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Research method Assignment

Research Methods (Charles Sturt University)

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Abstract
Visual merchandising is one of the major marketing tools in fashion retailing industry since it is a
customer based industry and attractiveness and ability to influence customers to purchase a
product by communicating to their mindset is crucial. Thus, usage of effective visual
merchandising elements to build an eye-catching store atmosphere will be a key competitive
advantage for fashion retailers to improve customer purchasing intention while enhancing its
sales performance. Therefore, the main purpose of this research is to evaluate the impact of
effective visual merchandising on consumer purchasing intention in Sri Lankan Fashion
Retailing.

The literature is silent on strategic retail perspective of visual merchandising because this aspect
is very little elaborated in academic studies. Most researches have failed to examine the impact
of effective visual merchandising on improving consumer purchase intention. Moreover,
effective visual merchandising is a significant area of study in terms of Sri Lankan perspective
because most of the Sri Lankan fashion retailers considered visual merchandising as a cost rather
than an effective marketing tool and further they are willing to use short term profit oriented
marketing tools since they are more of profit concerned rather than developing strategies which
helps to gain profits in the long run.

This study is based on a quantitative approach and an empirical survey will be conducted to both
male and female consumers aged between 18-50 using a questionnaire which is designed using
likert scale questions and open-ended questions to determine the relationship between effective
visual merchandising and consumer purchasing intention in fashion retailing. The research will
be only limited to Colombo city limits (Colombo 01-10) since most of the modern fashion retail
outlets are located in Colombo region and it is the most urbanized region which has 263, 105
population with higher purchasing power when compared with the other regions.

Therefore, this study aims to examine the casual relationship among effective visual
merchandising and consumer purchase intention in the context of Sri Lankan fashion retailing.

Key words: Visual Merchandising, Purchase intention, Sales performance, Impulse purchasing

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Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................1
List of Tables...................................................................................................................................2
List of Figures..................................................................................................................................2
Chapter 1- Introduction....................................................................................................................3
1.1 Background of the Study........................................................................................................3
1.2 Problem Statement.................................................................................................................3
1.3 Problem Justification..............................................................................................................3
1.4 Objectives of the study...........................................................................................................4
1.5 Significance of Study.............................................................................................................4
1.6 Scope of the study..................................................................................................................4
Chapter 02 – Literature Review.......................................................................................................5
2.1 Effective Visual Merchandising in Fashion Retailing............................................................5
2.2 Visual merchandising and Consumer Purchase Intention......................................................7
2.3 S-O-R Model..........................................................................................................................8
Chapter 03 – Research Methodology..............................................................................................9
3.1 Research Philosophy..............................................................................................................9
3.2 Research Strategy...................................................................................................................9
3.3 Conceptual Framework..........................................................................................................9
3.4 Hypothesis............................................................................................................................10
3.5 Population............................................................................................................................10
3.6 Sample..................................................................................................................................10
3.7 Data Collection method.......................................................................................................10
4.0 Data Analysis...........................................................................................................................11
4.1 Reliability test......................................................................................................................11
4.2 Sample characteristics..........................................................................................................11
4.3 Visual merchandising and consumer purchase intention.....................................................13
4.3.1 Consumer purchase intention (Dependent variable).....................................................13
4.3.2 Window display (Independent variable 1).....................................................................14
4.3.3 Store atmosphere (Independent variable 2)...................................................................15
4.3.4 Store layout (Independent variable 3)...........................................................................17

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4.3.5 Inference testing............................................................................................................19

Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................20
References......................................................................................................................................21
Appendices....................................................................................................................................23
Appendix A................................................................................................................................23

