Consumers’ Experience Rooms : Environmental Design Factors in Shopping Processes

• Shopping has become one of our most common leisure pursuits. Consumers move freely between stores and their different environments, often in a random manner. The question is how much randomness there actually is regarding how these environments make the customers feel and move. We have chosen to observe consumers in order to see how the environment affects their perceptions. The practical aim of this study is to deepen our understanding of how consumers are affected by the service environment of a shopping centre and based on that identify improvements as regards to design. The theoretical aim is to identify what environmental dimensions appear to be important in a real-time purchase situation. This includes a validation of some theories of service environment dimensions and design attributes. The methodological aim is to further elaborate on video-supported field observation. Empirical material is gathered at a shopping centre in Karlstad, Sweden, called Mitt i City. Video and audio recordings together with personal interviews in situ are used in documenting consumption processes, patterns of movements and perceptions. We observed and interviewed our informants before, during, and after their visits to the shopping centre. These aims lead to a clarification as regards to how the service environment creates an experience, meaning and function for the consumers by means of the concept of the shopping centre. The study shows that design factors (such as layout, spatial form, colour combinations, choices of material and character), together with atmospherics (sound, light, temperature) and furnishing, are important parameters for consumers in their sensemaking of a shopping concept and the functionality of the shopping procedure per se. Contact information For further information on authors and details of the study, please contact Per Echeverri at Service Research Center – CTF, Faculty of Economy, Communication and IT, Karlstad University. E-mail:  per.echeverri@kau.se

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Keyword

environmental psychology

servicescape

shopping centres

service environment

video methodology

Business studies

Företagsekonomi

Business Administration

Företagsekonomi

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

rap (subject category)