The Impact of Visual Merchandising on Impulsive Buying Decision: A Study Based on Super Market Industry in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The supermarket concept was initially started in Sri Lanka at 1980’s and the particular industry began to expand after the year 2000. The supermarket industry is at the growing stage of the Industry Life Cycle. The Visual Merchandising of supermarket outlets were focused in this study and major purpose was to examine the consumer reaction to the Visual Merchandising in supermarkets in Sri Lanka. As this study was empirical in nature, categorized as deductive research and designed as quantitative research. The study was based on both primary and secondary data. 150 respondents were selected for the sample from Kiribathgoda, Wattala and Colombo. A questionnaire was designed to obtain customer’s attitudes regarding major variables of Visual Merchandising in their impulsive buying decisions. Visual Merchandising was grouped into four variables namely Store layout, Product Display, Cleanliness and Lighting. Further moderating variables namely Impulsiveness and Payment method were tested to identify moderate impact on relationship between visual merchandising and impulsive buying behavior The impact of independent variables on dependent variables was analyzed with the help of correlation and multiple regression model. The impact of moderate variables on relationship between visual merchandising and impulsive buying behavior was tested based on hierarchical regression model. This study revealed that, among the four visual merchandising dimension named, product display and lighting have significantly influence on impulse buying behavior. Factors like Store layout and cleanliness are moderately influence the impulsive buying behavior. The overall conclusion is that visual merchandising has significant impact on impulsive buying decision of customers in Sri Lanka. Further the findings show that there was a significant moderating impact in payment method on visual merchandising and impulsive buying behavior. As per the regression output impulsiveness has significant impact on relationship between visual merchandising and impulsive buying behavior.