (2) have implications for effects related to sensory habituation and sensory trace fading, and (3) help resolve apparent inconsistencies in prior research on order effects in the context of choices for sequentially sampled experiential products.
This research investigates how the social elements of a retail store visit affect shoppers' product interaction and purchase likelihood. The research uses a bivariate model of the shopping process, implemented in a hierarchical Bayes framework, which models the customer and contextual factors driving product touch and purchase simultaneously. A unique video tracking database captures each shopper's path and activities during the store visit. The findings reveal that interactive social influences (e.g., salesperson contact, shopper conversations) tend to slow the shopper down, encourage a longer store visit, and increase product interaction and purchase. When shoppers are part of a larger group, they are influenced more by discussions with companions and less by third parties. Stores with customers present encourage product interaction up to a point, beyond which the density of shoppers interferes with the shopping process. The effects of social influence vary by the salesperson's demographic similarity to the shopper and the type of product category being shopped. Several behavioral cues signal when shoppers are in a potentially high need state and may be good sales prospects.
Using survey and transaction data from a natural experiment in a fast-food chain, the authors investigate the effects of store remodeling. They test (1) short- and long-term effects on customers' cognitions, affect, and behavioral intentions; (2) the moderating impact of spontaneous versus planned and group versus single-customer store visits; and (3) the differential effects on two store performance measures: average customer spending and store traffic. The results show that, in line with adaptation-level theory, short-term remodeling effects lose strength in the long run (i.e., after six months). Furthermore, customers on a spontaneous trip or in a group tend to be more responsive to store remodeling than customers on a planned trip or alone. Finally, whereas average spending increases in the short run and then returns to the baseline, store traffic initially remains unaffected and even shows a dip in the long run. These findings imply that ignoring the time-variant character of remodeling effects, the nature of customers' store visits, or the impact on store traffic may lead to inappropriate allocation of marketing resources.
We draw upon literature examining cross‐modal sensory interactions and congruence to explore the impact of smell on touch. In line with our predictions, two experiments show that smell can impact touch in meaningful ways. Specifically, we show that multisensory semantic congruence between smell and touch properties of a stimulus enhances haptic perception and product evaluation. We explore this relationship in the context of two properties of touch, namely texture and temperature, and demonstrate that both smell and touch can have semantic associations, which can affect haptic perception and product evaluation depending on whether they match or not. In study 1, we focus on the semantic association of smell and touch (texture) with gender and in study 2 with temperature. Our results extend prior work on smell and touch within consumer behavior, and further contribute to emerging literature on multisensory interactions.
While temperature’s effects on human physiology have been well studied, its effects in decision-making contexts are still relatively unknown. The authors investigate the role of ambient temperature in one important decision-making context: consumer purchase. More specifically, they examine how ambient temperature influences consumers’ willingness to pay in different kinds of purchase contexts, such as in auctions and in negotiations. The authors show that whereas higher (vs. moderate) temperatures elicit higher willingness to pay in auctions, they lead to a lower willingness to pay in negotiations, and temperature-induced discomfort and aggression underlie these effects. The authors also study the effects of lower temperatures and extend these findings to more general competitive settings. They report findings from six studies and discuss theoretical, managerial, and policy implications.
Interactions between consumers and humanoid service robots (HSRs; i.e., robots with a human-like morphology such as a face, arms, and legs) will soon be part of routine marketplace experiences. It is unclear, however, whether these humanoid robots (compared with human employees) will trigger positive or negative consequences for consumers and companies. Seven experimental studies reveal that consumers display compensatory responses when they interact with an HSR rather than a human employee (e.g., they favor purchasing status goods, seek social affiliation, and order and eat more food). The authors investigate the underlying process driving these effects, and they find that HSRs elicit greater consumer discomfort (i.e., eeriness and a threat to human identity), which in turn results in the enhancement of compensatory consumption. Moreover, this research identifies boundary conditions of the effects such that the compensatory responses that HSRs elicit are (1) mitigated when consumer-perceived social belongingness is high, (2) attenuated when food is perceived as more healthful, and (3) buffered when the robot is machinized (rather than anthropomorphized).
