This aim of this study is to enhance the understanding of customer behavior and customer experience in the context of city centers and peripheral shopping centers and how the use of digitalized services affects this experience. In this paper we adopt a qualitative approach to explore consumers´ activities when visiting a city and/or a shopping center and the experiences connected to the visit. The study is based on data from 832 (55% female) with a M age = 48 years (range 17-91 years) consumers.

When visiting a city center and/or a shopping center, customers engage with a variety of different touchpoints (Socchi, Hart and Haji, 2016). From a customer perspective these touchpoints create experiences that generates many types of values. In recent years, the mass media has warned for the demise of city and shopping centers commerce. This purported demise is mainly due to the strong growth of e-commerce. To meet this competition, the retail and hospitality industry has developed strategies to create new customer experiences and thus attract customers back to the city center’s physical places. As a consequence of the technical development, companies frequently try to influence customers’ experiences through various digitalized services, where these digitalized service have the potential to improve customer experience by providing superior and personalized services (Roy et al. 2016). The question is what impact such services have on customers’ experiences and how this, in turn, affects the profitability of the retail and hospitality industry as a whole.

In order to shed light on the activities and experiences of visitors to city and shopping centers regular consumers were approach during a regular visit to such an area and asked to answer a few open ended questions.  The data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Thematic analysis aims to identify and report on thematic patterns across the sample, which allows researchers to make interpretations of the data that reflect the reported reality of participants (Braun and Clarke, 2006; Hayes, 2000; Ruane and Wallace, 2013).

The preliminary analysis of the data shows a variety of activities and touchpoints when visiting the city and shopping center. Seven themes emerged in our analysis of the participants´ responses: Relationship, Goal fulfillment, Experiences, Physical venue, Milieu, Practical usability and Non-intrusive.

In order to make more sense of the seven themes a model were developed. In this model three of the themes were connected to the customer, two connected to the service provider and the last two connected to digital technology. These three clusters interact in different ways.

The customer cluster contains the themes relationships, goal fulfilment and experiences. The themes in this cluster describe and vivifies the customer. The customer is not just a “shopping robot” jumping from touchpoint to touchpoint along a customer journey. The customer instead is a person with goals to fulfil but at the same time someone who has a great need of relationships on different levels and a person who will and want to experience things.

The service provider cluster contains two themes. One were named physical venue and this is where the service provider, be it a storeowner or a restaurant owner for example, has the most direct control. It is also where the customer will go to fulfil his or her goals. Here the direct contact between customer and service provider can and will take place. The second theme in this cluster were named “milieu”. The milieu can be the space the customer needs to pass in order to get to the physical venue or other factors that the service provider do not have control over (e.g. public spaces and weather)

The third and most interesting cluster concerns the digital technology, named practical usability and non-intrusive. Digitalization is highly interesting when it comes to the relationship between the customer and the service provider. The first theme described the importance of the usefulness of digital technology, and  in regards to digitalization the results indicates that digitalized services mostly fulfill utilitarian needs and works best in functional touchpoints. The theme called non-intrusive describes the relation between the customer and the digital technology. It may be somewhat drastic to talk about a two edged sword but on the one hand digital technology makes life easier and sometimes more joyful and at the same time the technology may disturb goal activities which leads to negative experiences.

These findings is important because it offers help to those managing city and shopping centers in identify touchpoints that need to be digitalized and those who need to be reinforced through social activities This knowledge could also help managers develop strategies to create new customer experience, i.e. create good valuescapes, and thus tease customer back to the city and shopping center´s physical places.

REFERENCES

Braun, V. and Clarke, V., (2006), 'Using thematic analysis in psychology’, Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3 (2) 77-101

Hayes, N. (2000), Doing Psychological Research, Open University Press, Buckinghamshire.

