ABSTRACT

Shop ability is defined as the ability of the retail environment to translate consumer needs and
demands into purchase. It is a process of making consumers needs salient in specific retail
settings & turning the shoppers into buyers. The primary motivation is investigate how the store
atmospherics & store layout influence the consumer behavior and store performance. Many
retailers acknowledge the importance of store environment as a tool for market differentiation
Store environment, the physical surroundings of a store, is made up of many elements, including
music, lighting, layout, directional signage and human elements, and can also be divided into
external environment and internal environment (that is, exterior and interior of a store). The
effects of store environmental elements could be complex.
In recent decades, the production capacity of companies increased dramatically and supplies of
goods and services surpassed demands. As a result, the power of distribution networks, stores,
retailers and consumers increased dramatically. The objective of this research is to survey the
effect of selected store image dimensions on retailer perceived quality in chain stores. The
population of this research includes customers of retail chain store in Jammu city. This research
is descriptive and survey. Since the research population is unlimited, 150 persons were selected
as sample. In this research, descriptive analysis is used.
The result of the research showed that the selected dimensions of store image composed of
convenience, perceived price, physical facilities, employees services and institutional factors
had positive impact on retailer perceived quality and retailer perceived quality had positive
impact on retailer loyalty.

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INTRODUCTION

The one thing that is stable in human life is change. In India shopping has witnessed a
revolution with the change in consumer buying behavior and the whole format of shopping is
also a changing. The phenomenon called shopping Centre or shopping mall is rocking in India and now even the smaller towns are buzzing with the concept of mall mania. Modern retail
format i.e. shopping malls are characterized by professionally managed large format stores,
providing goods and services that appeal to consumers, in an ambience that is conducive for
shopping. There is a change in the way people shop because of the recent surge in the growth of
shopping stores. Today consumers genuinely looking for facilities like cost, comfort,
convenience, in-house parking, sociology, social anthropology and economics. It helps to
understand the buyer decision making process, both individually and in groups. It helps to study
the characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics and behavioral variables in an
attempt to understood people's wants. It also tries to know about the influence on the consumer
from groups such as family, friends, reference groups, and society in general. It is a well-known
fact that the consumer is the ultimate user of a product or service. The overall consumer market
consists of all buyers of goods and services for personal use or for family use. The study of
consumers plays a important role as it helps firms and organizations improve their marketing
strategies. We are recently watched and reported on Customer Buying Behavior Based on
Democracy. In this report we are studied how people are marketing. What they need at the time
of marketing. What is the point which influenced customers.
I have collected data from 3different Shopping areas of Jammu, (wavemall,citysquare and
apsara road,gandhinagar), based on the following strategy..

Where the customers select their marketing (Selection of shopping stores)

Their age, occupation and gender

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Their marketing expression & Body language

Their own dress sense and life style

The interaction of sales man, time duration

Knowledge of product, factors affecting their purchase, shop layout

Action (whether they buy or not)

1.1 Following are two important factors that Influence Consumer Buying Behavior:
Internal Influences:
Consumer behavior is majorly influenced by: demographics, dimensions of the store,
psychographics (lifestyle), personality, motivation, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and feelings.
Consumer behavior concern with consumer need and the consumer actions in the direction of
satisfying needs leads to his behavior of every individual depend on thinking.
External Influences:
Consumer behavior is influenced by the following factors: culture, sub-culture, locality, royalty,
and ethnicity, and family, social class, past experience reference groups, lifestyle, and market
mix factors.

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Retail industry is a kind of business where there is a high level of competition. The success of
retail business is dependent in its fast response and its ability to understand the consumers
buying behaviors. Retail business must focus to its consumers preferences and the factors
influencing a customers purchase decision. Store atmospheric attributes (including color,
lighting, sales personnel, music and so on) as well as store dimensions such as(medium sizes.
Large sized, tight and compact stores) form the overall context within which shoppers make
decisions of store selection and patronage. Past research on retail environment have suggested
that such attributes does largely influence the image of the shopping store. Retailers have
realized the importance of such attributes and systematically try to make use of an ambience,
including appropriate colors, store size, music, and demographics and so on that will attract their
target customers. Furthermore, buying decision making has become complex and confusing due
to inseparability of product and services offered in retail outlets.
Retail store layout planning is a complex task as mentioned above. The fundamental objective of
every store holder is to maximize sales with customer satisfaction and minimize overall costs.
Many important factors affect the store layout planning like the arrival pattern of customers,
building design, desired service level, merchandise-mix, adjacency requirements and many more.
Store layout can affect consumers perceptions of a retail environment in many ways and thus
there is a likelihood of customers to approach or avoiding the product or store. Providing
superior customer experience seems to be one of the main objectives in todays retailing
environments. The customer experience contributes the total experience including the search,
purchase, consumption, and after-sales phases of the experiences. All these are closely related to
the store layout planning and have significant impact on the customer buying behavior.
Recognizing the importance of store environment on consumer buying behavior, retailers have
devoted considerable resources towards the store designing and merchandise presentation
activities and store dimensions. This study explores the effect of store dimensions and
demographics, display modes and colored display shelf atmosphere on consumers purchase
behavior in shopping stores.

