Ha, Young. 2006. The Influence of Online Visual Merchandising on Consumer Emotions: Moderating Role of Consumer Involvement (dissertation).
This article is a research study on the factors that influence the behavior of buyers who do their shopping online. The peripheral cues and product involvement are believed to impact greatly on the way the buyers arrive at their decision to make a purchase (Ha 2006, p. 45). Female clients are particularly influenced by the emotions that visual merchandise creates. For this reason, this paper addresses the impact of the peripheral cues on the consumer’s feeling, and more so pleasure and arousal in the apparel industry. When the customer emotions are affected, then the buying intention, feeling of satisfaction, and the approach behavior is affected too. This paper assesses a sample of 1,634 female students through an online study where a mock website was designed to investigate the situational behavior and involvement of the participants.
Based on the influence that the visual perception and impact that products displayed for sale can have on the human being, this paper finds that the visual merchandise has grown to become a very critical strategic tool for increasing sales especially in the fashion industry (Amberclombie 2003). This is one of the industries that the females especially those in their youthful years are very sensitive to (Ha 2006, p. 45). The presentation of the merchandise, image, and the design of the store, graphics, lighting, and props bring out a unique perception and a distinctive feeling of satisfaction and liking. An outstanding example of the influence of the visual merchandise was found to be the coloring. Female students were highly attracted to the pink color apparel since this color was associated with elegance and considered very feminine (Ha 2006, p. 45).
Law, Derry, and Yip, Joanne 2002. The Impact of Visual Merchandising on the Consumer Decision Process for Intimate Apparel.
article states that the apparel has been considered as a very personal issue and this has therefore translated into a keen consideration of the ultimate intent of making the purchase. In most cases, this has been based on the degree of ‘wearability’ depending on different purposes. Previous researches reality addressed this subject as a unique factor concerning the customer decision process before making the purchase (Law & Yip 2002, p. 13).
Past researches concentrated on the physical state of the intimate apparel for instance the functional support, reduced aesthetic value of a bra, normal process of replacing the worn-out product, and the interaction that exists between the seller and the buyers was no stressed. However, contemporary retailing has gone a notch higher. In the apparel industry, fashion and the trend are very critical factors for women (Kerfoot 2003). The paper also shows that these factors have become very crucial in determining the decision to buy (Law & Yip 2002, p. 13). The writers specifically identify that for the sealers to remain relevant in the market place, they have given closer attention to the visual merchandising approach that will arouse purchase. This study exposes fashion conscience and function-oriented feelings as unique marketing strategies. Researches used focused interviews to interrogate young women aged between 25 and 35 years of age. This study helped to bring out the impact of the different strategies of selling. Mannequin forms were found to be the most important one when it comes to arousing Purchase. The combination of several tactics like props, lighting, and mannequin yielded excellent results (Law & Yip 2002, p. 13).
Shona Kerfoot, Barry Davies, Philippa Ward, 2003. “Visual Merchandising and the Creation of Discernible Retail Brands”
This article is a research that was done to investigate the impact of visual merchandising. It’s a presentation of an initial study that investigated the way human behavior is influenced by what they see. In business, marketing exploits this, and the marketer’s design strategies to market their product based on the fact that the sight of the product would influence a person to make a response which in this case would be to purchase (Shona et al 2003, p. 143). Market target the visual to specific clients and young females are the most emotional people therefore are easily influenced by the visual impact. This is designed to increase the rating of the brand or brand recognition and hence the eventual purchase behavior (Ha 2006, p. 45).
The perspective of the article is concessionary branded female fashion clothes in a shopping mall. The study utilized semi-structured questionnaires in the interviews to investigate the feeling and the perceptions that young female university students had over the visual merchandise. Stimulus material was also used alongside the interview questions to get the actual reaction or response of the participants. These stimulus materials were pictures from the concessionary stores (Shona et al 2003, p. 143).
From the analysis of the results, the findings were that the main themes that influenced most the intention to make the purchase were the colors of the merchandise, the style of display in the shops, customer awareness f the fashion turned or the fixtures, the lighting of the shops, pathfinding and other sensory characteristics of the products (Shona et al 2003, p. 143). The initial findings indicate that display liking does not necessarily translate to purchase but increases the likelihood of purchasing by four times.
Gopal V V Visual Merchandising: An Introduction
This book addressed marketing in the exceedingly chaotic and competitive environment, where there is similar merchandise in several outlets yet all of them want to continue thriving. To deal with such a situation, there is a need to have a major factor of differentiation in terms of the design, particularly the store layout and the attractive display of the merchandise (Bruce, Moore & Birtwistle 2004). This book begins with the introduction to merchandising, the visual merchandising strategy, its importance, and the art and science of display. These are just some of the contents (Ha 2006, p. 45).