Ruane, L. and Wallace, E., (2013), 'Generation Y females online: insight from brand narratives', Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 16 (3) 315-335

Roy, S. K., Balaji, M. S., Sadeque, S., Nguyen, B., and Mlewar, T. C., (2016), 'Constituents and consequences of smart customer experience in retailing', Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 124 257-270

Stocchi, L., Hart, C., and Haji, I., (2016), 'Understanding the town centre customer experience (TCCE) ', Journal of Marketing Management, 32 (17-18) 1562-1587

As one of the retailer’s most potent recovery tactics to offset disgruntled customers, firms invest heavily in compensation to increase customer satisfaction and improve loyalty. However, the effectiveness of this tactic remains unclear. This study examines whether firm-offered compensation affects customers’ emotional responses and bad-mouthing behavior (i.e., telling others about a particular problem). Importantly, the study investigates whether the level of collaboration during the recovery encounter moderates the link between compensation and customers’ emotional responses, and whether collaborative efforts influence the effectiveness of compensation. The findings indicate that collaboration during the recovery encounter is necessary if compensation is to mitigate negative emotional responses, with downstream effects on bad-mouthing behavior. In confirming the importance of collaboration during recovery encounters, the findings have critical managerial and financial implications.

As one of the retailer’s most potent recovery tactics to offset disgruntled customers, firms invest heavily in compensation to increase customer satisfaction and improve loyalty. How- ever, the effectiveness of this tactic remains unclear. This study examines whether firm-offered compensation affects customers’ emotional responses and bad-mouthing behavior (i.e., tell- ing others about a particular problem). Importantly, the study investigates whether the level of collaboration during the recovery encounter moderates the link between compensation and customers’ emotional responses, and whether collaborative efforts influence the effectiveness of compensation. The findings indicate that collaboration during the recovery encounter is nec- essary if compensation is to mitigate negative emotional responses, with downstream effects on bad-mouthing behavior. In confirming the importance of collaboration during recovery encounters, the findings have critical managerial and financial implications.

his research aims to revive the applicability of the exchange concept in the marketing domain. The authors draw on current exchange theories to show how members of an aquatic center receive relational, social support, and restorative resources from other center members and employees. They then empirically demonstrate that members’ loyalty to the center is fueled by the resources they receive from others in the center and that their experience in the center mediates the relationship between exchanged resources and member loyalty. This research reveals that service organizations may foster person-place bonds by providing customers with resources over and above goods and services. Customers appreciate resources that transform their well-being, such as social support and natural, restorative resources, and they demonstrate loyalty to places where they can obtain therapeutic resources. From a theoretical standpoint, this work shows support for the notion that the exchange concept is a foundational aspect of a general theory of marketing and explains how the exchange and value concepts in marketing are linked together.

This mixed methods study investigated how value is created in the physical retail space and how the customer experience is influenced by digital technology. A cross-sectional survey, with both qualitative and quantitative components, was distributed across a heterogeneous sample of 832 customers. The results revealed an overarching model comprised of three interrelated clusters: customer, service provider, and digital technology. We propose that this model can be understood as a valuescape, where customers' specific goals, needs, and desires drive them to interact and co-create value with service providers in the physical retail space, with digital technology either enhancing or disrupting this value co-creation process. The results also show that the importance of aligning digital solutions with customers’ drives increases at the same pace as reliance on technology. The findings offer guidelines on how to utilize digitalization to leverage customer experiences and thus strengthen the attractiveness of physical retail spaces.

In a series of experiments, with a total sample of over 2,400 participants, this thesis investigates how various threats that customers may encounter influence the customers’ subsequent purchase and choice behaviors. Furthermore, this thesis examines whether individuals’ predicted behaviors in certain consumer contexts are congruent with customers’ actual behaviors in these very contexts.

Paper I takes an evolutionary approach and investigates whether a status threat to male customers, induced by exposure to physically dominant men, results in compensatory consumption of products that signal status through price or size.

Paper II takes a reactance-based approach and examines whether customers whose freedom to touch has been threatened compensate by touching, and ultimately purchasing, a larger number of products.

Paper III investigates whether threats to customers’ self-control in one domain influence choice behavior and consumption preferences in another unrelated domain. More specifically, the paper examines whether exposure to attractive opposite-sex faces (and hence a subtle activation of sexual desire and its associated pleasure-seeking mindset) makes individuals more motivated to choose and consume unhealthy-but-rewarding foods.     

