A STUDY ON EFFECT OF STORE AESTHETICS ON

FEMINA SHOPPING MALL SHOPPERS

IN TRICHIRAPALLI TOWN

AUTHOR: M.JANANI,M.Phil.,Research Scholar

CO-AUTHOR: R.SARANYA,M.Phil.,Research Scholar

ABSTRACT
The spending capacity and willingness of customers has increased in India. Keeping this
in mind, marketers have come up with organized retail outlets to attract and cater to the
customer’s needs. A well-designed and finely maintained store not only attracts more footfalls,
but also increases the sales. Apart from that, beautification, which is known as aesthetics of the
store, is also important for the marketers. The main purpose of this research was to find out if
proper maintenance or aesthetics of a retail store persuade the shoppers’ intention to purchase.
This research will help managers to understand the preferences of the customers in a store and
design the store aesthetically to attract more footfalls and generate purchases.

INTRODUCTION
The retail sector in India is emerging as one of the largest sectors in the economy,
marking a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.9% since 1988. The organized retail
segment in India is expected to be 9% of the total retail market by 2015 and 20% by 2020.
Among emerging and developed nations, the country is ranked third after China and Brazil on
net retail sales. This immense growth of the retail sector has also increased the competitiveness
amongst the players in the industry.

The aesthetics of the store symbolize the environment stimuli. Aesthetic has a similar
meaning as artistic and beautification. A store with pleasing aesthetics would be one that is
modern, with good lighting, intelligently laid out, and visually appealing, whereas a less
attractive store might be poorly maintained and haphazardly laid out with narrow, poorly lit
aisles, old fixtures, peeling paint, and so forth. The store which will give more value to shoppers
will attract more traffic. To attract its customers one has to position its store not only in terms of
products/brands but also the physical aspects, atmosphere and ambience to the store.

The variables taken for the study have been classified under exterior and interior of the
store. The exterior of the store denotes the outside of the store and its external environment
which is visible to the outer world. The exterior of the store includes the following variables:
external appearance, store building, marquee, parking facilities, display window and location.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:
 To identify the store aesthetics activity carried out in Femina Shopping Mall.
 To study the impact of store aesthetics on FSM shoppers.
 To inform management about the sale for further improvement.

RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS:
There is a significant association between the effect on store aesthetics and purchase
intentions of male and female shoppers.

METHODOLOGY:
The type of study is descriptive in nature. The study is carried out in Femina Shopping
Mall. Random sampling method has been adopted. One hundred respondents were selected and
data is collected through a concrete questionnaire, which is primary data and secondary data is
collected from journals and other reference materials. The collected data are processed and
presented in the form of tables. The statistical tool use for the study is SPSS package and the
tool used is regression.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE:
There has been a growing importance in the beautification of the interior and exterior of a
store to lure customers. It has been recognized that creative interiors and exteriors influence and
reinforce shoppers buying behavior (kotler,1973).

The external appearance of a store is its identity. It deserves the maximum attention on
the part of the store manager. If the external appearance is attractive and approachable, it will
induce positive stimuli within the customers and lead to purchase intention(Turley & Milliman,
2000).

The clean, modern store may yield positive halo effects toward the products sold and
attract the customers to purchase. Shoppers may opine that an unattractive retail outlet would
store low quality products and may not buy from it. Store aesthetics has an influence on the
shopper judgment and decision making (Sharma, 1996; Sharma & Stafford, 2000).

The research of Baker, Parasuraman, Grewal, and Voss(2002) suggested that a good
store interior positively influences customers perceptions of merchandise quality.