List of Tables
Table 1- Key golden rules of Visual Merchandising.......................................................................5
Table 2- List of Hypothesis..............................................................................................................9
Table 3 - Reliability test [Source: PSPPIRE].................................................................................10
Table 4 - Age Category [Source: PSPPIRE]..................................................................................11
Table 5 – Gender [Source: PSPPIRE]............................................................................................11
Table 6 - Location [Source: PSPPIRE]..........................................................................................12
Table 7 - Monthly Income [Source: PSPPIRE].............................................................................12
Table 8 - Model Summary [Source: PSPPIRE].............................................................................13
Table 9 - Average response of consumer purchase intention [Source: PSPPIRE].........................13
Table 10 - Average response of Window display [Source: PSPPIRE]..........................................14
Table 11 - Average response of Store atmosphere [Source: PSPPIRE].........................................16
Table 12 - Average response of Store layout [Source: PSPPIRE].................................................17
Table 13 - Inference testing for consumer purchase intention [Source: PSPPIRE].......................19

List of Figures
Figure 1 - Visual Merchandising elements......................................................................................6
Figure 2 - S-O-R Model...................................................................................................................8
Figure 3- Conceptual Framework....................................................................................................9
Figure 4 - Age group of respondents [Source: PSPPIRE].............................................................11
Figure 5 - Gender [Source: PSPPIRE]...........................................................................................11
Figure 6 - Location [Source: PSPPIRE]........................................................................................12
Figure 7 - Monthly Income [Source: PSPPIRE]............................................................................12
Figure 8 - Average response of consumer purchase intention [Source: PSPPIRE].......................14
Figure 9 - Average response of Window display [Source: PSPPIRE]...........................................15
Figure 10 - Average response of Store atmosphere [Source: PSPPIRE].......................................17
Figure 11 - Average response of Store layout [Source: PSPPIRE]................................................18

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Chapter 1- Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

To successfully gain attention at the point of purchase, retailers need to understand what captures
customers’ attention (Huddleston et al., 2015). Empirical studies have demonstrated the
dominance of product display features among all other atmospheric cues in a store because
display features act as silent salespeople who attract consumers in to the store and motivate them
to touch, evaluate and purchase products. The importance of product displays to retailing was
recognized in early 1869, which later evolved into the popular concept of Visual Merchandising
(VMSD, 2012). Pegler (2012) has defined Visual Merchandising (VM) as the process of showing
merchandise and concepts at their very best, with end purpose of making a sale by producing
mental images that urge potential customers to make purchases.

Fashion retailing sector can be considered as one of the multi-billion dollar industries in Sri
Lanka which has contributed nearly 6% to the Sri Lankan GDP in 2014 and earning over 10
million US dollars annually (LMD Corporate Website, 2015). Therefore, it is vital to work
towards improving the performance of Sri Lankan Fashion retailing sector. Thus, the main
purpose of this research is to provide an insight in to the effective VM and its impact on
consumer purchase intentions to boost organization’s sales performance.

1.2 Problem Statement

“To evaluate the impact of effective visual merchandising on consumer purchasing intention, in
order to increase the sales performance in Sri Lankan Fashion Retailing.”

1.3 Problem Justification

Visual merchandising enhances the attractiveness of a store and its perceived image from the
viewpoint of customers. Bailey and Baker (2014) pointed out the fact that Visual merchandising
is often underestimated and overlooked area by many retailers, yet it is a vital part of the fashion
retailing sector. This is further supported by Clement et al. (2013) who recognized that the
attention capturing power of in-store visual design cues has been overlooked. However, in Sri
Lanka, utilization of the concept of effective VM is relatively low and can be considered as a
neglected area when compared with western countries. According to Rathnayake (2015), Sri
Lankan fashion retailers are more profit oriented and concerned about marketing campaigns

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which assist to earn profit in short term and tended to put more attention on bringing the cost
down, rather than investing money on VM to build the attractive shopping atmosphere for
customers which helps company to earn profit in the long run. Therefore, effective VM can be
considered as a significant area of study for Sri Lankan fashion retailers since 68% of customer
purchasing decisions are unplanned (Stahlberg and Maila, 2010). Thus, lack of visual
merchandising can adversely affect for both consumer purchase intention and sales performance
of the organization.

