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Revolutionary changes are happening in retail, and the term “retail apocalypse” reflects these dramatic changes. As a growing number of traditional brick-and-motor retailers are closing, the aim of this study is to understand and test the dimensions of specific store and consumer factors that are driving this shift towards non-traditional retail marketplaces (e.g. pop-up stores, fashion trucks), factors that drive consumer loyalty (i.e. re-patronage intentions) and the mediating role of shopping enjoyment in this context.

This study used a consumer panel (n = 237) of previous shoppers of non-traditional retailers. Utilising exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), this study identifies possible store and consumer factors that are associated with consumers' patronage of non-traditional retailers. Based on results, we propose a model for non-traditional retail shopping behaviour.

EFA revealed that quality of personal experience and consumer curiosity were dominant factors explaining variance. Key findings revealed that in-store factors (in-store ambiance, quality and value of products) and consumer factors (consumer curiosity, quality consciousness) influence consumers' re-patronage intentions. This highlights the importance of maintaining quality elements in shopping experiences. Shopping enjoyment was found to mediate relationships, indicating that while not all factors directly impact loyalty, it can be enhanced through pleasurable shopping experiences.

Our findings help retailers understand which factors are driving this dramatic change in consumer behaviour so they may develop better strategies to attract and retain customers. Retailers need to highlight product quality and in-store atmosphere and spark consumers' quality consciousness and curiosity to enhance consumer loyalty.

Despite the rise in popularity, this is the first study to investigate non-traditional retailers comprehensively.

Positioned in the e-retailing field, this study aims to investigate the effect of the retail store’s atmosphere on consumer behavior in 3D online shopping environments, focusing on store layout as a critical influential factor.

The research uses a mixed research method approach that includes two complementary studies. First, a three-round Delphi study with domain experts is used to develop a store layout classification scheme (Study 1), resulting in five distinct types of store layout. Subsequently, 3D online retail stores that use the five layouts are designed and developed. These serve as treatments of a laboratory experimental design, which is used to assess layout impact on a number of attitudinal and behavioral variables (Study 2).

Five distinct types of store layout have been identified in Study 1, and their distinctive features are presented. The findings of Study 2 indicate that online shopping enjoyment, entertainment and ease of navigation are influenced by the store layout types of 3D online environments. Specifically, the “avant-garde” layout type facilitates the ease of navigation of customers in the store and provides a superior online customer experience. The “warehouse”’ adopts long aisles for the display of products, which simplifies the comparison of products, whereas the “boutique” layout was found to be the best in terms of shopping enjoyment and entertainment. The “department” layout shares many common characteristics with traditional department stores, providing an entertaining and enjoyable store, whereas the “pragmatic” layout emphasizes low system requirements.

The paper presents characteristics that make store layouts effective for different aspects of online customers’ experience and identifies opportunities that 3D online store designers and retailers can explore for the provision of enhanced, customized services to online customers.

This paper examines recent technological developments in store design and visual merchandising. It identifies five layout types of 3D online stores, which are different from those of brick–and–mortar and 2D online stores, and investigates their impact on consumer behavior. Further, the paper examines how each layout type influences online shopping enjoyment, entertainment, ease of navigation, online customer experience and, in turn, purchase and word-of-mouth intentions. Finally, the paper examines the moderating role of telepresence. Individuals with high sense of telepresence conceive 3D environments as “real” and are more concerned about the attributes that trigger the sense of enjoyment they experience while browsing.

The purpose of this paper is to discover user-generated visual merchandising (VM) directives that could guide VM in physical stores as well as shed light on future development of customizable virtual stores for online retailing.

Applying a facet theory approach, our research involved consumers (n=145) in co-designing VM directives in a 3D virtual store in collaboration with target corporation. In total, 67 virtual shops in three product categories, i.e., women’s ready-to-wear, boy’s Cherokee, and men’s swim wear, were content analysed, along with written reports.

The research findings focused on the three facets of VM: merchandising presentation (fixturing, product density, manner of presentation, and product adjacency), in-store environment (layout and interior), and in-store promotion (signage). The research revealed the elements that these facets contain and the relationships between the elements. The findings suggest that retailers should design an ecological instead of a merely utilitarian environment; clear section identity helps shoppers find a sense of ownership and boundaries; and stores should also present a lifestyle solution instead of a merchandise selection.

The research contributes both original creations of VM directives and a methodical framework that moves the subject of VM from the physical to the virtual environment and shifts the traditional in-house function of VM to an open innovation in which consumers participate.

Clustering is a highly popular and widely used tool for identifying data-based market segments. The purpose of this paper is to apply cluster analysis to identify homogeneous subgroups among impulse buyers based on their demographic characteristics and their preference of atmospheric elements.

Based on a survey approach with 480 fashion consumers, the study discusses impulse purchases during financial crisis. SPSS process is used to determine the effect of atmospherics on impulse purchases as well as the moderating role of demographics. Cluster analysis (k-means method) is used to determine specific segments of impulsive consumption.

Despite a significant effect of atmospherics on consumers’ impulsiveness, the frequency of purchases is not significantly affected indicating that the economic environment may shape impulsive behavior. Gender, age and education seem to moderate the above relationship. Demographics and store atmospherics define specific segments of impulse buyers.

The study identifies the clusters formed through the interaction of atmospherics with demographics. It further identifies the impact of atmospheric factors in the case of an economy in crisis. In times of financial hardship, store atmospherics, although appealing, do not seem to adequately promote impulse buying behavior. Understanding consumer’s impulsive behavior based on distinctive profiles is of outmost importance to retailers seeking to increase consumption, in particular under conditions of financial hardship.

