Visual Merchandising can be defined as everything that customer notice both external and internal, that can help in creating a positive image of a business in the mind of the customer and intern resulting in attention, interest, desire and action on the part of the customer. It gives the business edge over the competitors. If strategically used, visual merchandising can also help the business in creating and establishing its brand. It sets the product of the merchandize in such a stylish and decorative manner which could help in converting the window shoppers into prospects and ultimately buyers of the product.

In today’s time visual merchandising has become a necessary component from the view point of sales because it's the only way of direct contact between merchandise and customers; it helps clients to easily approach goods visually, physically, mentally and intellectually without the help of a sales person (Ravazzi, 2000). On the demand of customers the importance of visual merchandising as an essential instrument of communication for retailer and manufacturer was derived.

Visual merchandising plays a vital role in retailing. “It is that which enhances products, supports brands, increases traffic and sales, adds visual excitement by way of strategically located and illuminated focal destinations in an environment, typically businesses and stores, defines and advertises overall personality and image”.(Gorman, 2006). The art of increasing sales of products by displaying them effectively and sensibly at the retail outlet is called as visual merchandising.

Visual merchandising has come a long way from displaying stock piling on a front table to live models posing in windows. Individual creativity, innovation, improvement in technology and artistic flair has played a major role in merchandise display. Visual merchandising can encompass all aspects of total visual impact of the store and its merchandise. (Garvey 2010) Visual merchandising is all about making the customer feel how the marketer wants them to feel. It can take months of planning before a window is ready to display merchandise. It is the merchandise on display that helps a store in making money. Visual merchandising is the arrangement of props, fixtures, mannequins and backdrop to influence a customer to enter the store and make a purchase. (Diamond 1993) Merchandise fixtures help to show the merchandise to consumers besides playing a secondary role of aesthetic function. It deals with which product line is to be carried to particular shelf space and emphasizes on combining visual and other sensory elements in such a manner that it can help in capturing attention, awaken the senses through music, scents and provides the customer a wonderful and happy buying experience to achieve sales. It covers all areas from façade of the store to the location of each product inside the store.(Sebastian 2008) Traditionally visual merchandising was always associated with company hired specialists for sales floor display and store windows for efficient layout for floor space for optimization of retail space.

Consumer Behavior:

Consumer behavior research is the scientific study of the processes which consumer uses to select, secure, use and dispose of products and services that satisfy their needs. Knowledge of consumer behavior directly affects marketing strategy (Anderson, 2005). Companies can satisfy the needs of their customers only to the extent they understand their customers. For this reason, marketing strategies must incorporate knowledge of consumer behavior into every facet of a strategic marketing plan (Solomon, 2002).

LITERATURE REVIEW:

Visual Merchandising (VM) and Shopper Behaviors

Kaur Amandeep (2013) came up with an important finding that the store derives as much of its identity, character and gravity rom its physical contours, as from the products it houses and the individuals who manages the operations in the store. Also, visual merchandising practices certainly influence customers‟ buying behavior.

Their research revealed that is a direct proportional relationship between customers' buying behavior and in-store form/mannequin display, promotional signage and window display. Jigna N. Ahir, Vishal J. Mali (2013) advocated that 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. Since impulse buying is a common aspect of consumers' behaviors and a focal point for strategic marketing plan.

Dr. Alireza Miremadi, Rahil Khoei (2013) in their study understood from mentioned test that Iranian shoppers give more importance to visual communication, visual merchandising, and staff management.

S Madhavi and T Savati (2013) suggested that the attributes that are associated most strongly with the purchase intention were: merchandise colors, presentation style, awareness of fixtures, path to merchandise, sensory qualities of materials and lighting. Their findings suggest that liking the display doesn’t totally determine purchase, but it does make it four times more likely. These visual merchandising practices helps in provoking the desire that ultimately motivates a customer to make unplanned purchase decision upon entering the store, significantly influence customer's impulse buying behaviors.

