A Study of Visual Merchandising Elements In Fashion Retail Stores and Their Impact on Customer Behaviour | Original Article

ABSTRACT:

This research paper is the outcome of a study of Visual Merchandising Elements of an apparel retail store and their impact on behaviour of customers. It is an attempt to identify the most appealing elements of VM. The general purpose of Visual Merchandisin650g is to attract, invite, educate and motivate the customers to purchase merchandise being sold in the store. Visual Merchandising Elements have been categorised nt two major segments External VM Elements and Interior VM Elements. Exterior VME comprises of Graphics Signages, Window Display setting, Merchandise presentation, Parking facility, Brand name logo and Façade of the store. However Interior VME comprises of Store layout, theme, color, music, temperature, lighting, mannequin styling, product display, cleanliness, Furniture, Smell, Cash Counter, Floor directory and Trial room. For this study on impact of above mentioned VME, four leading MBOs of India were selected which are Fashion at Big Bazar (FBB), Lifestyle, Shoppers stop and Reliance Trends. All these four retailers are department stores dealing into multiple brands, offer both apparels and accessories and have presence pan India through their multiple outlets in various cities. The Store size and offered brands and merchandise quantity being similar in all the stores of these brands make them perfect competitors targeting the same customer group. Hence Visual Merchandising of these stores is comparable. Secondary data was used for formulating list of VME and primary data was collected from 500 samples, to study impact of these VME through self-developed and self-administered questionnaire. The Likert scale was used to record the level of influence of VME from ‘Strongly Agree’ to ‘Strongly Disagree’. Collected data was analysed and it was found that 80 sample agreed with the influence of VME on their behaviour. Also the most influencing External VMEs were found to be Window Display setting and Merchandise on Display. On the other hand, the most influencing Internal VMEs were found to be creative product display and mannequin styling.