The main findings of this work can be summarized as follows: Consumer threats result in compensatory consumption, not only in the specific domain under threat, but also in unrelated or only symbolically similar domains. Such compensatory responses are in direct contrast to consumer lay beliefs and even the predictions made by marketing professors and other scholars, which suggests that people are generally unaware of the impact that certain threats have on their behavior. These results should be as interesting for customers who want to make informed choices and resist various influence attempts as for marketers, advertisers, and retail managers who want to influence customers. 

Purpose: Researchers have hypothesized that products located at the decompression zone of a store (the entrance area where customers adjust to the retail environment) do not influence sales of these particular products, because customers do not register things that are too close to store entrances. The purpose of this paper is to examine the validity of such a decompression zone account in actual field settings, and hence investigate whether or not placing products at the store entrance would increase customers’ likelihood to purchase these products. Design/methodology/approach: Two field studies with a total sample of 715 customers were conducted, in which the entrance area of a home goods store was manipulated using a two-group quasi-experimental design. In Study 1, customers were (vs were not) exposed to candles and candle holders at the store entrance. In Study 2, an employee greeted customers at the store entrance with (vs without) the store’s products nearby. Findings: Study 1 found that customers who were (vs were not) exposed to candles and candle holders at the store entrance purchased a significantly larger number of both these products. Study 2 replicated and generalized these findings. Although customers in the employee + products condition spent less money than customers in the employee-alone condition, the former group still purchased a significantly larger number of candles and candle holders. These findings go directly against a decompression zone account, but are consistent with research on exposure effects. Originality/value: This paper is the first to empirically examine the validity of the decompression zone account in real retail settings. The paper also fills a more general gap in the store atmospherics literature, as only a very limited number of studies have dealt with the external parts of the retail environment, such as the store entrance area.

Research shows that the mere presence of others and their physical appearance can influence people's meal choices and food intake. Studies also suggest that such effects are sex-specific and depend on whether the eating occasion includes same-sex or opposite-sex individuals. In five experiments (N = 530; 49% female), the author investigates whether mate attraction, induced by exposure to attractive opposite-sex individuals, has a differential effect on the foods and beverages that men and women prefer to consume. The results revealed that prior exposure to attractive (versus less attractive) men decreased women's willingness to spend money on unhealthy foods, and increased their inclination to spend money on healthy foods. Restrained eating moderated this effect, which means that women who scored high (versus low) on restrained eating were particularly motivated to spend money on healthy foods after exposure to an attractive male individual. On the contrary, exposure to attractive (versus less attractive) women did not influence men's consumption preferences for healthy or unhealthy foods. However, men were more motivated to spend money on expensive drinking and dining options after exposure to an attractive female individual, and their desire to display status mediated this effect. Importantly, none of these effects occurred after exposure to attractive same-sex individuals, which provides converging evidence that mate attraction is the fundamental motive underlying these findings. Taken together, this research reveals how, why, and when appearance-induced mate attraction leads to sex-specific consumption preferences for various foods and beverages.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of employee-displayed smiling on customers' affective states (pleasure, arousal, and dominance) and satisfaction. Building on the stimulus-organism-response framework and theories of emotional contagion and feelings-as-information, the main hypothesis was that a smiling (vs non-smiling) employee significantly increases customer satisfaction through the mediating influence of pleasure. Design/methodology/approach - The study used a quasi-experimental two-group between-subjects design. A total of 210 customers at a large retail bank had a brief service encounter at the store entrance with a smiling (vs non-smiling) bank teller. Customers then went into the bank to do what they came to do. Before leaving the bank, customers completed a survey that included demographic information, affect (pleasure, arousal, and dominance), and measures of customer satisfaction. Findings - A smiling (vs non-smiling) employee had a significant positive impact on customer satisfaction. This effect was mediated by pleasure, but also, to a weaker extent, by dominance. These results contradict previous claims that smiling-induced emotional contagion does not remain throughout the completion of a service encounter. Practical implications - Managers should encourage, and potentially train, employees to act in ways associated with positive emotions. Managers could also hire employees based on how good they are at acting and expressing themselves in a genuinely positive manner and create a pleasant store atmosphere so that the feelings and behaviors displayed by frontline employees are genuine rather than inauthentic. Originality/value - This is the first experimental field study to examine the isolated effect that employee-displayed smiling has on customers' affective states and satisfaction. The results provide more direct evidence for the psychological processes justified by emotional contagion and feelings-as-information theories. Furthermore, the finding that dominance mediates the smiling-satisfaction link has never been shown before.