1.4 Objectives of the study

 To identify the modern effective visual merchandising trends in fashion retailing.
 To establish the relationship between effective visual merchandising and consumer
purchasing intention in fashion retailing.
 To identify the importance of effective visual merchandising and its impact on
organization’s sales performance in fashion retailing.

1.5 Significance of Study

This research will be a significant endeavor for Fashion retailers in Sri Lanka to have a better
understanding about the effective VM and its impact on the consumers purchasing intentions,
which will assist retailers to build effective visual merchandising strategies. There are about 15-
20 fashion retail outlets are located within the Colombo city limits (Colombo 01-10).
Furthermore, this study will be beneficial for Fashion Store Designers to identify the effective
new trends in VM which are defined as silent salespeople to attract consumers, and utilize those
trends to maximize the organization’s sales performance in order to gain a competitive
advantage.

1.6 Scope of the study

The scope of this research has been based on Colombo City limits (Colombo 01- Colombo 10)
because most of the modern fashion outlets are located within the Colombo region and further
Colombo, as the commercial capital of the country, has tremendous retail potential and it is
expected to witness fashion retail development in terms of both malls and high streets (Jones
Lang LaSalle, 2013). Moreover, majority of the Sri Lankan population is available in Colombo
region which is 526, 210 who has the high purchasing power and also because of the growing
middle-class population (Department of Census and Statistics, 2014).

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Chapter 02 – Literature Review

The term “Visual Merchandising (VM)” can be defined as the activity or process of presenting
and displaying merchandise combining the effective design of environments and spaces (Wu et
al., 2015). Effective VM strategies can be identified as the key success for the fashion retailers to
attract consumers and increase their purchase intentions by capturing their attention and creating
positive image in their mind set in order to increase sales performance because a positive mood
serves as a contextual cue for evaluating the perceived quality, image of a product and store, and
purchase intention (Law et al., 2012).

Researchers have confirmed that increased visual attention will increase the likelihood of choice
and purchase intention of the consumer (Armel and Rangel, 2008). Therefore, this study focuses
on purchase intention rather than behavior, because intention has wider implications and will
often have a positive impact on an individual’s actions (Schlosser et al., 2006). Purchase
Intention of a customer can be identified as one of the components of consumer cognitive
behavior on how an individual intends to buy a specific brand or product (Joo Park, Young Kim
and Cardona Forney, 2006). Basically, it is about the reasonable unplanned behavior of a
consumer who willing or decides to buy a specified product in a quick time. However, consumer
purchase intention has a direct impact on organizations sales performance in both short term and
long term aspect because the company will only be able to increase its sales performance if they
will able to capture the consumer purchase intention. According to Daft (2000), organization’s
sales performance can be defined as the organization’s ability to attain its goals by using
resources in an efficient and effective manner.

Therefore, in terms of academic focus, this research assists to understand the rationale of the
impact of effective VM elements on consumers’ purchasing intention towards boosting
organizations’ sales performance.

2.1 Effective Visual Merchandising in Fashion Retailing

Bailey and Baker (2014) has defined the term of effective VM as selling the product or brand to
the customer by creating a connection with the audience triggering an emotive response which
will encourage customers to buy in that product. This is further supported by Mehta and Chugan
(2014), who defined effective VM as everything that customer sees both exterior and interior that

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creates a positive image of the business and results in attention, interest, desire and action on the
part of the customers. However, many fashion retailers have considered VM as a cost rather than
a major marketing tool (Jackson and Shaw, 2008). Therefore, the investment aspect regarding
VM is relatively low among fashion retailers which in turn affect the business’s ability to
encourage customers to try on and hopefully to purchase a garment.

There are several key golden rules of Visual Merchandising.

