The effect of online store atmosphere on consumer's emotional responses – an experimental study of music and colour

Abstract

The current study is a convergence of two research orientations: the effect of ambient factors (e.g. music and colour) in physical stores and the website design in cyber context. The former emphasises the influence of sensory stimuli on the shoppers' responses; whereas the latter address the relationship between website design factors (e.g. usability) and the performance of a virtual store. This article aims to bridge the gap between the above research orientations and explores the impact of two environmental elements -music and colour -of an online store on the consumers' emotions -considered as direct antecedents to shopping behaviours -by employing a laboratory experiment. The results indicated that both music and colour reveal significant effects on respondents' emotional responses. To be more specific, participants felt more aroused and pleasant when they were under fast music and warm colour conditions than those who were exposed to an environment with slow music and cool colour. In addition, the congruency of these two atmospheric factors enhances the effects of atmosphere on people's emotional responses.

The Effects of Web Atmospherics on Entertainment Gratification and Web Irritation: Some Empirical Evidence from Online Shopping

“…In a physical store, the atmosphere includes sensory cues such as color, lighting, music, and odor (Morrison, Gan, Dubelaar, & Oppewal, 2011;Soars, 2009), but it is constrained in an online store (or an online shopping website), where only visual and auditory cues can be manipulated (Cheng, Wu, & Yen, 2009;Im, Lennon, & Stoel, 2010). The work of Eroglu, Machleit, and Davis (2001) and Wu, Cheng, and Yen (2008) offered some explanation to what exactly can designers of virtual settings manipulate -that is, in an online store, its store atmosphere, or the web atmospherics, can be manipulated by web designers to influence consumer behavior, and this includes all cues used for designing the website and its layout such as background color and pattern, hyperlinks, icons, interactive web applications, music, overall color scheme, typeface, and web borders.…”

The Effect of Colour on the Anchoring Heuristic in Consumer Decision Making

“…They hypothesized that red conveys a positive affect that leads to non-systematic processing. In the present study, however, the blue colour was expected to invoke a less cautious state which would lead participants to use heuristic processing (e.g., Cheng et al, 2009).…”

“…On the one hand, some investigators explained the colour effect is mediated by mood. For example, Cheng, Wu, and Yen (2009) tested the effect of colour in stores and website designs on consumers' mood states and on stimulating shopping behaviours. Their research reported that colour factors had a significant effect on the participants' emotional response, which in turn influenced their intention to purchase.…”

Imagined salad and steak restaurants: Consumers’ colour, music and emotion associations with different dishes

“…Most of the existing research discusses experiments executed with only one stimulus. However, it has been demonstrated, for example, that people felt more aroused and pleasant in an online store with fast music and a warm (red) colour than with slow music and a cool (blue) colour (Cheng et al, 2009).…”