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The purpose of this paper is to develop and begin to validate a scale to assess the shopping environment preferences of Hispanic consumers in the USA.

The sample consists of 160 Hispanic consumers attending a Hispanic festival in the southeast USA. A questionnaire contained items to measure shopping environment preferences and scales to measure materialism, hedonic shopping motivations, and perceived discrimination.

The findings suggest a second-order model where three factors (familiarity, price, and experience) load onto a single second-order construct of shopping environment preferences. The result is a scale consisting of three factors permitting the exploration of the retail environmental preferences of Hispanic consumers in the USA.

The study develops a scale that can be applied by US retailers to gain additional knowledge of their Hispanic consumers, thus enabling strategies to be developed that potentially enhance their engagement in retail environments.

Given the size of this segment and its increasing impact on the retail market, surprisingly, Hispanic consumers in the USA have received relatively little research attention.

Research shows that store image is an important component of a consumer’s store choice and use of a store environment. Most of this research ignores how store image might vary across different consumer segments. Examines the impact of age on final consumers’ perceptions of retail store image. Reveals that shopper age significantly affects perceptions of store image. Younger consumers feel more positive about both store characteristics and salesperson attributes than do older shoppers. Retailers employing store image research should be mindful of how the age of different consumers could affect their findings.

This paper aims to study how retailers moving from a multi- (in-store and online) to a single- (online) channel impacts consumers’ retailer and channel choices.

The authors conduct two scenario-based experimental studies to examine consumers’ in-store and online channel shopping preferences and behavioural intentions (i.e. channel and retailer choices) when their preferred focal retailer’s physical store closes.

The findings show that when a focal retailer removes its physical store location, consumers with a strong preference for shopping online have a greater likelihood of shopping online. Their loyalty towards the retailer explains this relationship but is conditional on low levels of reactance. When reactance is high, consumers with a strong preference for shopping online are more likely to switch to a competitor.

This research paper bridges the intersection between B2B and B2C literature to understand how retailers’ channel-related supply chain decisions affect downstream consumer shopping behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of a fashion store’s visual complexity on consumers’ behaviour. Considering environmental order and individuals’ sensation-seeking tendencies, the authors examine the effect of visually complex fashion stores on consumers in a more conclusive way to address the inconsistent effect found in the previous literature.

This study features a 3 (visual complexity level: low, medium, high) × 2 (environmental order condition: low, high) between subjects design, with individual sensation-seeking tendency included as a moderator. Using this design, an online survey was administered to 188 participants in South Korea.

The results indicate that there is a three-way interaction, where the interaction effect of visual complexity and environmental order is moderated by individuals’ sensation-seeking tendency. The effect of visual complexity on approach behaviours had an inverted U-shape in the low-order condition, while had a positive linear shape in the high-order condition, and the interaction effect was significant only for high-sensation seekers.

The findings assist practitioners in establishing strategies for visual merchandising and store design within fashion stores. It is suggested that retailers consider environmental order when organising a large amount of varied merchandise in a complex environment. Store managers must adjust the complexity and environmental order to meet the optimal stimulation level of their target consumers.

This study strengthens the literature on visual complexity by applying the concept to the retail environment. The results provide a significant contribution to the literature because they show how individual-level and store-level variables interact to influence consumer behaviour.

This paper has two purposes. First, it aims to propose an alternative conceptualization for interactivity that distinguishes between four interactivity modes: human, medium, message, and product. Second, it seeks to develop a framework of channel preferences that integrates the four‐mode concept of channel interactivity.

A synthesis of interactivity literature streaming from several disciplines (social psychology, computer science, communication, object interaction, and marketing) was used to develop the four‐mode concept. A framework is proposed to illustrate how consumers' perceptions of, and preferences for, the four interactivity modes impact channel preferences.

The propositions developed suggest: channels are perceived as offering different modes of interactivity; preferences for interactivity modes are shaped by personal and situational characteristics; and a match/mismatch between consumers' perceptions of and preferences for the interactivity modes determine channel preferences.

The approach allows an evaluation of particular interactive technologies, an assessment of multi‐channel strategies, and an examination of consumers' satisfaction with their shopping experiences.

The authors propose a broader approach than existing ones. It is not restricted to an online channel; it integrates consumers' interaction with products; and it enables a comparison of online and offline channels. In addition, most research has focused on perceptions of interactivity whereas the framework presented in the paper addresses perceptions of, and preferences for, interactivity modes that impact channel choices.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how crowding without violating personal space influences consumers’ channel selection and the underlying mechanism of this process. Crowded environment is ubiquitous and affects consumers’ behaviors. However, less attention has been paid to whether and how crowding influences consumers’ preference for purchasing channels.

There were three studies to test the validity of the theorized model, including two laboratory experiments and a field study. The variance analyses and mediation analyses were used to give more insights into the analytical process.

This study proposes that crowding makes consumers lose their perceived control, leading them to form certain compensatory behavior through the conversion between online and offline purchasing channels – the type of goods moderates the process of compensatory behavior.