The authors report a study of the effects of price, brand, and store information on buyers’ perceptions of product quality and value, as well as their willingness to buy. Hypotheses are derived from a conceptual model positing the effects of extrinsic cues (price, brand name, and store name) on buyers’ perceptions and purchase intentions. Moreover, the design of the experiment allows additional analyses on the relative differential effects of price, brand name, and store name on the three dependent variables. Results indicate that price had a positive effect on perceived quality, but a negative effect on perceived value and willingness to buy. Favorable brand and store information positively influenced perceptions of quality and value, and subjects’ willingness to buy. The major findings are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.
The authors integrate previous research that has investigated experimentally the influence of price, brand name, and/or store name on buyers’ evaluations of product quality. The meta-analysis suggests that, for consumer products, the relationships between price and perceived quality and between brand name and perceived quality are positive and statistically significant. However, the positive effect of store name on perceived quality is small and not statistically significant. Further, the type of experimental design and the strength of the price manipulation are shown to significantly influence the observed effect of price on perceived quality.
A typology of service organizations is presented and a conceptual framework is advanced for exploring the impact of physical surroundings on the behaviors of both customers and employees. The ability of the physical surroundings to facilitate achievement of organizational as well as marketing goals is explored. Literature from diverse disciplines provides theoretical grounding for the framework, which serves as a base for focused propositions. By examining the multiple strategic roles that physical surroundings can exert in service organizations, the author highlights key managerial and research implications.
For consumers, evaluation of a service firm often depends on evaluation of the “service encounter” or the period of time when the customer interacts directly with the firm. Knowledge of the factors that influence customer evaluations in service encounters is therefore critical, particularly at a time when general perceptions of service quality are declining. The author presents a model for understanding service encounter evaluation that synthesizes consumer satisfaction, services marketing, and attribution theories. A portion of the model is tested experimentally to assess the effects of physical surroundings and employee responses (explanations and offers to compensate) on attributions and satisfaction in a service failure context.
This paper critically reviews the literature available and presents an empirical study that examines the effects of background music on in-store shopping behavior. It finds that music tempo variations can significantly affect the pace of in-store traffic flow and dollar sales volume.
The loss of a sense of humanness that stems from increasing mechanization, automation, and digitization gives firms an impetus to develop effective ways to humanize products. On the basis of knowledge activation theory, this article systematically investigates a novel humanization approach: the use of typefaces that appear to be handwritten. Across several laboratory and field studies, the authors provide evidence of the positive effect of handwritten typefaces, reveal the mechanisms that lead to these outcomes, and outline some boundary conditions. Specifically, the results show that handwritten typefaces create perceptions of human presence, which lead to more favorable product evaluations (and behavior) by enhancing the emotional attachment between the consumer and the product. However, these effects are mitigated for brands to which consumers already feel a sense of attachment. Finally, the effects reverse when the products are functionally positioned or functional in nature. The present article thus extends understanding of humanization processes and provides guidelines for how and when brands should use handwritten typefaces.
This article develops a decision-making framework that highlights how display of numeric attribute information (e.g., display of calorie information) and shoppers' goals (i.e., having a diet focus vs. a taste focus) jointly influence shoppers' choices and preferences. Across two sets of studies, including a field study involving the launch of a new Coca-Cola product, the authors show that when food items are displayed in an aligned manner (i.e., when food items with lower-value calorie information are displayed below food items with higher calorie values), shoppers assign more importance weight to calorie gap information. In turn, higher importance weight assigned to calorie gap information leads diet-focused shoppers to relatively prefer low-calorie food items but leads taste-focused shoppers to relatively prefer higher-calorie food items. The third set of studies shows that this decision-making framework has widespread applicability and is relevant in any domain in which advertising, retail, and online displays show comparisons of numeric attribute information.
Sales induced through price promotions depend heavily on discount depth, so firms createmechanisms to influence perceptions of discount depth. Typically, consumers compute discount depth as the difference between the sale price and the original price, with this difference compared against the original price. But thus far, no research has examined the effect of reframing this difference by comparing the discount depth against the sale price.Multiple studies, including a field study across four grocery stores, show that framing the discount depth by comparing it against the sale price increases consumers' discount depth perceptions and thus increases purchase intentions. As evidence of the underlying process, the authors identify boundary conditions related to both individual differences (numeracy) and managerially relevant factors (discount depth size). In addition to contributing to research on price promotions, behavioral pricing, and numeric processing, the article offers implications for both practitioners and policy makers focused on consumer welfare.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the mediating role of emotions in processing scent information in consumer research, using event-related potential (ERP)-based neuroscience methods, while considering individual differences in sense of smell.