K. R Pillai et al. (2011) visually appealing stores and outlets dose help respondents to create an image of the brand in the minds of the customers. Contradictory to the customer’s preferences, visual merchandisers rated illumination as the most preferred in-store visual appeal creating factor at their store locations / outlets but customers did not give it a high rating. Among various features at the store, visual appeal got the highest ranking that helps in converting window shoppers into real customers.

Yolande Hefer, Michael. C. Cant (2013) found that consumer behavior is influenced only to a limited extent by visual merchandising displays. Visual merchandising guide consumers in the direction of the products and also helps in making product choice. Personal preferences and the quality of displays can influence the consumer behavior.

Vandana Gupta (2013) supported that lightings and colors are the essential part of the Visual Merchandising. Toward store with proper lightings and colors positive response received from the majority of the customers. Visit from frequent purchasers shown a higher positive response towards the lightings and colors used in the store and it also indicates that lightings and colors have a positive impact on the customer loyalty. Signage is an essential part of Visual Merchandising, signs displayed helps in providing basic information to the customers, and this is the area which can be improved upon by Evok. Young Ha et al. (2007) revealed that many VMD features used by offline stores have been implemented online. In addition, some online apparel stores VMD features do not have a direct offline parallel.

Gaynor Lea-Greenwood (1998) found that visual merchandising practices certainly influence customers buying behavior. The research revealed that there is a direct proportionate relationship in between customers buying behavior and in-store form / mannequin display, promotional signage and window display.

Jiyeon Kim (2012) found a significant relationship between college student’s impulse buying behavior and in-store form / mannequin display and promotional signage. Even though it is seen that college student’s impulse buying behavior is not affected by floor merchandising and window display, but the results of the study still suggested that these variables and student’s impulse buying behavior are significantly correlated. Study also argued that all four types of visual merchandising (window display, in-store form / mannequin display, floor merchandising, and promotional signage) are significantly interrelated and relationship in them have influences on consumers' impulse buying behavior.

Atmosphere in the retail store may also have impact on shopper behavior. According to Chain Store Age (2004), the majority of consumers (63%) remember occasions when they buy more or spent more time in the store because of its atmosphere. Moreover, from those who were influenced by the atmosphere of the store, almost half (45%) of them informed that they not only spent more money but also more time in the store. As noted in Turley and Milliman's (2000) review on the atmospheric effects on the consumer behavior, time spent in the store based on its atmospheric influence has received attention from researchers and therefore needs further discussion. Spending time in the store is related with the desire to stay in or to get out of its environment and also with the decision to shop or not to shop at the store (Kellaris and Altsech, 1992). In their landmark article introducing the Mehrabian-Russell (M-R) environmental psychology model for the study of store environment, Donovan and Rossiter (1982) suggested that store induced with pleasure plays a significant role in determining the approach-avoidance behavior within the store, including spending behavior. Store induced with feelings of excitement and alertness could result in increased time spent in the store. More than a decade later, Donovan et al. (1994) copied and extended the Donovan and Rossiter's study, confirming that pleasure generated by atmosphere of the store contributes in extra time spent in the store and unplanned spending. In 2003, Babin et al. found that the combination of lightings and colors plays a vital role in influencing the purchase intention of consumers for store patronage. Kouchekian and Gharibpoor (2012) found that grocery store layout, color, lighting, design, cleanliness and height of shelves are the significant determinants of consumer buying decision at the store.

Visual Merchandising In Relation To Impulse Buying Behavior:

"Browsing in-the store is the examination of a retailer's merchandise for recreational and informational purposes without an immediate intent to buy" (Bloch, Ridgway, and Sharrell, 1989, p.14). Jarboe and McDaniel (1987) found that in a regional mall setting more unplanned purchases were made by those customers who browsed in the store than the non-browsers.