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LITERATURE REVIEW

Raymond R. Burke and Alex Leykin (2007) well explained the retail shop ability as the ability of
for it as store layout , navigation, product profilation and presentation, defining the shopping
attitude i.e. Intentions for store entry and purchase but retailers (often mistakenly) believe that
stocking more products means selling more products.
Clarifying aforesaid Wysocki (1979) ; Stevens (1980) stated that retailer have claimed that they
have influenced customers buying behavior by providing store atmospheric via layout, large
sized showrooms, easy to move ,spacious, color, lighting and music store Environment .
Postrel (2003) mentioned that shopping stores are moving rapidly to attract consumer who seek
an overall experience. Store environments are viewed as fantasy environment which provides a
range of experiences such as musical, visual and theatrical for todays consumer.
Donovan,Rossiter, Marcoolyn and Nesdale (1994) found that pleasant environments encouraged
and engaged the consumer to stay longer in the selling environment and to make unplanned and
unpredictable purchase. Store atmospheric attributes such as area, color, lighting, interior
decoration or music form the overall context within which shoppers make store selection and
patronage decisions, and are likely to have a signicant impact on store image and automatically
on the consumer buying behavior. Selection of a specific shopping store involves a comparison
of the available alternative shopping stores on the evaluative criteria of a consumer. Literature
suggests that a range of such criterias , which makes it a challenging task from the retailers
point of view and makes store choice a matter of concern to retailers.
According to Lindquist (1974), store image involves the combination of tangible (or functional)
and intangible (or psychological) factors that consumers expect to be found in shopping stores.
Consumers perceive store image as an evaluative criterion in the purchasing decision selecting a
shopping store.
(Varley, 2005). Store attributes refer to the underlying components of a store image dimension
(like merchandise, physical facilities, services, atmospherics and so on). Research on store image
has given birth to large number of attributes which can influence the consumer buying behavior.
(Martineau, 1958; James et al , 1976 ; Peter and Olson, 1990 ). The impact of store dimensions
and demographics has been found to be linked to store loyalty and patronage decisions.
( Assail, 1992 ; Wong and Yu, 2003 ).the Store Atmosphere plays an important part in the
overall merchandising strategy
(Kotler 1973; Markin, et ale 1976).Kotler defines store atmosphere as the effort to decorate
buying environment to produce specific emotional and a strong effect in the buyer that surely
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his purchase probability Kotler (1973) suggest that if we use store atmosphere as a competitive
tool to attract and maintain a specific target market especially where the product and price
differences are nominal.

2.1Following are some Demographic characteristics which also plays an important role in
deciding the consumer buying behavior. The Five Common Attributes of Demographics are:

Age

Ethnicity

Gender

Level of Income

Race

With respect to gender, it is generally recognized that buying has traditionally been femaledominated.it has been found that the effect of relational quality on store loyalty is larger for
women than for men .This finding is important since the majority of the shopping population
consists
of female consumers. According to a study done among Turkish consumers, it has
been found that women are likely to influence and to be influenced by others in the shopping
process .as a result women tend to be more dependent, influensive, interested and expert in
shopping behavior process than men. Moreover, demographic trend such as more working
women and single parent households who have little time for shopping cause an increase on shop
loyalty intention.
Hence the following hypothesis have been formulated:
H1o: consumer buying intentions will be the same irrespective of gender
H2o: consumer buying intentions will be the same irrespective of marital status
With respect to age, it is claimed that older people think and behave differently than younger
people concerning marketing related phenomena. Wake field and baker indicated that different
ages may create different consumer responses to retail environments. More specifically, several
authors found support for the widely accepted theoretical assumption that older consumers rely
relatively more strongly on aspects such as familiarity with the store, distance to the store and
habit to become loyal to a particular store.
According to the survey results among supermarket customers, which is performed by
(eastestal.1995) there was no association between store loyalty and high income or length of
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education, however they found a negative correlation between store loyalty and age. Also
inreynolds, Darden, and martinsstudy,it is found that the store-loyal women tend to be
older and more down scale than one who is not loyal.also the shoppers that are
under 45 years old and the full time employed were less frequent and more loyal
shoppers. Moreover, he also found weak differences in store loyalty by social class,
household size or number of children.
Hence the following hypothesis is generated from the following:
H3o: store buying intentions will be the same irrespective of age.
H4o: store buying intentions will be the same irrespective of children.