Design/methodology/approach
Prior research on olfaction and emotions in marketing has revealed mixed findings on the relationship between olfaction and emotion. The authors review earlier studies and present a neuroscience experiment demonstrating the benefits of ERP methods in studying the automatic processing of emotions.
Findings
Results demonstrate how emotional processes occurring within 1s of stimulus exposure differ across individuals with varying olfactory abilities. Findings reveal an automatic suppression mechanism for individuals sensitive to smell.
Research limitations/implications
Scent-induced emotions demonstrated through the use of ERP-based methods provide insights for understanding automatic emotional processes and reactions to ambient scents by consumers in the marketplace.
Practical implications
Findings show an automatic suppression of emotions triggered by scent in individuals sensitive to smell. Marketers and retailers should consider such reactions when evaluating the use of olfactory stimuli in promotional and retail strategies.
Originality/value
The authors review past literature and provide an explanation for the disparate findings in the olfaction–emotion linkage, by studying individual differences in response to scent in the marketplace. This is one of the first papers in marketing to introduce the application of ERP in studying consumer-relevant behavior and provide technical and marketing-specific considerations for both academic and market researchers.
Even though 80% of a shopper’s time in the store is spent moving from place to place, little is known about managing the pace of in-store traffic flow. Based on the store atmospherics literature, this article introduces interventions to optimize the pace of locomotion. A series of lab and field experiments demonstrates that changes in flooring affect customers’ walking speed. The number, the nature and the relative salience of progress markers along a walking path towards a physical location communicate goal progress and thus, the motivation to reach a particular destination. Consistent with a goal gradient account, customers walk faster when fewer progress markers are placed along the walking path to the goal. The effect of the number of progress markers diminishes when the markers are unrelated to the goal and reverses when the markers are relatively more salient than the goal. This article contributes to the goal literature by showing how markers affect perceptions of goal progress (i.e., level vs. rate of progress) and provides concrete insights to speed up and slow down customers’ walking speed in a retail environment.
Understanding customer experience and the customer journey over time is critical for firms. Customers now interact with firms through myriad touch points in multiple channels and media, and customer experiences are more social in nature. These changes require firms to integrate multiple business functions, and even external partners, in creating and delivering positive customer experiences. In this article, the authors aim to develop a stronger understanding of customer experience and the customer journey in this era of increasingly complex customer behavior. To achieve this goal, they examine existing definitions and conceptualizations of customer experience as a construct and provide a historical perspective of the roots of customer experience within marketing. Next, they attempt to bring together what is currently known about customer experience, customer journeys, and customer experience management. Finally, they identify critical areas for future research on this important topic.
People are able to order food using a variety of computer devices, such as desktops, laptops, and mobile phones. Even in restaurants, patrons can place orders on computer screens. Can the interface that consumers use affect their choice of food? The authors focus on the "direct-Touch" aspect of touch interfaces, whereby users can touch the screen in an interactive manner. In a series of five studies, they show that a touch interface, such as that provided by an iPad, compared with a nontouch interface, such as that of a desktop computer with a mouse, facilitates the choice of an affect-laden alternative over a cognitively superior one-what the authors call the "direct-Touch effect." The studies provide some mediational support that the direct-Touch effect is driven by the enhanced mental simulation of product interaction with the more affective choice alternative on touch interfaces. The authors also test the moderator of this effect. Using multiple product pairs as stimuli, the authors obtain consistent results, which have rich theoretical and managerial implications.