Color: Bellizzi et al. (1983) investigated the effects of color in retail store design. The results shown that despite of color preferences, participants were physically attracted towards the retail store with warm color (yellow and red), but they also found that environment in the (yellow and red) color retail store was generally unpleasant, negative, tense, and less attractive as compared to environment in cool color retail store (green and blue).

Product Display: In a study carried out by Abratt and Goodey (1990) product display has been identified as in-store stimuli. Simonson and Winer (1992) found that purchase behavior can be influenced by the manner in which inventory is displayed. Kumar and Leone (1988) mentioned that products display can be very useful in stimulating sales.

Music: Bruner (1990) suggests that the kind of background music is likely to strongly affect the perceptions and preferences. They reported that based on gender the impact of loudness on musical preference differs, towards louder music females reacting more adversely than males. Oakes (2000).

Lighting: Mehrabian (1976) "believed that lighting was a prime factor in the environmental impact on individuals because brightly lit rooms are more arousing than dimly lit ones". (Summers and Herbert, 1999) Areni and Kim (1994) found that under bright lighting condition consumers examined and handled significantly more items than under soft lighting conditions.

Cleanliness: A study by Carpenter and Moore (2006) across the entire retail formats both frequent and occasional shoppers determined cleanliness to be the single most important store attribute. Yun and Good (2007) declared that shopping in an ultra-clean store might create perceptions of cleanliness, contentment, or luxury for the store.

Store Design or Store Display: It was also understood from Bellizzi and Hite (1992) study that displays are one of the most important elements that can influence customers for unplanned purchases. Abratt and Goodey (1990) stated that displays at the point of purchase can be very useful in stimulating sales. In addition it was stated that the shoppers get more influenced by the floor of a store than its ceiling.

Conceptual Framework for the Study:

As per literature review studied dimensions of visual merchandising shown below are considered to be appropriate and taken up for this study visual merchandising and its impact on impulse buying.

Impulse Buying Behavior

Figure 1. Visual Merchandising and Impulse Buying

FINDINGS:

During the study some of the external factors that can influence impulse buying behavior were investigated. In attempt to inspect this relationship, the study firstly tried to explain the relationship between various type of visual display merchandising and customer’s impulse buying behavior. An important finding was customer’s impulse buying behavior is certainly influenced by visual merchandising practices. The results proved that there were significant relationships between consumers' impulse buying behavior and in-store form / mannequin display and promotional signage. Though it is found that floor merchandising and window display did not appear to significantly lead to customer’s impulse buying behavior, but the results still suggested that there is a significant correlation in between these variables and consumer’s impulse buying behavior.

It can be agreed that all four types of visual merchandising (i.e., window display, in-store form/ mannequin display, floor merchandising, and promotional signage) are significantly interrelated and relationship between them creates influence on consumer’s impulse buying behavior. Despite of using visual merchandising practices for creating desirability of products and to increase consumers' buying behavior, further scope of research exists that investigates its influence on consumer buying behavior. Results of all the studies prove that there is a crucial relationship between customer's impulse buying behaviors and two types of visual Merchandising practices (i.e., in-store form / mannequin display and promotional signage). When consumers are introduced to these visual stimuli, their purchase decisions are more based on impulse. This suggests that these visual merchandising practices serves as stimuli for the consumer’s as they get provoke with the desire that ultimately motivates them to make an unplanned purchase decision upon entering the store, significantly influence consumer’s impulse buying behaviors.

CONCLUSION:

Due to increasing competition and similarity of the products, retailers utilizes visual merchandising practices to differentiate their products from competitors and as well as to improve and increase the desirability of their products. Since impulse buying is a common aspect of consumer’s behavior and a focal point for making strategic marketing plan, finding variables that can influence shoppers' impulse buying drive and decision making and trying to control these influencing variables through strategic marketing plan and merchandising activity is critical for retailers in order to survive in fierce competitive market.

REFERENCES:

1. Bellizzi, J. A., Crowley, A. E. and Hasty, R. W. 1983, 'The effects of color in store design', Journal of Retailing, vol. 59, pp. 21-45.

