Visual Merchandising and Consumer Behaviour in High Fashion Retailing

Abstract

The aim of this research was to gain an understanding of the impact that visual merchandising has on consumer buying behaviour. The research establishes the relationship between consumer behaviour and visual merchandising from the perspective of the consumer, and a focus was put onto high fashion retailing due to the lack of research done on this fashion industry level. The research had three objectives; to identify which visual merchandising techniques consumers regularly take notice of and to what extent they are noticed by the consumer regularly, to evaluate whether visual merchandising techniques in high fashion retailers play a significant role to consumers when making their buying decision, and to assess how essential it is for high fashion retailers to use visual merchandising techniques throughout the store from the view of the consumer, Quantitative methods were used to gather data to establish the relationships between consumer behaviour and visual merchandising. 40 personally-administered surveys were completed, then the gathered data was analysed using SPSS to generate graphs and tables to compare the data in the discussion. The results of this research found that visual merchandising influences consumer behaviour but not to the high extent that the literature suggests. The research also established that window displays, design and music are the most noticed visual merchandising components that consumers notice which deems them to be the most essential elements of visual merchandising from the perspective of consumers. From the data collected, it is evident that visual merchandising needs to be considered along with the marketing mix to meet the needs and wants of the consumer.