Retailers increasingly experiment with a wide variety of store elements; this chapter focuses on in-store marketing tactics and reports the results of 12 in-store experiments conducted in cooperation with different retail chains. Experiments 1-3 address in-store signage (digital, floor) and reveal that digital screens and signage can draw customers toward merchandise and deeper into shopping aisles. Experiments 4-6 explore the impact of the organization of a display (vertical, horizontal, diagonal, waterfall) and generally demonstrate the superiority of vertical organizations of merchandise. In Experiments 7-9, results pertaining to the location of a product in a store highlight the importance of placing merchandise at eye level. With Experiments 10 and 11, the authors reinforce the importance of retail atmospherics (scent, lighting). Finally, Experiment 12 explores product placement and other factors that can enhance the effectiveness of in-store merchandise demonstrations. © 2014 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
By 2011, approximately 83% of Fortune 500 companies were using some form of social media to connect with consumers. Furthermore, surveys suggest that consumers are increasingly relying on social media to learn about unfamiliar brands. However, best practices regarding the use of social media to bolster brand evaluations in such situations remain undefined. This research focuses on one practice in this domain: the decision to hide or reveal the demographic characteristics of a brand's online supporters. The results from four studies indicate that even when the presence of these supporters is only passively experienced and virtual (a situation the authors term "mere virtual presence"), their demographic characteristics can influence a target consumer's brand evaluations and purchase intentions. The findings suggest a framework for brand managers to use when deciding whether to reveal the identities of their online supporters or to retain ambiguity according to (1) the composition of existing supporters relative to targeted new supporters and (2) whether the brand is likely to be evaluated singly or in combination with competing brands.
This paper critically reviews the literature available and presents an empirical study that examines the effects of background music on in-store shopping behavior. It finds that music tempo variations can significantly affect the pace of in-store traffic flow and dollar sales volume.
The present research examines how ambient scents affect consumers' spatial perceptions in retail environments, which in turn influence customers' feelings of power and, thus, product preference and purchasing behavior. Specifically, the authors demonstrate that in a warm- (vs. cool-) scented and thus perceptually more (vs. less) socially dense environment, people experience a greater (vs. lesser) need for power, which manifests in increased preference for and purchase of premium products and brands. This research extends knowledge on store atmospherics and customer experience management through the effects of ambient scent on spatial perceptions and builds on recent research on power in choice contexts.
Store atmospherics affect consumer behavior. This message has created a revolution in sensory marketing techniques, such that across virtually every product category, retailers and manufacturers seek to influence the consumer's “sensory experience.” The key question is how should a company design its multisensory atmospherics in store to ensure that the return on its investment is worthwhile? This paper reviews the scientific evidence related to visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory aspects of the store environment and their influence on the consumer's shopping behavior. The findings emphasize the need for further research to address how the multisensory retail environment shapes customer experience and shopping behavior.
A series of five field and laboratory studies reveal a temperature-premium effect: warm temperatures increase individuals' valuation of products. We demonstrate the effect across a variety of products using different approaches to measure or manipulate physical warmth and different assessments of product valuation. The studies suggest that exposure to physical warmth activates the concept of emotional warmth, eliciting positive reactions and increasing product valuation. Further supporting the causal role of emotional warmth, and following prior research relating greater positive feelings to reduced distance, we find that warm temperatures also reduce individuals’ perceived distance from the target products.
Customer experiences play an important role in retail brand management. This research investigates how bodily experiences in retail environments influence customers’ perceptions of retail brand personalities. Based on research on human personality perception, we propose that bodily experiences transfer metaphoric meaning to customers’ brand perceptions. In a field experiment and a lab experiment we manipulated participants’ bodily experiences (feeling of hardness and temperature) and consistently found a metaphor-specific transfer of experiences to retail brand personality perceptions (on the dimensions “ruggedness” and “warmth”). A third study reveals the mechanism behind the effect and demonstrates concept activation elicited by bodily experiences in customers’ minds.
The authors conduct a meta-analysis that aggregates empirical findings from the stimuli–organism–response (S–O–R) framework. In the retail field, research relies on the S–O–R paradigm to explain and present evidence pertaining to numerous environmental cues and their related effects on consumers' responses. However, the literature review provides positive, negative, and even null results in the S–O–R model, producing doubts about its generalization capacity in the retail field. The study provides a quantitative summary of the bivariate findings regarding the antecedents and the consequences of organism trait (i.e., emotions). The study here corroborates the generalizability of the results into S–O and O–R stages. The authors also confirm the emotions' dependency in the organism factor. The results show that the relationship between arousal and pleasure was significant and positive. Both emotions are responsible for much variation on hedonic and utilitarian motivation for shopping. Arousal-hedonic and pleasure-hedonic relationships have stronger effects from the 28 relationships, indicating that consumer emotions and recreational motivation for shopping are strongly associated. In addition, the study examines all identified studies in terms of the following relevant moderator-variables. Some of them were significant. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for practice and further research.