Impact of visual merchandising of clothing stores on impulse buying behavior

Abstract

Due to increasing competition and the similarity of merchandise, retailers utilize visual merchandising to differentiate their offerings from others' as well as to improve the desirability of products. The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between customer apparel impulse buying behaviours and visual merchandising such that window display, mannequin display, floor merchandising and promotional signage. The study was conducted at 20 selected famous clothing stores in Ampara District. A response of 200 fashion cloth customers was collected through the structured questionnaire. and the multiple regression analysis was carried out using SPSS 25 to find the relationships between customer impulse buying and visual merchandising. The result of the present study shows that the significant (p<0.05) positive relationship was observed among customer’s impulse buying behaviours and window display (α1 = 0.217), mannequin display (α2 = 0.332), floor display (α3 = 0.448), and promotional signage (α4 = 0.478). The study reveals that visual merchandising should be considered a pivotal component of a strategic marketing plan in support of increased sale and positive image about retailer at fashion clothing stores. Further, shows the insight to Sri Lankan fashion retailers about types of visual merchandising that can influence consumers' impulse buying behaviours. The study recommends that even though impulse buying behaviour might have been more likely associated with external factors, it is strongly related to internal factor as well, therefore, this study could be extended to investigate both internal and external factors through the combination of the quantitative and qualitative research approach.