Table 1- Key golden rules of Visual Merchandising

Rule Description
Simplicity To avoid sensory overload for the customers
Clear labeling of
To provide clear explanations for the customers
information
Logical positioning To ensure that the product is seen by customer (POS and in Windows)
Clear garment and To help the customer to understand how to wear or use the product most
colour coordination effectively
It is important for displays to relate geographically to the correct
Logical adjacency
department or area of the store
It is important to display the merchandise in an exciting, innovative
Innovation
and/or unique way to grab customer attention.
Source: (Jackson and Shaw, 2008)

In the fashion retailing sector, the store exterior and interior are the two major areas covered in
VM and a variety of components are involved in creating a favorable shopping atmosphere (Zhu,
2009).

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Figure 1 - Visual Merchandising elements

Source: (Jackson and Shaw, 2008)

2.2 Visual merchandising and Consumer Purchase Intention

In fashion retailing sector, Mehta and Chugan (2014) defined impulse purchase as an unplanned
action that results from a specific motivation which improve the consumer purchase intention.
Thus, “Purchase intention” can be defined as a situation where consumer tends to buy a certain
product in certain condition (Morinez et al., 2007). Therefore, understanding how the product
display affects consumer purchase intention is useful because visual merchandising elements
may affect consumers’ evaluation of the store, as well as other key decisions concerning
purchase. This is further supported by Chang (2015) who found that effective VM elements are
positively related to the level of pleasure that consumers’ experience in the store.

Delgado-Ballester and Munuera-Aleman (2005) contradicted above argument by stating that the
trust associated from past experience and loyalty of the customers becomes the major part for
current purchase intentions of consumers rather than the attraction of the visual merchandising
elements. However, when consider about the consumer purchasing decisions, 68% of consumer
purchasing decisions are unplanned (Stahlberg and Maila, 2010). Therefore, it can be identified
that VM elements have a strong impact on improving consumer purchase intention, which is
directly affected to the consumer buying decision, which is further validated by Huddleston et al.

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(2015), who found that attention capturing power of merchandise display elements has practical
significance and it leads to a better shopping experience for consumers.

2.3 S-O-R Model

Mehrabian and Russell (1974) developed the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model in
environmental psychology which holds that characteristics of a store environment (Visual
merchandising elements) affect consumers’ internal states (Pleasure, arousal), which in turn
affect their behavior such as purchase intention in that environment (Ha et al. 2007).
Researchers have found that affective states experienced while shopping in fashion retail stores
influence customers satisfaction and purchase intention (Machleit and Mantel, 2001). This is
further supported by Eroglu et al. (2001), who found that images of the merchandise, music,
icons, color, background patterns, layout, and fonts have a strong impact on consumer purchase
intention. The cognitive states of consumers can be defined as the internal- mental states of
individuals which can be affected by perception of information provided (Faryabi et al., 2012). In
terms of the study, this focuses “stimulus” as visual merchandising elements of the store (Store
atmospheric cues), “organism” as positive emotions (affective and cognitive states), and
“response” as the purchase intention of consumers.

Figure 2 - S-O-R Model

Source: (Jackson and Shaw, 2008)

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Chapter 03 – Research Methodology

3.1 Research Philosophy

The research is designed to provide an explanatory and exploratory descriptive type of study on
effective VM and its impact on improving consumer purchase intention. Thus, the study is based
on quantitative research approach by collecting the data from sample group to clarify the
problem statement.

3.2 Research Strategy

A survey method is used as the research strategy, where data of consumer opinions were
collected from a relevant sample and has been summarized into two distinctive forms as
descriptive statistics and inference testing.

