Impact of Sensory Marketing on Customer Repurchasing Intention with Special Reference to Modern Trade Industry in Sri Lankan

Abstract

Sensory marketing is simply the process of winning a customer's trust and attention by appealing to each of these five senses sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. Even though this practice is strongly applied in the modern trade sector in Sri Lanka, there is insufficient empirical evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of sensory marketing practices in the present research context. Accordingly, this study aims to examine the impact of sensory marketing on customers' repurchasing behavior in the domestic market's modern trade sector. The researchers applied the quantitative approach based on the positivist research paradigm, and the researchers employed a structured questionnaire to collect the primary data. The sample of 384 was drawn among customers who are regularly visiting modern retail shops based on the non-probability sampling method. The data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software, and the findings revealed that modern retailers' sensory marketing strategies have a significant contribution to trigger customer's positive emotion. It is identified that sight is the strongest sense in humans' sensory systems. Consumers are largely replying to this sense and often make a purchasing decision based on their first impression. Further, hypothesis tests proved that sensory marketing strategies have a significant positive relationship between customer repurchasing intention. Hence, the researcher has drawn the retailers who run modern retail shops to enhance sensory stimuli, including sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell, to develop customer patronizing behavior towards their retail outlets.