Guidelines from scientific research

Customers will be more eager to make a purchase and to spend more money when background music is played in the women’s department than when music is played in the foreground. To stimulate purchase intentions in the men’s department the opposite strategy is best applied. In addition, playing music in the background in the women’s section, positively influences perceptions of friendliness, elegance and refinement. Customers in the men’s department consider shops to be less expensive and more spacious when music is played in the foreground, in comparison to music played in the background.

As regards age, you can influence the purchase and spending (of time and money) behaviours of older customers by mainly playing background music. Younger customers can in turn be positively stimulated by playing music in the foreground.

Paying attention to the combination of scent and music, and in particular the volume of the music, used in a physical store is important. You can lift the customers’ sense of pleasure and satisfaction to a higher level through the application of a suitable combination of scent and music. This will also positively influence the time spent in store by the customers, as well as their expenses. Loud music, combined with an aroma can prolong a store visit, and this regardless of the customer’s mood. If it fits your brand/ store’s theme, why not consider diffusing a female scent, such as vanilla, and playing loud music to appeal to women between the ages of 14 and 25?

As already mentioned in guideline 22, it is important to create coherence between smell and music in a physical store. The harmonization of these two ambient signals will positively impact the “approach” and impulsive buying behaviours of customers as well as their satisfaction. For instance, it is best to diffuse a less exciting smell, such as lavender, in combination with a slow music tempo, rather than with more exciting music. By contrast, you may play exciting music with a high tempo in combination with an exciting scent, such as grapefruit, to create a more positive effect on the approach behaviour of the customer.

The application of colour in a store interior can influence customer behaviour. The choice of colour can determine how customers perceive the store and product image, as well as the atmosphere in the store. The use of cool colours (versus warm colours) in fashion stores lead to higher buying intentions, better evaluations and also stimulate customers to return to the store.

To draw customers to a specific product, it is best to choose for accent lighting in a warm-white colour. In doing so, you create a positive feeling for the customer through associations of increased perceptions of cosiness, vividness and decreased tension. By adding light to a product display, you will encourage customers to spend more time there, touch more products and actually take them in their hands. A higher level of light on the display induces feelings of enthusiasm and pleasure, in turn increasing their approach behaviour.

Equipments with high light values in a shop interior create a less cosy atmosphere, yet this choice of a brighter light does result in a more intense perception of the space and the products. By contrast, an interior with fewer bright lights is considered to be less dynamic and more distant.

Drawing attention to a specific product assortment can be done by placing it on a display in a bright, warm colour, thus catching the eye of the customer and bringing him/ her to the display. In the retail context, warm and vivid colours such as red activate, animate and create dynamism, while shades of yellow tend to stimulate the customer intellectually. White shades are perceived as “distant”.

Your shopfront window display is your signboard: it needs to have stopping power and to convey the right message to your target audience. The shopping motivation of this one is an important factor in determining the appeal of the display used. Indeed, customers who shop purposefully are attracted to displays which focus on the product assortment and provide as much product information as possible. In turn, customers who shop in a more relaxed way are more easily attracted to creative and artistic displays which convey abstract messages triggering curiosity and a sense of exploration.

Consider the reuse of a building, when it matches your DNA, as an opportunity. Look at the heritage value as a useful addition to the store concept, not only with respect to the historic worth, but also in terms of irreplaceable cultural, social, ecological and economic values. As a retailer, you can offer the possibility of using the intangible, such as stories, atmosphere and associations linked to the building, as a distinctive strategy with a unique experience.

Turn the possibility to reuse a building into an opportunity by building a brand and shop identity that really immerses the users into the building or site. Try to seduce your customer by focusing on authenticity. Be mindful of “Disneyfication”, though. This happens when you only focus on the positive and fairy-tale-like context of a site or its history, without adapting the DNA of the store to this. This quickly creates the feeling of a “fake”.