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3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1SAMPLE DESIGN: Primary data was collected from 150 respondents. Data was collected
during survey method

3.2RESEARCH INSTRUMENT: Detailed questionnaire was designed to gather information

about the impact of store dimensions and demography in the mind of customers.it consists of 17
close ended questions which consisted related factors the customers see in the shopping stores.

3.3SAMPLE SIZE: Information was gathered from a sample drawn from 150 respondents.

3.4DATA COLLECTION: The present study is based on primary data as well as

secondarydata.the secondary data was drawn from various books, journals, articles, newspapers
etc. The customers shopping at various shopping stores, malls were given questionnaire to fill to
gather primary data. Their answers were further looked into, in some detail to add value to this
research

3.5STATISTICAL TOOLS APPLIED: Descriptive analysis has been done to find out the results
and to check what the majority of the customers is saying. Further bar graphs have been drawn
and percentages have also been calculated

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4 DATA INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS

1. How often do you go for shopping?
Options
Once in a week
Once in 15 days
Once in month
Once in 3 month
Once in a year

No of respondents
32
81
12
21
4

21

Percentage

32

12

81

once in a week

once in 15 days

once in 3 months

once in a year

once in month

Interpretation: majority of the respondents said that they go shopping once in 15 days
which implies for the marketers to play more attention towards the customer attraction
schemes. It shows that customers prefer going to shopping stores more often hence there
is a need of continuous improvement.
2. Where do you like to go for shopping?
options
Super market
mall
Traditional shop
Online shopping

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respondents
33
21
6o
36

33

36

21
60

super market

mall

traditional shop

online shopping

Interpretation: majority of the respondents said that they prefer going to traditional shop
when they were given choices such as mall, supermarket and online shopping. Very few
responded towards mall reason may be being long distances high prices and so on.
3. Why do you purchase from here?
options
Convenient place
Dealer acquaintance
More discounts
Good environments

Number of respondents
33
21
60
36

33

36

21
60

convient place

dealer acquaintance

more discounts

4th good environmenttr

Interpretation: majority of the respondents said that the factor which motivates the most
is the discounts they get maybe in malls or in other shopping stores. Hence more

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emphasize should be led on discounts seconds majority of the customers are also
influenced by good environment of the shopping stores such as color, layout etc.
4. Some stores featured the celebrities, would it has an impact on you?
options
yes
no

respondents
81
69

69

81

yes

no

Interpretation: majority of the respondents said that celebrities does have a great impact
on their buying behavior but some said that celebrity presence hardly matters to them.
Hence to attract more customers impact of celebrities in the shopping stores can give
fruitful results.
5. Would presentation and packaging help pressurize you in your purchase decision?
options
Yes
No
maybe

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Number of respondents
80
61
9

9
61
80

yes

no

maybe

Interpretation: majority of the respondents said that packaging and presentation does have a huge
impact on their buying behavior, hence these factors need to be taken care of store presentation
attracts the customer.
6. What draws you most to the shop front that you were not planning on visiting?
options
signage
The color
layout
Moving displays in the window

36

Number of respondents
33
21
60
36

33
21

60

signage

the color

layout

moving display in the window

Interpretation: Majority of the respondents said that store layout has a major inpact ()on their
minds and it instigate the customers to enter into the particular shopping storefollowed by
signage and color.
7. Which type of sign attracts you most to a shop?
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Options
Revolving moving sign
A neon sign
3D sign
Moving TV images
Something else

Number of respondents
79
44
16
10
1

16

10 1
79

44

revolving moving sign

a neon sign

moving tv images

something else

3d sign

Interpretation: Majority of the respondents said that among all other factors of a shop that most
attractive to them is revolving moving sign but said that a neon sign attracts them to shop.
8. What do you think is should be the most significant about the shop signs font?
options
Easy and very clear font
Stylish fonts but which are fairly clear to
read
Very quirky designer fonts that is not easy
to read

Number of respondents
61
80
9

9
61
80

easy and very clear font

stylish fonts but which are fairly clear to read
very quirky designer fonts that is not easy to read

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Interpretation: Majority of the respondents said that they prefer stylish fonts which which are
fairly clear to read because in todays era customers prefer shops which are attractive and eye
catcher at the same time the captions should be easily read by them.