Floor advertising, POP, brand designers, retailing ‘unstoppability’, and topics like why we buy are addressed after understanding the visual merchandise. This book reveals that the retails have been able to identify the secret that visual impact has on their buyers. Visual stimulus is hence the easiest way of increasing purchases and perhaps the most used strategy to attract customers. Extra utility on the floor and the space of the shops create an ambiance that attracts the customers. The books show that there has been a shift from customer information in the previous marketing approached the new ones that address the customer’s pleasure or satisfaction. This has been the genesis of the idea of visual merchandising. This is the display of the items for sale on market in a manner that arouses interest to buy. Creativity in-display attracts attention and the buyer gets compelled to buy.
This book is divided into two sections that helped to understand the concept of visual perception on the female customer behavior. The articles in the first section of this book address issues like store planning and design, display and spacing, and future and decorations. The second section addressed the subject of challenges that face the visual concept. Changing the floor design, spacing problems, alienation, and effect on the retailers’ overall strategy, There are several dimensions of visual merchandising from different stores form UK based Next, French connection, Hong Kong’s’ Watson, US’ GAP to L’Oreal of Indian. These examples offer the reader insightful details of visual merchandising.
Babu Papal, Visual Merchandising
The concept of visual merchandising is relatively new and it’s increasing in popularity at a very fast rate. The main areas of work according to this book are the window display. The merchandisers can also use the floor displays to instigate a feeling of euphoria which would translate to more purchases. The contents begin with an introduction, the critical factors of the visual merchandise, its role, and scope of development. The introduction addresses the convenience of shopping when the image is communicated to the claims. To create loyalty, and besides quality, the right image is imperative.
Concerning the critical matters of this concept of marketing, the use of things like graphics, space management, trend, and moot boards to attract attention is applied. Also important for the female customer are the mannequins and dressy-forms. The role of merchandising has been to assist in creating the means to present products to clients to impact a long term influence. To educate the customers about the products and to combine creativity with the business so that it could translate to sales.
Jay Diamond and Ellen Diamond, Contemporary Visual Merchandising and Environmental Design, 4th Ed.
This book exam various aspect of visual merchandise. The range of the investigation is from the point of purchase to signage. This was previously entrusted to professionals. Equipped with rich text and pictures, this book discusses the rudiments of having a good quality design and unique marketing strategy to transform mundane stores into stores with exciting ambiance and charm (Diamond & Diamond 2003, p. 35). This book has also been updated about the visual merchandised advances and the multicultural customers as well as green initiatives that are sensitive to the environmental conservation measures.
The Secrets of Visual Merchandising, SURF Magazine
The way the store looks can be at times more important than the products being sold to the customers. This article gives insights on how a store has to be presented and displayed to attract more clients who would otherwise have passed to the next shop. The writer states that the store should in itself tell a story through the window displays, the floor plans, and any other visual basic tool that can be exploited to enhance sales. According to this magazine, it’s the visual merchandising that takes the clients from the display area to the cash window. This is encouraging sales via creativity in the use of color and design as the main element of attracting the interest of customers.
Bonita by Rosemary Garcia. (DiNardo, Anne, Latin Beauty), VMSD Magazine. This is an article about a lady who discovered that she could do a great deal of business by attracting her female customers through visual aspects. According to Garcia, she saw a gap in the world of color cosmetics. Having been in the cosmetics business for several years, she has enough experience to begin her own business. With this, she started a company on the internet and named Bonita, which is a Spanish word that means ‘pretty’. The main appeal for the shop is the display of several shades of skin beauty products. Garcia says that she knew women loved the color and that why she chose the pink and white shades for the boutique and feminine feel and purples to attract the attention of women.
Reference List
Amberclombie, F. 2002. The store. Web.
Bruce, M, Moore, C, & Birtwistle. 2004. International retail marketing: a case study approach. Manchester school of management: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Diamond, J & Diamond, E. 2003. Contemporary Visual Merchandising and Environmental Design, 4th Edition. Prentice Hall.
Ha, Y 2006. ‘The Influence of Online Visual Merchandising on Consumer Emotions: Moderating Role of Consumer Involvement (dissertation)’, Ohio State University, pp 45-134.
Kerfoot, S. 2003. Visual merchandising and the creation of discernible retail brands, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, (31) (3). pp 143-152.
Law, D & Yip, J 2002. The Impact of Visual Merchandising on the Consumer Decision Process for Intimate Apparel. Feng Chia University.
Shona, K., Barry, D. & Philippa, W 2003. “Visual Merchandising and The Creation Of Discernible Retail Brands”, International Journal Of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 31 Issue: 3, Pp.143 – 152.