One of the important parts of the interior is the display of products. Products can be
displayed in several ways to attract customers. A well organized and aesthetically pleasing
product display draws attention of the shoppers. Studies have shown that the display of products
is directly proportional to the increase in sales (Curhan, 1974; Chevalier, 1975; Gangnon &
Osterhaus, 1985; Wilkinson, Mason & Paksoy, 1982).
 ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA

DEMOGRAPHIC DETAILS

Age In percentage
18-25 29
25-35 24
35-45 25
45-55 13
55> 9
Gender
Male 50
Female 50
Profession
Student 21
Service holder 35
Housewife 36
Business men/women 8

INTERPRETATION:
The minimum age of the respondents is was 18 years. The maximum percentage of the
respondents were between the age group of 18-25 years (29%) followed by respondents in the
age group of 35-45 years (25%). The minimum percentage of the respondents was above the age
of 55 years. The gender ratio is 1:1. 36% of the respondents were housewife, 35% of the
respondents were service holder, 21% of the respondents were students and 8% of the
respondents were business men/women.

REGRESSION

NULL HYPOTHESIS:
HO: There is no significant association between effect of aesthetic variables on purchase
intention of male and female shoppers.

RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS:
HA: There is significant association between effect of aesthetic variables on purchase intention
of male and female shoppers.
Aesthetics Variables Male (β) p- value Female (β) p- value
Exterior External
-0.32 0.000 -0.37 0.000
appearance
Store building 0.21 0.001 0.54 0.000
Marquee 0.19 0.001 0.21 0.001
Parking facilities 0.61 0.001 0.67 0.000
Display window 0.45 0.000 0.32 0.000
Location 0.56 0.001 0.71 0.001
Interior Atmosphere 0.6 0.001 o.48 0.001
Layout -0.04 0.001 0.52 0.001
Product display 0.89 0.000 0.84 0.000
Color and lighting 0.38 0.000 0.49 0.040
Music -0.07 0.001 0.14 0.000
Flooring -0.27 0.000 -0.16 0.000
Trial room 0.05 0.030 0.64 0.009
Merchandise
0.71 0.001 0.75 0.213
assortment
Price 0.04 0.001 0.04 0.001
Sales personnel -0.07 0.209 -0.03 0.201
Customer service 0.46 0.000 0.42 0.001

FINDINGS :
The most significant effect was of product display on the intention to purchase for both
genders followed by lighting of the interiors of the store, parking facilities provided by the retail
outlet and the location of the store. The marquee also known as the signboard, also had a
persuading influence on the purchase intention of the customers. The effect of the outside of the
store building and the flooring of the store both had a negative effect on the purchase intention of
both the genders. The existence of the sales personnel did not have a positive effect on the
buying behavior of the customers.

The effects of different variables were different for both the genders. The effect of store
building on the purchase intention of men was quite less as compared to its effect on women
shoppers. The music played inside the store had a negative effect on the purchase intention of
men, but had a positive persuading influence on the purchase intention of women. Similarly, the
price of the merchandise displayed did not influence the purchase intention of men, whereas
women respondents found it to be slightly worthy.
 The flooring, lighting and color of the interiors are most of the maintenance factors than
the persuading factors. But if these factors are not taken care of, it would lead to customer
dissatisfaction. The service provided by the store is directly proportional to the purchase
intention of the shoppers, and the managers need to focus on it. The store may have all the
aesthetics, but if the human aesthetics is lacking, the sales would definitely dip. The prices of the
products have to be fixed keeping in mind the lifestyle and income level of the shoppers in the
region where the store is located. Since the brand considered for the present study has its stores
in tier I, II and even tier III cities, it has to cater to a variety of customers. Accordingly, the price
of the products should be fixed.

This research concludes the store aesthetics play a major role in influencing the buying
behavior and purchase intention of the shoppers belonging to both the genders. For men, some
aspects were important whereas for women shoppers, some others were significant. Apart from
proper maintenance of the store, the store atmospherics exterior and interior of the store need
beautification. It should appeal to the shoppers so that they spend more time in the store leading
to increase in purchases.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
S.K.Baral, S.C.Bihari,”Retail Management”, second edition, publication: A.I.T.B.S. Publishers,
New Delhi.

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