The influence of store environmental factors on impulse buying behavior - A case of the supermarket setting at Ho Chi Minh city
Abstract
The retail industry in Vietnam is growing rapidly in recent years. Due to the intense
competition, retailers have devoted much effort to boost sales and increase their market
share. Other than traditional promotions, there are some other means which help them to
battle against the competitors. Since the purchase of products in supermarket involves
many impulsive buying behaviors, if retailers are able to stimulate such behavior
by controllable variables, retail performance can be improved. However, very little
scholarly literature has been found on impulse buying at supermarkets directly controlled
environment.
By employing the Mehrabian-Rusell environmental psychology model, this research has
tried to explore the relationships between store atmospherics and impulsive buying
behaviors in supermarket settings at HCMC. The results found that impulse buying in
supermarkets was positively associated with consumers’ in store emotions, which could
be positively influenced by store atmospherics. The research results helped retailers to
identify environmental controllable factors for enhancing consumers’ emotions and
triggering impulse buying, as well as creating a desirable specialty store environment.
Moreover, the importance of impulse buying in the retail industry was confirmed.