3.3 Conceptual Framework

Figure 3- Conceptual Framework

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3.4 Hypothesis
Table 2- List of Hypothesis

Ha1 Store Layout has a positive impact on consumer purchase intention

H01 Store Layout has no impact on consumer purchase intention
Ha2 Store Atmosphere has a positive impact on consumer purchase intention
H02 Store Atmosphere has no impact on consumer purchase intention
Ha3 Window Display has a positive impact on consumer purchase intention
H03 Window Display has no impact on consumer purchase intention
H0 – Null Hypothesis Ha – Alternative Hypothesis

3.5 Population
The population for the study comprises of male and female consumers in Colombo city limits
(Colombo 01-10) who are in between the age of 18-50 years, who have the purchasing power
and usually shop in fashion outlets around Colombo city limits. Colombo is the most urbanized
region which has 263, 105 populations and average monthly household income of Rs.50,071
which are higher when compared with other regions (Department of Census and Statistics,
2014).

3.6 Sample
This research is conducted using “Stratified random sampling” to improve the accuracy of the
investigation while minimizing the misrepresentation risk The sample size of this research is 40
consumers from Colombo city limit (Colombo 01-10) aged between 18-50 with confidence level
of 5% and marginal error of 5%.

3.7 Data Collection method

A “Questionnaire” is designed using likert scale questions that ranged from (1) strongly disagree
to (5) strongly agree and further with open-ended questions to determine the relationship
between effective visual merchandising and consumer purchasing intention. The reliability test
will be undertaken in order to prove the internal reliability of consumer statistics (Refer to
Appendix A).

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4.0 Data Analysis

4.1 Reliability test

The questionnaire has distributed among 40 individuals in Colombo district (1-10) through using
online face-to-face discussion methods in order to identify the relationship between dependent
variable and independent variables. The collected data was analyzed using the PSPP software.

Table 3 - Reliability test [Source: PSPPIRE]

Reliability Statistic Cronbach’s Alpha No. of Items

Consumer Reliability
0.91 3
Statistics
The decision rule is to achieve the reliability level of more than 0.69. Therefore, the Cronbach’s
Alpha of this research is identified as 0.91 which suggested that the collected consumer statistics
have higher internal reliability.

4.2 Sample characteristics

Among the 40 individuals who participated, data from 40 was usable, which included
respondents from four age groups who lives within the area of Colombo 01-10. The majority of
responses were from female respondents (118) between the ages of 18-25 (51.17%) and 26-30
(26.29%) who has more involvement in purchasing fashion merchandise. Moreover, respondents
who are in the age category of 18-25 can be considered as youth consumers who are more
attached to shopping and new fashion trends.

Figure 4 - Age group of respondents [Source: PSPPIRE]

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Table 4 - Age Category [Source: PSPPIRE]

Value Figure 5 - Gender [Source: PSPPIRE]

Value Frequency Percentage
Label
18-25
1 20 51.17%
years
26-30
2 10 26.29%
years
31-40
3 5 12.21%
years
41-50
4 5 9.29%
years
Total 40 100%
Table 5 – Gender [Source: PSPPIRE]

Value
Value Frequency Percentage
Label
Male 1 18 43.66%
Female 2 22 53.34%
Total 40 100%

The collected data has been only limited to area within Colombo 01-10 since Colombo has the
highest population with high purchasing power and further with the popular modern fashion
outlets. The majority of responses were from Colombo 03, 05, and 07 since most of the popular
fashion outlets such as Mondy and Dilly &Carlo are located in these areas.

Table 6 - Location [Source: PSPPIRE]

Figure 6 - Location [Source: PSPPIRE]

Value Label Value Frequency

Colombo-01 1 1
Colombo-02 2 6
Colombo-03 3 11
Colombo-04 4 8
Colombo-05 5 9
Colombo-06 6 5
Colombo-07 7 6
Colombo-08 8 7
Colombo-09 9 3
Colombo-10 10 2
Total 40 13

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Monthly income of major respondents were ranged between Rs. 20 000-30 000 (35.68%) and Rs.
30 001-50 000 (29.38%) since most of the respondents are young consumers and in the
beginning of their job careers.