9. Do you like the shop fronts logo to represent what it sells?

options
Yes
no

Number of respondents
81
69

81

yes

no

Interpretation: majority of the customers said that they like to be known what the shopping store
is selling ,they like the shop logos in front of the shop hence the marketer should pay attention
towards displays and shop layouts.

10.Which of these shops fronts do you prefer?

options
Open views into the stores and no
display
Slightly restricted views and a
display
No views and a display

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Number of respondents
61
80
9

Column1

open views into the stores and no display

slightly restricted views and a display

no views and a display

Interpretation: majority of the respondents said that the display of objects attracts them the
most .if they see things well displayed from outside the shopping stores, they tend to stop and
visit the outlet for sure.
11. Once inside the shop what type of layouts do you prefer?
options
small, tight and compact
Medium sized
Large, spacious and open

small tight and compact

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Number of respondents
40
90
20

medium sized

large,spacious and open

Interpretation: majority of the respondents said that medium sized shop are more prominent and
comfortable as compared to small, tight and compact or large, spacious and open because
medium sized shops provide the benefit of easy finding of the items .
12. Will you come into a shop if you receive money off voucher or a sales leaflet at home
from a mail shot?
options
Yes
no

Number of respondents
81
69

yes

no

Interpretation: majority of the respondents said that one of the main reason behind going into the
shopping stores is sale .sales in the shopping stores grab the interest of more customers and act as
a influencer in purchasing decision.
13. Which shop promotional would most attract you to visit a shop?
Options
A famous person was signing in there
The shop had 50%off all lines
The shop was running a competition to win
a big prize

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Number of respondents
40
90
20

a famous person was signing in there

the shop had 50% off all lines
the shop was running a competition to win a big prize

Interpretation: majority of the respondents said that when the shopping stores had 50% off , they
prefer to visit the stores more often along with this factor 40% of the respondent said that impact
of famous personality also affect the purchasing decision.
14. Do you like awnings on shop fronts?
Options
Yes
No

Number of respondents
81
69

yes

no

Interpretation: Majority of the respondents prefer awnings on shop fronts this gives a unique
affect and different look to the shop which in return attract more customers.
15. Factors affecting your purchase decision:
price

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design

color

material

location

Sales
promotional

Strongly
agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly
disagree

28

57

16

25

67

activities
41

37
43
39
3

66
18
6
3

13
98
8
15

28
80
12
5

51
22
10
0

60
24
18
7

design

price

strongly agree

agree

strongly agree

agree

neutral

disagree

neutral

disagree

strongly disagree

strongly disagree

material

colour

strongly agree

agree

strongly agree

agree

neutral

disagree

neutral

disagree

strongly disagree

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strongly disagree

location

sales promotional activities

strongly agree

agree

strongly agree

agree

neutral

disagree

neutral

disagree

strongly disagree

strongly disagree

Interpretation: From the above data, it is cleared that mainly design, location and sales
promotional activities affect the purchase decision the most .hence shop dimensions such as
large, smaller medium and shop layout plays a vital role.
16. From the following choose the appropriate statement which is most suitable according
to you.

Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly
disagree

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Stores interior It should be

design should easy to find the
be impressive
items I want in
the store
79
45
44
68
16
16
10
11
1
10

Stores should Stores

layout
be spacious
should be well
organized
77
44
19
6
4

53
41
23
21
12

it should
be easy to find the items I want in the store
stores interior design should
be impressive

strongly agree

agree

strongly agree

agree

neutral

disagree

neutral

disagree

strongly disagree

strongly disagree

store should be spaciousstores layout should be well organised

strongly agree

agree

strongly agree

agree

neutral

disagree

neutral

disagree

strongly disagree

strongly disagree

Interpretation: The data shows that the statements above are equally important for the customers
whether it is store space, store layout, store interior design. Impact of store dimensions and
layouts influence the buying behavior of customers hence marketers should pay attention
towards these aspects.

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5 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

From the foregoing discussions on literature review, inference and research structure, this study
intends to explore the relationship among some important variable in practical context such as
the effect of store layout particularly store dimensions and the demographics on the consumer
buying behavior, so as to acknowledge the relationship among shopping environment of retail
store, customers cognitive valuation, customer emotional response and customer behavioral
response.it is important to study what customer is thinking while switching over the new store or
staying loyal to the particular store.
The research issues are included as follow.
1. To measure the impact of different store dimensions and demographics on consumers
attention, perceived value and purchase intention.
2. To measure the impact of different visual communications used on consumers attention,
perceived value and purchase intention.
3. How environmental stimuli influence shopping behavior.