The present study explores the role of environmental characteristics on consumers’ impulse behavior amidst a financial crisis and identifies the characteristics of specific segments of consumption.

Manufacturers and retailers spend millions of dollars every year on in-store communications. The effectiveness of these dollars depends on whether shoppers notice, pay attention to, and engage with these communications, something that is best determined from eye-tracking data. In this chapter, we utilize mobile eye-tracking data from tens of in-store marketing research studies conducted with hundreds of shoppers to develop six lessons with important implications for effective signage, shelf configuration, and package design. The first three lessons highlight the challenge of being noticed and engaged with in the store, given the narrow spatial window above and below eye level in which consumers look, the very short amount of time they devote to reading a sign or label even when they notice it, and the low probability that they engage with a communication especially if it is not immediately actionable. The last three lessons provide guidance on how marketers can design packages and labels that are more likely to be noticed, read, and included in the shopper’s consideration set, across different product categories.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a holistic operations planning framework for grocery retailing. The authors aim to identify, describe and structure coherent demand and supply chain (SC) planning problems in a comprehensive architecture.

The authors reviewed key literature on retail SC management and sales planning. This built a foundation for the development of an integrated operations planning framework. The findings were evaluated through discussions with retailers and communications with retail planners, including personal interviews with 28 leading European grocery retailers and with people in related positions from the consumer goods industry and consultancies.

The core of this paper is the development of a coherent demand and SC planning matrix. It demonstrates planning interdependencies and defines a framework for retail operations. The grocery planning framework integrates retail specifics, as well as hierarchical and sequential aspects of decision making. That is why this planning architecture also forms the foundation for research and development of advanced decision support systems.

Planning tasks are identified in interrelated planning modules permitting coordinated and decentralised decision making, which is necessary for operational and complexity reasons. The planning framework assists retail planners in understanding their decision problem from a comprehensive perspective. Better coordination of different modules and further development of retail‐tailored analytical models will improve planning quality.

This is the first paper that structures retail demand and SC planning questions coherently in one framework, matching demand and supply from a long‐ to short‐term perspective and from supplier to customer.

The aim of this paper is to develop an understanding of the retail marketing, merchandising, and logistical practices in the Japanese grocery supermarket sector. Most of the literature in English has focused on the structure of the sector with little detailed research on the Japanese consumer and the corporate response to retail change. This paper highlights the case of Summit Inc., which has established a niche position in the Japanese grocery market through its operational excellence.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of atmospherics and affective state on shoppers’ in-store behaviour using the two approaches in structural equation modelling (SEM), i.e. Frequentist and Bayesian approaches. Shoppers’ affective state was tested for its mediating effect on in-store shopping behaviour.

The final sample consists of 382 respondents who were drawn from shoppers at selected apparel stores in six of the most popular shopping malls around Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). A frequentist approach to SEM is common among researchers and offers generally an analysis of the relationships between multiple latent variables and constructs. Alternatively, the Bayesian SEM (BSEM) approach stems from the diffusion of the model’s posterior distributions using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo technique. More specifically, this technique is inherently more flexible and substantive in determining parameter estimates as compared to the more conventional, the frequentist approach to SEM.

The results show the mixed effects of atmospheric cues in retail setting on shoppers’ affective state. More specifically, the positive direct effect of atmospheric cues (music) on in-store behaviour was confirmed while other atmospheric cues (colour and store layout) were found to be fully mediated by affective state. The Bayesian approach was able to offer more distinctive results complementing the frequentist approach.

Although the current sample size is adequate, it will be interesting to examine how a bigger sample size and different antecedents of in-store behaviour in retailing can affect the comparison between the frequentist approach in SEM and BSEM.

The authors found that a combination of well-designed store atmospherics and layout store can produce pleasurable effects on shoppers resulting in positive affective state. This study found that results from both frequentist and Bayesian approaches complement each other and it may be beneficial for future studies to utilise both approaches in SEM.

This paper met the aim to compare the approaches in SEM and the need to consider both approaches on in-store shopping environment. Overall, the authors contend that the Bayesian approach to SEM is a potentially viable alternative to frequentist SEM, especially when studies are conducted under dynamic conditions such as apparel retailing.

Store layouts are important determinants of behaviour. A review of the academic and commercial literature suggests that the methodological and theoretical approaches have provided methods and approaches that are difficult for practitioners to adopt. This paper offers a robust theoretical approach (the behavioural perspective model) and new innovative methodology that significantly advances the way retailers can plan and measure store layouts, with a view to optimising store performance. Using computer‐aided observation, customers may be tracked and their behaviour analysed in the context of consumer situations and contingencies. Implications for retail management, theory and practice are discussed within the context of fashion shopper situations.

Refers to the tendency in UK supermarkets for diversification into non‐food areas which has emphasized the need to improve how and where the products are presented to the customers. Service diversifications, such as dry cleaners or opticians, have traditionally been situated as separate “shops” behind the checkouts. Contrastingly, product range diversifications such as stationery, entertainment and clothing have tended to be incorporated into the main shopping aisles. Attempts to identify whether consumers would prefer these non‐food ranges to be differently merchandised, and more specifically, whether consumer preferences are different between retailers? Asks what alternative display formats may be used and which specific ranges are considered appropriate for these formats. Using six different retail multiples, examines the perceptions and preferences of 500 shoppers from the results of an attitude survey carried out in two UK cities. Finally, provides recommendations for retail management.