Table 7 - Monthly Income [Source: PSPPIRE]

Value Label Value Frequency Figure 7 - Monthly Income [Source: PSPPIRE]

Rs. 20000-30000 1 14
Rs. 30001-50000 2 12
Rs. 50001-75000 3 6
Rs. 75001-100000 4 5
Rs. 100 000+ 5 4
Total 40
4.3 Visual merchandising and
cons umer purchase intention
The “Regression Analysis” was utilized to analyze the
collected data in order to identify the impact of visual merchandising elements of Window
Display, Store Atmosphere and Store layout (Independent Variables) on consumer purchase
intention (Dependent Variable). In reference to the below table, R square value is 0.45 which
indicates that the model explains the variability of the response data around its mean.

Table 8 - Model Summary [Source: PSPPIRE]

R R Square Adjusted R square Std. Error of the estimate

0.67 0.45 0.44 0.41

The average response rates for each variable were taken in to consideration to identify the
consumer attitude and perception towards visual merchandising elements.

4.3.1 Consumer purchase intention (Dependent variable)

The questionnaire included four questions in order to determine the impact of effective visual
merchandising elements on consumer purchase intention. Thus, respondents were provided with
a number of conditions which they can experience in a fashion retail outlet which uses effective
visual merchandising. In reference to the below statistics, it clearly reflects that 93.42% of
respondents are in “Strongly agree and agree” level while only 3.76% are in “Disagree” level.
The most responses (Mode value) are amounted to 1.50, which means that majority of

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respondents are agreed to purchase fashion merchandise from fashion outlets who have effective
visual merchandising elements.

Table 9 - Average response of consumer purchase intention [Source: PSPPIRE]

Value Frequency Level Total Percentage

1.00 2
1.25 3
1.50 10
1.75 10 Strongly Agree and
93.42%
2.00 8 Agree
2.25 3
2.50 3
2.75 2
3.00 1 Uncertain 2.82%
3.25 1
Disagree 3.76%
3.50 1
Total 40 100%
Mean 1.89
Standard Deviation 0.55
Mode 1.50

Figure 8 - Average response of consumer purchase intention [Source: PSPPIRE]

4.3.2 Window display (Independent variable 1)

The questionnaire included five questions in order to find the consumer perception and attitude
towards “Window Display” features such as attractive mannequins, exterior decorations on
creating the consumer purchase intention. In reference to the below statistics, it clearly reflects
that 87.31% of respondents are in “Strongly agree and agree” level while only 11.28% are in
“Disagree” level. The most responses (Mode value) are amounted to 1.60, which means that

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majority of respondents are agreed to the fact that Window Display has an impact on building
consumer purchase intention.

Table 10 - Average response of Window display [Source: PSPPIRE]

Value Frequency Level Total Percentage

1.00 5 Strongly Agree and 87.31%
1.20 4 Agree
1.40 3
1.60 4
1.80 3
2.00 2
2.20 2
2.40 1
2.60 1
2.80 2
3.00 1 Uncertain 1.41%
3.20 2 Disagree
3.40 1
11.28%
3.60 1
4.00 1
Total 40 100%
Mean 1.89
Standard Deviation 0.73
Mode 1.60

Figure 9 - Average response of Window display [Source: PSPPIRE]

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4.3.3 Store atmosphere (Independent variable 2)

The questionnaire included eight questions in order to find the consumer perception and attitude
towards “Store Atmosphere” features such as Quality Air conditioning, sufficient volume of
background music, fragrance of the outlet and good lighting on creating the consumer purchase
intention. In reference to the below statistics, it clearly reflects that 82.15% of respondents are in
“Strongly agree and agree” level while only 15.97% are in “disagree” level. The most responses
(Mode value) are amounted to 2.14, which means that majority of respondents are agreed to the
fact that Store Atmosphere has an impact on consumer purchase intention.