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4. To identify the influence made by the Lighting and design layout on consumers store choice
decisions.
5. To find out the influence made by Product Display to encourage customers buying decisions

6 FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION

The findings from the study indicate that store atmospheric factors, have significant impact on
customer buying behaviors. Ordering from high to low according to the extent of impact, the
factors are design factors, size of the shop (large, medium or compact), intangible factors, image
of service personnel, visual stimulus, dimensions and image of other customers. This reveals that
the design factor and the store layout is the biggest environment factor that impacts customer
approach behaviors; its power of influence and interpretation are significantly higher than other
factors.
Customers pay special attention to the designing in a store, including whether the layout and
overall structure is reasonable, how is the interior decoration, whether the signs and marks are
clear, whether the display of commodities in corridor space, commodity information and
classification is complete , there is a space to roam around ,and convenient. Intangible factors
and image of service personnel, such as music, noise, room temperature, clothing and attitude of
service personnel etc. are also considered by customers as critical factors that will influence their
behaviors. All the above mentioned factors have significantly positive correlation with customer
approach behaviors, indicating that customer behaviors in hypermarkets are mainly affected by
the environment factors that have biggest relevance with commodity. Finally, this study proposes
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specific suggestions and measures of how to create a pleasant store atmosphere and convenient
store layout in shopping store to promote retail shop ability and influence customer buying
behavior.

6.2 RECOMMENDATIONS

I.

II.

The retails should acknowledge the importance of store layout and work towards it by
providing goods and services that appeal to consumers, in an ambience that is conducive
for shopping.
Train store employee continuously about serving customers need, Creating complaint and
suggestion system in store, Creating customer relationship management systems,
increasing employee salary in order to create incentives for improving their levels of
customer service.

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6.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

I.
II.

The survey has been confined to Jammu city only.

The sample size was restricted to 150 which is comparatively very less as

III.

compared to the entire population of the city/region.

Few respondents were unwilling to give an accurate response to certain
questions and have replied as per their own perception and experience there
by the possibility of personal bias cannot be ruled out completely.

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REFERENCE

I.

Yildirima Kemal, Akalin-Baskayab Aysu, Hidayetogluc M. Ltfi (2007) The Effects of

the Store Window Type on ConsumersPerception and Shopping Attitudes Through the

II.

Use of Digital Pictures G.U. Journal of Science 20(2): 33-40

Abdolvand Ali Mohammad ,Hanzaee Kambiz heidarzadeh ,Rahnama Afshin and
Khoshpanjeh (2011) The Effect of Situational and individual Factor on Impluse Buying,

III.

World Applied Science Jouranal 13(9): 2108-2117

Billings '90, Wendy L., "Effects of Store Atmosphere on Shopping Behavior" (1990).

IV.

Honors Projects. Paper 16.

Kotler, Philip (1973), "Atmosphere as a Marketing Tool," Journal of Retailing, 49

V.

(Winter), 48-64.
Stassen, R.E., Mittelstaedt, J. and Mittelstaedt, R.A. (1999), Assortment overlap: its
effect on shopping patterns in a retail market when the distortions of prices and goods are

VI.

known, Journal of Retailing, 75 (3), pp. 371-386.

Kenhove, P.V., De Wulf, K. and Waterscoot, W. V. (1999), The impact of task definition
Effect of Situational Factors on Store Format Choice Behaviour in Food and Grocery
Retailing in India - Multiple Discriminant Analysis on store attribute salience and store

VII.

choice, Journal of Retailing, 75 (1), pp.125-137.

Donovan, Robert and John Rossiter (1982), "Store Atmosphere: An Environmental
Psychology Approach," Journal of Retailing, 58 (Spring), 34-57.

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VIII.

Dr.. Burke Raymond R (2005) Retail Shoppability: A Measure Of The Worlds Best
Store , Future Retail Now: 40 Of The Worlds Best Stores, International Standard Book

IX.

Number: 0-9766719-0-5.
Touch America: The Shopper Connection, national telephone survey of 1,200

X.

consumers commissioned by WSL Strategic, 10/05

[10] Too Much Choice Can Hurt Brand Performance,Stanford Graduate School of

XI.

Business web http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/mktg_consumerchoice.shtml

[11] Too Much Choice Can Hurt Brand Performance, Stanford Graduate School of
Business web site

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