A Study on the Impact of Visual Merchandising on Impulse Purchase in Apparel Retail Stores

Abstract

The scope of visual merchandising is growing rapidly with advances in technology. Apparel retailers need to ensure their visual merchandising has stronger impact, as competition in the present scenario is high, and retailers are ready to spend more on visual merchandising to attract customers. Visual merchandising has thus become a tool which can be used by apparel retailersto differentiate themselves from competitors. The currentstudy examines the impact of visual merchandising, viz. store layout, in-store product display, mannequin display, and promotional signage, on impulse buying behaviour of customers in apparel retail stores. The respondents for the study included 201 customers who visit apparel stores. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire. The results of the study suggest that visual merchandising elements do have a significant impact on impulse purchase in apparel retail stores, with store layout having the highest impact, followed by promotional signage, and mannequin display, while instore product display did not have a significant impact on impulse purchase. Further, for men, only store layout had a significant positive impact on impulse purchase; on the other hand, for women, store layout, mannequin display and promotional signage had significant positive impact on impulse purchase.