The results of this study are helpful for retailers to design effective strategies to allocate resources into online or offline channels and to choose the appropriate types of product to promote.

Environmental clues have been widely studied in previous marketing research. Crowding, as a common environmental clue, has only been noticed in recent years. This study examines the impact of crowding on consumers’ channel preference. The results of three studies have confirmed that consumers have higher preference for offline shopping when they are in a crowded environment and found the intrinsic mechanism and the marginal scenario of this process.

Despite the online shopping trend, many women still prefer in-store experiences for trying on and buying clothes. The body positivity movement endorsed by many brands implies that all women, even those with lower body appreciation, should feel included in this setting. However, studies have yet to quantitatively explore the mediating role of women’s positive body image between clothing size and in-store experiences. To address this gap, this study examined the in-store experiences of 642 women from largely Western nations (Mage = 45.96, standard deviation (SD) = 9.31) who self-reported as straight-, mid- and plus-sizes and the mediating role of body appreciation.

Participants completed online questionnaires with measures including clothing size, body appreciation, in-store experiences and preferences for in-store changes.

Women of mid-size and plus-size were more likely than women of straight-size to report lower body appreciation, which led to a greater desire for guidance from staff about styles but less likelihood to approach them, higher discomfort going up a size and lower confidence trying on clothes. In contrast, straight-size women generally felt more comfortable and confident in-store clothes shopping. A direct link between clothing size and lower purchase intentions without in-store representation was found; however, body appreciation did not mediate this link. Preferences for in-store changes included better support from sales staff and more inclusive imagery.

This study indicates that in-store clothes shopping may not feel like retail therapy for women who identify as mid-size or plus-size and experience low body appreciation. It highlights the need for comprehensive reform within the fashion retail industry by prioritizing inclusivity through better staff support and in-store representation for all sizes.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether clothing benefits sought (CBS) affected fit preferences, satisfaction with the fit of ready‐to‐wear, label style preferences, and shopping behaviors of US women.

Written questionnaires were completed to determine the relationship between the CBS paradigm and the fit and shopping variables examined in the study. A larger study from which these findings are drawn involved behaviors related specifically to pants.

Responses on questionnaires from 150 women indicated four CBS factors: Fashion Forward, Sexy, Reputation, and Individualist. Study participants who desired Fashion Forward benefits preferred to shop in specialty stores and a tighter fit. Participants who sought Sexy benefits spent the most money on average, for a new pair of pants, preferred a tighter fit, clothing sized by waist dimension, and shopping in specialty stores. Participants who desired Reputation benefits from clothing shopped in specialty stores. Respondents who sought the Individualist benefits were more likely to shop via catalog/internet.

Data were obtained from a convenience sample of women in a metropolitan area of the USA, thus generalization of results is limited.

In an overstored, highly competitive retail environment, the CBS paradigm will be useful in targeting product and product delivery. The findings indicate, however, that women who seek different benefits from their clothing do shop differently.

Results of the study will help one to better define markets according to an intuitively useful psychographic variable for which there has been limited research.

This research aims to examine the conditions under which individuals’ olfaction is actively engaged in purchase decisions. Consequently, it introduces the concept of need for smell (NFS) to measure differential motivation for the extraction and use of odor information in buying contexts. A ten-item NFS scale was developed that consists of hedonic and utilitarian dimensions.

The scale’s dimensionality and construct validity were examined in five studies. The moderating role of NFS and the mediating role of emotions in the relationship between odor perception and consumer responses were examined. The data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analyses and customized PROCESS models.

The results show that NFS is a two-dimensional construct. The results further support the scale’s internal structure as well as its reliability, convergent, discriminant and nomological validity. NFS moderates the relationship between odor perception and consumer responses, and emotions mediate this relationship. While hedonic NFS strengthens the impact of odor perception on consumer responses, utilitarian NFS weakens this effect.

The present research extends Krishna’s sensory marketing framework, De Luca and Botelho’s scent research framework and Herz et al.’s scent benefits framework, by introducing the concept of NFS into these frameworks. The study demonstrates the relevance and functionality of NFS construct and NFS scale. The study extends the consumer scent research by introducing NFS and illustrating the interplay of odor perception and NFS on consumer responses to scent stimuli.

The NFS scale used in this study adds to the genre of individual difference scales such as need for cognition and need for touch. Given its smell-specific focus, it has applications in a range of consumption contexts. Using NFS, marketers could effectively identify low and high hedonic and utilitarian NFS consumers and position product or ambient scents to serve these segments better. The NFS scale also has implications for the areas of product and service design and development, consumer information search, brand judgments and choice preferences in both scented and non-scented environments.

This work is one of the first attempts, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to explain motivational differences in active engagement of olfaction, especially in purchase decisions. As a critical step in exploring olfactory information processing, the study demonstrates the relevance and functionality of NFS construct and NFS scale. The study extends the consumer scent research by introducing NFS and illustrating the interplay of odor perception and NFS on consumer responses to scent stimuli.