Table 11 - Average response of Store atmosphere [Source: PSPPIRE]

Value Frequency Level Total Percentage

1.43 1
1.57 1
1.71 2
1.86 3
2.00 2
2.14 5 Strongly Agree and Agree 82.15%
2.29 4
2.43 4
2.57 2
2.71 2
2.86 2
3.00 1 Uncertain 1.88%
3.14 1
3.29 1
3.43 1
3.57 1
Disagree 15.97%
3.71 1
3.86 1
4.00 1
4.29 1
Total 40 100%
Mean 2.45
Standard Deviation 0.60
Mode 2.14

Therefore, it can be proved that Store Atmosphere has a positive influence towards improving
consumer purchase intention because the majority of respondents agreed that due to the Quality

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Air conditioning, sufficient volume of background music, fragrance of the outlet and good
lighting, Consumers spends more time in fashion retail outlets and tend to buy fashion
merchandise since above features creates positive consumer mindset and comfortable
environment.

Figure 10 - Average response of Store atmosphere [Source: PSPPIRE]

4.3.4 Store layout (Independent variable 3)

The questionnaire included six questions in order to find the consumer perception and attitude
towards “Store layout” features such as creative and systematic arrangement of products,
Pictures attached inside the outlet and color of the outlet on creating the consumer purchase
intention. In reference to the below statistics, it clearly reflects that 73.21% of respondents are in
“strongly disagree and disagree” level while only 22.09% are in “strongly Agree and Agree”
level. The most responses (Mode value) are amounted to 4.33, which means that majority of
respondents are agreed to the fact that Store layout does not have a direct impact on consumer
purchase intention.

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Table 12 - Average response of Store layout [Source: PSPPIRE]

Value Frequency Level Total Percentage

1.00 1 Strongly Agree and 22.09%
1.17 1 Agree
1.50 1
1.83 1
2.00 2
2.33 1
2.50 2
2.67 2
2.83 2
3.00 2 Uncertain 2.35%
3.17 2 Strongly Disagree 73.21%
3.50 3 and Disagree
3.67 4
3.83 2
4.00 2
4.17 1
4.33 Figure611 - Average response of Store layout [Source: PSPPIRE]
4.50 4
4.60 2
4.80 3
5.00 1
Total 40 100%
Mean 3.63
Standard Deviation 0.95
Mode 4.33

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4.3.5 Inference testing

Multiple regression analysis has been performed in order to test the developed hypothesis. The
decision rule is to reject null hypothesis and accept alternative hypothesis if T value is more than
one. In reference to the below table, “t” value of window Display and Store atmosphere can be
identified as 3.19 and 2.48. Thus, it reflects that there is an impact of Window Display and Store
Atmosphere variables towards Consumer purchase intention. Therefore, alternative hypothesis of
those two variables can be accepted. However, since Store layout has a “t” value of less than one,
Null hypothesis should be accepted.

Table 13 - Inference testing for consumer purchase intention [Source: PSPPIRE]

Unstandardized Standardized
Significanc
Coefficients Coefficients “t” value
e
B Std. Error Beta
(Constant) 0.66 0.12 0.00 5.39 0.000
Window Display 0.27 0.08 0.36 3.19 0.002
Store
0.21 0.08 0.23 2.48 0.014
Atmosphere
Store Layout 0.08 0.09 0.13 0.93 0.354

When considering above analyzed data, following hypothesis can be accepted.

 Ha1 - Window Display has a positive impact on consumer purchase intention

 Ha2 - Store Atmosphere has a positive impact on consumer purchase intention
 Ho3 - Store Layout has no impact on consumer purchase intention

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Conclusion
The term “effective Visual Merchandising” is a salient concept in the fashion retailing sector.
Thus, the main purpose of this study is to provide a broad insight in to VM and its impact on
consumer purchase intention and organization’s sales performance because this is a neglected
area of study in terms of Sri-Lankan fashion retailing. The scope of the research has been only
limited to Colombo city limits since it is the most urbanized area in Sri-Lanka and has the
consumers with highest purchasing power.

