Impact of Visual Merchandising, on Impulse Buying Behavior of Retail Customers

Visual merchandising has been over the years thought to be marketing tool in retail industries. The researchers embarked upon a study to find the impact of visual merchandising with reference to the retail sector. For this they have taken the reliance trends as a case and has done an in depth study using its sample customers to find the impact of their buying behavior. The research was of a descriptive in nature and helped to develop the concept to clearly establish priorities, to divulge adequate information which the researchers feel will help in decision making for the company. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain information and to assess the impact of visual merchandising, on impulse buying behavior of customers. A random sampling technique was used in the study and care was taken that the respondents were as diversified as possible. A sample size of 100 respondents was taken from Cochin and Kottayam. To draw conclusions easily, the data was converted into XY (Scatter) diagrams. Research findings suggest that impulse buying accounts for substantial sales across a broad range of product categories in the stores. Since impulse buying is a pervasive aspect of consumers’ behaviors and a focal point for strategic marketing plans, it is worthwhile for retailers to understand factors within the retail setting that trigger consumers’ impulsive reactions. Retailers can help customers to find the right products through focused merchandising, intelligent store design and layout, and other visual merchandising practices, such as product displays, packaging, and signage. It is has also been found that all the four visual merchandizing factors affect the impulse buying behavior, but the effect of Promotional offerings at the entrance is comparatively very high. A greater importance should be given for visual merchandizing factors by retailers for differentiating itself from the competitor