A study on consumer attitude towards window display and layout of an apparel retail store

Abstract

Consumer attitude plays a major role when it comes to a product purchase, especially when it is apparel. The consumer gets attracted to various aspects in a store before making a purchase. The aspect of creating attraction is the concept of visual merchandising. In visual merchandising, window display and layout are two key features which promote selling. In this study, the consumer attitude towards these two key features are analysed with respect to apparel store. The influencing factor to enter a store, influence of in store visual merchandising and display on store traffic, influence of layout on the shopping behaviour, importance of window display compared to other visual merchandising techniques and impact of window display on ones interest towards clothing are analysed with the help of a survey among 500 customers visiting various apparel stores. It is found that 31.2% state that window display is the most influencing factor to visit a store. It is also found that the store traffic is improved by in store visual merchandising and display with 38.8% stating that mannequin styling and creative product display increase store traffic. The display also promotes impulse purchase. Around 60.8% respondents feel that layout affects shopping experience and 35.8% people prefer free flow layout for apparel store. It is also observed that the window display is considered to be the most important technique in visual merchandising to attract the customers than others as 41% say so. The respondents feel that the store image is captured through window display. The window display increases interest for a product and is considered as the main factor to visit a particular store by 53% people. Hence, the window display and layout are to be done with utmost care as they increase the business for apparel retail store.