According to the previous literature, most researchers have identified the fact that effective VM
elements play a crucial role towards improving consumer purchase intention. The S-O-R model
was used to analyze the relationship between visual merchandising and consumer purchase
intention.

Data collection is conducted using Quantitative approach in order to address the importance of
effective VM on consumer purchase intention. Thus, questionnaire was distributed among 40
consumers through online and face to face methods. The key findings of the research reflect that
effective visual merchandising elements have a greater impact on consumer purchase intention
due to the fact that visual merchandising provides attractive and comfortable shopping
atmosphere for consumers. However, as identified in data analysis chapter, store layout does not
have any significant impact on consumer purchase intention.

Ultimately, key findings prove that the objectives are achieved and research statement is proven
to be true since majority of respondents were agreed to the point that visual merchandising has a
greater impact on consumer purchase intention, while increasing the sales growth.

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Appendices

Appendix A
Questionnaire

Gender – Male Female

Born Year – 1966-1975 1979-1985 1986-1990 1991-1998

City (Colombo 01-10) –

Monthly Income – Rs. 20 000 – 30 000 Rs. 30 001 – 50 000

Rs. 50 001 – 75 000 Rs. 75 001 – 100 000 Rs. 100001+

How often do you purchase fashion products? Daily Weekly Monthly

Quarterly Bi-annually Annually

Please complete the following questions by placing a tick in the appropriate box.

1 – Strongly Disagree 2- Disagree 3- Agree 4- Strongly Agree

Visual Merchandising elements

1 2 3 4
Window Display
I choose to enter in to a store because of attractive mannequin and
product views.

Attractive exterior decorations capture my attention easily and

create positive perception towards the store.

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The attractive entrance decoration motivates me to enter in to the

store.
Attractive product exhibits motivate me to look at the products
more clearly.
I tend to buy when I come across attractive and impressive
product views.
I tend to buy when I see a featuring a new style/design on
mannequin.
Store Atmosphere

Listening to music creates a relax atmosphere while shopping.

Pleasant environment created by music makes me spend more

time in the store.
The sufficient volume of background music motivates me to buy
more because it increases my well-being and comfort.
Fragrance of the retail outlet makes me to stay more time and
encourages me to purchase more.
The quality of the air conditioning makes me comfortable while
shopping.
The lighting of the outlet makes things more visible and
attractive.
The cleanliness of the outlet motivates me to stay and buy more,
and attracts me to revisit again.
Store Layout
The creative and systematic arrangement of products makes me
easy to select products.

The color of the outlet creates a positive image in my mind set.

Product items that are placed according to the color makes me
easy to find them.
Pictures attached inside the outlet creates a positive image in my
mind set and captures my attention easily.
The clean shelves of the store motivate me to go through more
products.
Products displayed in closer to point of purchase captures my
attention quickly and motivate me to purchase more.

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Signage in form of tags offers more information about the product

which motivates me more to buy the product.

 Attractive exterior decorations (Entrance lighting, etc)

 Attractive and impressive product views
 Attractive displaying of products using mannequin
 Pleasant environment created by sufficient volume of music
 Good Fragrance of the retail outlet
 Eye-caching lightening system
 Quality air conditioning
 Clean environment
 Clean, Creative and systematic arrangement of products
 Signage in form of tags includes more information about the products
 Attractive wall colors and pictures

If you have experienced above conditions when you shopping,

 Do you like to purchase in the retail outlet? Yes No
 Do you like to shop longer in the retail outlet? Yes No
 Do you like to revisit and repurchase products again? Yes No
 Do you like to tell your family, friends about the retail outlet? Yes No

If your answer is “No” for the any of above question, State the reason in the space given
below.

 ………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………....
 ………………………………………………………………………………………………
……........................................................................................................................................
 ………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………................

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