In-store events are increasingly used to provide customers with unique shopping experiences. Although recent studies indicate that such events positively influence customers' purchase intentions and store choice decisions, little is known about how customers respond to various in-store events. This paper investigates one type of in-store event that is frequently used in several food and non-food contexts. Specifically, the study investigates how an in-store product demonstration influences customers' subsequent purchase behavior depending on whether they are restricted or encouraged to touch the products being demonstrated. An initial scenario-based experiment involving 35 undergraduates aimed to examine how people intuitively think that restricting (versus encouraging) touch during an in-store product demonstration would influence their subsequent purchase behavior. A two-way ANOVA with participant gender and experimental condition as the between-subjects factors consistently showed that people hold a lay theory that restricting touch should have a negative impact on the amount of money they spend and the number of products they purchase. A second field experiment involving 126 customers in a retail store aimed to investigate whether this lay belief is consistent with customers' actual purchase behavior. Counter-intuitively, a two-way ANOVA with customer gender and experimental condition (touch restriction, touch encouragement) as the between-subjects factors revealed that restricting touch during an in-store product demonstration resulted in significantly more money being spent, a larger number of products being purchased, and more expensive products being purchased. These findings show that consumer lay theory can directly contradict customers' actual purchase behavior. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Employee proactivity has been discussed as a key predictor of firm success and organi-zational performance. However, previous proactivity research has rarely focused on cus-tomers, and the few available proactivity studies from retail settings are either cross-sectional, solely based on subjective outcomes (e.g. customer satisfaction) or restricted toaggregateddata of objective outcomes (e.g. profits per store). We investigate the causaleffect of employee proactivity in retail service encounters on customers’ actual purchasebehaviour and satisfaction ratings at the fine-grained level ofindividualcustomers. Byintegrating theories on social perception with prior proactivity findings, we find that em-ployee proactivity positively predicts customers’ shopping responses. This finding extendsfrom correlational to experimental designs across sample types and paradigms, is repli-cated in actual retail settings, and is mediated by customers’ perceptions of employeewarmth and competence. Furthermore, the effect generalizes across several focal out-comes, including behavioural variables (spending and purchase likelihood), and is moder-ated by the time to employee-initiated contact in a way that goes against customers’ ownbeliefs. In sum, the present research quantifies the financial consequences of employeeproactivity and indicates that in ordinary retail service encounters, high proactivity cancompensate for delays, thus counteracting the aversive aspects of waiting.

This field study examined how customer-employee interactions are affected by the congruency between an employee's gender and the perceived gender image of the consumption context in one of the most gender equal cultures in the world (Scandinavia). Mystery shoppers had a service encounter with an employee across a set of physical commercial settings that were classified according to their gender image. The mystery shoppers noted the gender of the employee, provided employee evaluations, and indicated word-of-mouth (WOM) ratings. Shoppers who had a gender congruent service encounter (e.g., a female employee in a “feminine” consumption context) reported more favorable employee evaluations and WOM ratings than shoppers who had a gender incongruent service encounter (e.g., a female employee in a “masculine” consumption context), with the impact of gender congruency on WOM ratings mediated by employee evaluations, particularly with respect to competence inferences. These findings highlight the ethical dilemma of a positive gender congruency effect, as it can generate superior consumer responses but also risks resulting in gender occupational segregation.

Purpose This study aims to examine the links between office types (cellular, shared-room, small and medium-sized open-plan) and employees' subjective well-being regarding cognitive and affective evaluations and the role perceived noise levels at work has on the aforementioned associations. Design/methodology/approach A survey with measures of office types, perceived noise levels at work and the investigated facets of subjective well-being (cognitive vs affective) was distributed to employees working as real estate agents in Sweden. In total, 271 useable surveys were returned and were analyzed using analyses of variance (ANOVAs) and a regression-based model mirroring a test of moderated mediation. Findings A significant difference was found between office types on the well-being dimension related to cognitive, but not affective, evaluations. Employees working in cellular and shared-room offices reported significantly higher ratings on this dimension than employees working in open-plan offices, and employees in medium-sized open-plan offices reported significantly lower cognitive evaluation scores than employees working in all other office types. This pattern of results was mediated by perceived noise levels at work, with employees in open-plan (vs cellular and shared-room) offices reporting less satisfactory noise perceptions and, in turn, lower well-being scores, especially regarding the cognitive (vs affective) dimension. Originality/value This is one of the first studies to compare the relative impact of office types on both cognitive and affective well-being dimensions while simultaneously testing and providing empirical support for the presumed process explaining the link between such aspects.

