Retail Environment Elements That Influence Consumer Shopping Behavior

Shopping can and should be about more than just price or convenience. Moreover, for high street and main street retailer, concentrating only on price means losing the opportunity to build genuine brand loyalty or give shoppers a reason to enjoy their visit.

In a day of, “I want it now and I’m willing to pay for it,” a shopping center has to offer a variety of stores, and also have several options. The shoe shopper will go to the place with 5 shoe stores before they go to the place with only 1. They may not realize that of the 5 available shoe stores; only 1 is in their price range, but satisfying a wider variety of consumers will help the mall broaden the shopper’s experience. But it is important to remember that shoppers are price sensitive, so not only do you need a variety of stores offering a variety of products, but you also need to be able to provide a variety of price points so you don’t limit your shopper demographics.

Through observing the fast pace shoppers inside the stores, I have noticed some details about the shopping ritual that sparked my interest. The bigger the store was, the more individuals went in the store. For example, Dillards which has a variety of different style of clothes, cosmetics, shoes, and items for both men and women of any age. Because these types of stores have more of a variety, individuals are more drown to this aspect to receive more options. Also, I noticed that individuals automatically go to the sale rack or section. For example, H&M and American Eagle both had large red signs in there stores to indicate a sale. This section was more crowded than any

As we enter a new generation, shoppers are gearing toward online and mobile shopping, which contributes to the extinction of shopping malls. America reached a time period where the number of adults who were born in a time where online shopping was not thought of are retiring; resulting in old habits, such as shopping in malls, coming to a cease. The older generation of adults tend to revert back to familiar habits such as shopping at malls or going to a bookstore. The new generation of adults/teenagers do not use shopping malls as a hangout spot in contrast to older generation, thus leading to the decline of shopping malls. Other than shopping, shopping malls were once used for socializing. However, with the increase of social networks

A distinguished structure that is present in today’s retail environment is a shopping centre. A shopping centre is where multiple stores presenting different merchandisers are formed under a building and allocated through a leasing agency. Shopping centers are aimed towards middle income suburban residents who are mobile. A shopping centre has controlled walkways which enable consumers to walk from store to store. Plenty of effort is put into developing the design of a shopping centre, thus increasing the amount of time people spend shopping. The

In “Enclosed. Encyclopedic. Endured: The Mall of America” David Gueterson spoke about the idea behind the creation of the Mall and his journey as a reporter inside it. For instance, he talked about how the mall not only intended to attract Minnesotan, but also to appeal to tourist from everywhere. Because of it enormous size and diverse activities, the mall is like the mecca of shoppers. He also mentioned that, Some people got engaged and some even got their marriage ceremony at the mall. After all he described the mall as a success, and the companies behind the mall are even thinking about building similar malls around the world. (161-72). Such marketing strategies stated above are embodied in many businesses today, with the intention not only to bring people in, but also to make them spend money and come back again.

Modern retail stores have to use a variety of techniques in order to lure and keep customers inside their stores. Without paying customers there is no retail store. This shows the importance of the consumer and how much influence they have over modern retail companies. These Fortune 500 companies pay top dollar to know how they can maximize product sales in every way possible. In The Science of Shopping Malcolm Gladwell interviews Paco Underhill, a retail anthropologist who's sole purpose is to study consumers' shopping habits and to determine the best store design for maximum profit. Over the years Paco has noticed various human tendencies that, if used properly, will increase a retail stores sales. Tendencies like: the Invariant right, Petting, and the Decompression Zone. I visited a local Walmart looking for evidence of Pacos work and recorded my findings.

The suburban regional shopping mall is a place where the shoppers could purchase products and spend time for relaxing with their acquaintance. It has a huge space and amusement facilities, such as lounge, restaurant, department store and etc. Department store is one of the critical elements that the center has to attract and stimulate shoppers to walk throughout the mall. However, the existence of department store in the mall not necessarily gives a huge impact on the mall sales, because the changing of shoppers’ needs and wants.

When comparing two different ways of shopping most people do not even think about the difference, they do both and not even realize it. In today's society people shop while at work, after work and on the weekends, whenever time permits. Stop and think how can I get more time in the day for family or just myself? The best way to figure that out with all the recourses we have is to go into a store and spend time looking through racks and waiting in endless lines to just purchase something. I compared going into a store verses online shopping; to see which one will save you time and money.

Today’s customers are more aware and empowered, and have more bargaining power due to the exponential increase in competition – direct, indirect or substitute. In retailing, they want hassle-free shopping, have less time at their disposal to locate the shop and the merchandise and are reluctant to keep waiting. The modern format retail stores are doing their best to anticipate the customer’s demands and are going all out to redesign their store interiors, offer more choices in varieties and assortments, and are giving as many services as feasible.

The purpose of this paper was to observe the consumers of a retail store of my choice; I chose to observe Victoria’s Secret and Targets consumers, because I myself am consumers of those stores quite often, then to analyze the behavior of the consumers of Victoria’s Secret and Target. Victoria’s Secret and Target consumers differ because of the difference in type of retail they offer and sell. Victoria’s Secret consumers know what they are going to be shopping for women and certain needs or wants they are looking to satisfy. Target consumers shop for any age and any gender,

Online shopping is becoming tremendously popular among customers. Major fashion retailers have established their online presence to expand their market. Primark is one of the fashion retailers having lowest prices among the high street brands. The aim of this study is to analyse the consumer shift from high-street shopping to internet shopping and evaluate how an online store can affect the retail business of Primark.

Understanding consumer buying behavior entails marketing, relationships, and consumer behavior. Consumer behavior comprises all the consumer decisions and activities connected with the choosing, buying, using and disposing of goods and services. Marketers must pay very close attention to consumer behavior that occurs before the purchase and after the particular product has been used. Studying consumer habits is one of the steps in marketing search and analysis. In addition to other basic principles of consumer buying habits, marketers also need to study the decision and actions of real people. Until recent history the study of consumer behavior was focused on generalized consumer decisions. With

The behavior was observed from a large sample of people. This included twenty people shopping alone and twenty people shopping in a group, for a total of forty subjects, each ranging in ages from approximately 19 to 40 years old. The subjects were observed from the time they entered the store until the time they left. The reasoning behind this was to see the buying behavior differences for the whole experience and figure out which areas of the store could be improved in order to appeal to groups of people shopping. The behaviors observed included the amount of time spent inside the store, the amount of money spent, the interactions with associates, and the areas of the stores that were navigated.

Store environment could affect shoppers’ behaviors in several ways. Store environment also influences various stages of shoppers’ cognitive process inside a store, including attention, perception, categorization and information processing. For example, it has been shown that perceived waiting time varies with the valence of music and consumers’ categorization of a restaurant as a fast food outlet depends largely on the external appearance of the store .While the foregoing discussion is mainly concerned about the immediate effects of store environment, store environment may also have lagged or carryover effects on