2. Abratt, R. and Goodey, D. S. 1990. 'Unplanned Buying and In-Store Stimuli in Supermarkets', Managerial and Decision Economics, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 111-121.

3. Bruner II and Gordon C. 1990, 'Music, Mood, and Marketing', Journal of Marketing, pp. 94-104.

4. Bastow-Shoop, H., Zetocha, D., and Passewitz, G. 1991. Visual merchandising: A guide for small retailers. Iowa: University Publications.

5. Bellizzi, A. J. and Hite, E. R. 1992.'Environmental Color, Consumer Feelings, and Purchase Likelihood', Psychology and Marketing, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 347-363.

6. Rook, D., and Fisher, R. 1995. Normative influences on impulse buying behaviour. Journal of Consumer Research, 22 (3), 305-313.

7. Gaynor Lea-Greenwood 1998, "Visual merchandising: a neglected area in UK fashion marketing?" Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Volume: 10 Issue: 1, pp.103-107.

8. Schiffmen, L.G., Kanuk, L.K. 2000. Consumer Behaviour. India: Pearson Education Inc.

9. Young Ha, Wi-Suk Kwon, Sharron J. Lennon 2007, Online visual merchandising (VMD) of apparel web sites, Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Volume: 11 Issue: 4, pp.83-87.

10. Wanninayake, W. M. C. B. and Randiwela, P. 2007, 'The Impact of Visual Merchandising on Consumer Store Choice Decisions in Sri Lankan Supermarkets', In: 7th Global Conference on Business and Economics, Rome 13-14 October 2007.

11. C. Selvaraj , Cr. M. Swaminathan. "Brunt of Visual Merchandise on Retail Store Penchant" JM international journal of marketing management. January 2011, vol. 1, no.2.

12. Kalla, S. M., and Arora, A. 2011. Impulse Buying: A literature Review. Global Business Review, 12 (1), 145157.

13. K. R Pillai, Azmiya Iqbal, Habiba Umer, Aisha Maqbool and Namrata S. 2011, "Visual Merchandising and Customer Appeal". MPRA Paper No. 30365, pp. 1-23.

14. Jiyeon Kim 2012, College Students' Apparel Impulse Buying Behaviors In Relation To Visual Merchandising, General Review ,pp. 1-72.

15. Alireza Miremadi, Rahil Khoei 2013, "The Art of Visual Merchandising on Consumer Buying Behavior: A Case Study of Retailing Industry", International Journal of Contemporary Business Studies, Vol.: 4, No: 6, pp. 34-50.

16. Jigna N. Ahir, Vishal J. Mali 2013:"Visual Merchandising: A Silent Salesman of Contemporary Retailer", Indian Journal of Research, Vol. 2, Issue: 8, pp.169-171.

17. Kaur, Amandeep 2013, "Effect of Visual Merchandising on Buying Behavior of Customers in Chandigarh" ISO 9001:2008 Certified International Journal of Engineering Science and Innovative Technology (IJESIT) Volume 2, Issue 3, May 2013, pp.247-251.

18. S Madhavi and T S Leelavati 2013, Impact Of Visual Merchandising On Consumer Behavior Towards Women Apparel, International journal of Management research and business strategy, Vol. 2 , No.4, pp. 1-14.

19. Vandana Gupta 2013, study on visual merchandising for home furniture retail store, International Journal of Retailing and Rural Business Perspectives Pezzottaite Journals, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 555-564.

20. Yolande Hefer, Michael. C. Cant 2013, Visual Merchandising Displays' Effect on Consumers: A Valuable Asset or an Unnecessary Burden for Apparel Retailers ". International Business and Economics Research Journal, Vol. 12, No. 10, pp. 1217-1223.

Received on 14.06.2017 Modified on 26.09.2017

Asian J. Management; 2017; 8(4):1168-1172.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5763.2017.00177.9