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Two main types of value have been established in the retail literature: merchandise value based on the quality and price of a store's offerings and differentiation value based on the extent of atmospheric cues in the environment. However, it is not clear what happens when a store offers both types of value to a high degree. We investigate how offering a bargain (or price cut) affects consumer responses for high and low differentiation store environments. In two studies, using a simulated store environment in a behavioural laboratory, we find that the presence of bargains in a highly differentiated store environment negatively influences store affect and, in turn, approach behaviour. This effect, however, only holds true for low familiarity stores and can be explained by processing fluency theory. Consequently, retailers focusing on store environment differentiation should reconsider their use of bargains.

Photographs are commonly used in store atmospherics research, although their ecological validity lacks conclusive support. To this end, we examine the effect of different representation media of a retail environment (i.e. one photograph, three photographs, or a real store visit) on customer experience, satisfaction, and behavioural and attitudinal loyalty. Two studies examine the robustness of our findings across low- and high-experience stores. The results show that only in the high-experience store environment, a real store visit results in a significantly higher average perceived customer experience. Moreover, the chosen representation medium affects satisfaction and behavioural loyalty in both store types. Again, a real store visit results in higher scores. Upon studying low-experience stores and/or focusing on attitudinal loyalty as the outcome variable, pictures, however, do seem to be ecologically valid. To conclude, whether it is safe to simulate a retail environment with photographs depends on the particular retail context and the outcome variables under study.

This study has two particular research objectives: firstly, the authors complement the information that was already provided by Turley and Milliman with one extra criterion, namely the ‘representation medium’ that has been used in all the store environmental studies which were discussed in their review paper. As we will illustrate later in the chapter, these representation media range from the use of a verbal description of a particular environment, over research based on participant’ s memories of a last store visit, research based on participant’ s visualization of a last store visit, the use of one or multiple photographs, a video, up to a visit to a lab setting or a visit to an actual retail store environment. A second research objective is to ‘update’ the findings concerning the different media of representation used in research in retail stores, in time over the two decades after Turley and Milliman’ s [3] review article. While reporting on the findings of the literature review, two research questions will be addressed: namely, (1) is there any pattern or evolution noticeable in the use of several media of representation over time? and (2) can the advantages and disadvantages of these representation media offer explanations for noticeable evolutions in representation media?

When consumers shop online, it is primarily their visual sense that is being triggered. With technology under development to also provide an experience in the olfactory, taste, and haptic sense, this paper investigates the added value of background music in the online store environment. In particular, a study is conducted with three conditions: a no music condition, a condition with music which is crossmodally incongruent with the online store environment, and a condition with music crossmodally congruent with the online store environment. Crossmodal congruency refers to the crossmodal correspondences (i.e., the tendency of one sensory attribute to be associated with an attribute in another sense) that are shared between the music and the online store environment. Although both musical pieces used were considered as pleasant, consumer reactions were not more positive when compared to the no music condition. Interestingly, the value of the money spent in the no music condition was significantly higher than in both musical conditions. The incongruent music condition, however, did lead to significantly lower consumer reactions for the other variables measured (i.e., pleasure, arousal, and store environment evaluation) when compared to the no music and congruent music condition.

Retailers use atmospheric cues to trigger emotional reactions that enhance consumer behavior. However, introducing cues into a store environment may also trigger sensory overload, due to too much stimulation. This study aims to examine the effects of adding high arousal atmospheric cues in a store environment on affective reactions, approach behavior, and evaluations by making use of different methods (i.e., two lab experiments and one field experiment), by adding various types of atmospheric cues (i.e., cues processed in higher senses versus processed in lower senses), and by differentiating the order in which they are added. Results reveal that when a third high arousal cue is added sensory overload (i.e., rise in perceived arousal and decrease in perceived pleasantness) occurs under the condition that this third cue is processed by a higher sense (i.e. visual or auditory sense). Furthermore, a decrease in approach behavior and evaluations is also observed when these conditions are met. Mediation analyses indicate that this effect on evaluations is mediated by pleasure and approach behavior. The research presented extends previous findings by investigating possible predictors (i.e., number of cues as well as type of cues) of the momentum where sensory overload may take place.

This research studies the effect of scent expertise (laymen vs. novice experts vs. experts) on product and taste evaluations of three products that are (in)congruent with an ambient scent and examines whether this effect is mediated by these groups’ awareness of scents in their environment and by how well they are able to identify different scents. Results show that novice experts and experts evaluate an incongruent product less positively than laymen. Laymen score lower than novice experts and experts on odor identification, and lower than experts on odor awareness but not lower than novice experts. The differences in the evaluation between the scent expertise groups cannot be fully explained by differences in their level of odor identification or level of odor awareness.

Although retailers know that consumers do not like cluttered stores, messy layouts are sometimes inevitable. This research examines whether diffusing pleasant scents can overcome consumers' negative response to a messy store. Specifically, this study investigates the effect of pleasant scents (un)related to neatness on consumer evaluations of a tidy versus a messy store. An experiment with 198 respondents revealed that a pleasant scent not associated with neatness functions as a positively valenced prime, causing consumers to evaluate the products in the tidy store more positively than the products in the messy store. Additionally, when diffused in a messy store, a pleasant ambient scent has a negative effect on consumers' product evaluation, because of a mismatch between the pleasant scent and the unpleasant messy layout. However, this negative effect can be canceled out by diffusing a pleasant scent that is associated with neatness.

The aims of this research were to (1) explore the different effects of an ambient scent of chocolate on general approach versus goal-directed behavior, and (2) investigate whether an ambient chocolate scent diffused in a retail environment has a positive effect on consumers' behavior toward thematically congruent products. A field study with 201 participants shows that a chocolate scent positively influences general approach behavior and negatively influences goal-directed behavior in a bookstore. Moreover, when gender is controlled for, the chocolate scent improves approach and buying behavior toward thematically congruent books and decreases approach and buying behavior toward incongruent books. Sales figures also provide some indicative support for the findings.

Ambient scents used by retailers should be pleasant and appropriate. This paper proposes that an ambient scent should also be crossmodally congruent with the store environment. Crossmodal congruency refers to the crossmodal correspondences (i.e., the tendency of one sensory attribute to be associated with an attribute in another sense) that are shared between the ambient scent and the store environment. In this study, a scent crossmodally congruent with the store, a scent crossmodally incongruent with the store and a no scent condition were compared. In order to determine the crossmodal congruency, an index of 11 bi-polar items (e.g., loud versus quiet) was applied to the perception of the store and of the ambient scent. The degree in which they differed resulted in either congruency or incongruency. Results revealed that crossmodal congruency between store and ambient scent leads to higher approach behavior. Furthermore, positive effects were found when comparing the congruent scent with the no scent condition on pleasure, store (environment) evaluation, and word-of-mouth. It is therefore proposed to include the crossmodal congruency between the ambient scent and the store environment as a criteria when selecting an ambient scent. FWO

Marketing managers are increasingly using olfactory marketing instruments in the retail environment. However, the question is whether scents in the store are desirable for all consumer types. Research on the moderating role of individual differences on the impact of scents in the marketplace is scarce. This article focuses on how ambient fragrances in the store can influence customers’ affective, evaluative, and approach reactions and considers the moderating role of shopping motivation and affect intensity. A field experiment reveals that a pleasant fragrance positively influences consumers’ affective reactions, evaluations, and intentions to revisit the store, especially when the consumers score high on affect intensity. Strategically manipulating the store environment via ambient scents is an inexpensive yet effective way to positively influence consumer behavior. Retailers can use ambient scents to heighten their differentiating ability; however, the decision to diffuse a scent should be based on the target audience.