This eye-tracking study investigated whether the physical appearance of another consumer can influence people's visual attention and choice behavior in a grocery shopping context. Participants (N = 96) took part in a lab-based experiment and watched a brief video recording featuring a female consumer standing in front of a supermarket shelf. The appearance and body type of the consumer was manipulated between conditions, such that she was perceived as 1) healthy and of normal weight, 2) unhealthy by means of overweight, or 3) unhealthy through visual signs associated with a potentially unhealthy lifestyle, but not by means of overweight. Next, participants were exposed to a supermarket shelf with cereals and were asked to choose one alternative they could consider buying. Prior exposure to a seemingly unhealthy (vs. healthy) consumer resulted in a relative increase in participants' visual attention towards products perceived to be healthy (vs. unhealthy), which prompted cereal choices deemed to be healthier. This effect was stronger for products that holistically, through their design features, managed to convey the impression that they are healthy rather than products with explicit cues linked to healthiness (i.e., the keyhole label). These results offer important implications regarding packaging design for marketers, brand owners, and policy makers. Moreover, the findings highlight the value of technological tools, such as eye-tracking methodology, for capturing consumers' entire decision-making processes instead of focusing solely on outcome-based metrics, such as choice data or purchase behavior.

Few studies have examined how customers respond to the mere presence of others in the shopping environment, and only one article (Söderlund, 2017) has investigated the unique impact that employee presence has on key customer outcomes. Söderlund (2017) found that customers entering a store with an employee present (vs. absent) reported significantly higher levels of customer satisfaction, with their increased levels of pleasurable feelings mediating this effect. However, similar to the majority of theorizing on customer satisfaction, that article was restricted to data collected in a Western society. Given the rapid economic growth in many Asian regions, there is a need to examine the applicability of such Western-based findings from an Asian perspective, and hence include participants from Eastern societies. Accordingly, the present research investigated whether Söderlund's (2017) results could be replicated among Asian customers. The current work also sought to extend prior findings beyond pleasure and customer satisfaction while simultaneously documenting a boundary condition for the hitherto positive employee mere presence effects. To this end, two between-subjects experiments with a total sample of 498 Chinese customers were conducted. Study 1, which involved a shopping situation in a clothing store, replicated Söderlund's (2017) main results and further found that employee mere presence (vs. absence) had a significant positive impact on customers' loyalty intentions. These results were reversed in Study 2, in which the shopping situation involved the purchase of an embarrassing product. Under such circumstances, employee presence (vs. absence) consistently produced negative effects on customers' levels of pleasure, satisfaction, and loyalty intentions.

This study investigates how lighting influences consumer evaluations of packaged food products. Fifty-eight participants evaluated two identical packaged meals (alternated between subjects) in a laboratory setting. The products were stored in a freezer with cold light (blue light-emitting diode [LED]) on one side and warm light (yellow LED) on the other side. A three-way mixed multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed that, independent of package color and gender, food products were evaluated more negatively in the cold light than in the warm light in terms of quality, attractiveness and inferred taste. Therefore, lighting may influence consumers' overall evaluations of packaged meals. This finding also highlights the managerial problem whereby the lighting standards that exist at print agencies in order to eliminate ambiguities when making decisions about package design are rare for in-store lighting. Consequently, products that look attractive at the print agency may look unappealing in a store. The results are discussed in terms of processing fluency and cross-modal correspondences.

Objectives This cross-sectional study investigated the associations between office type (cellular, shared-room, small open-plan, and medium-sized open-plan) and employees' ease of interaction with coworkers, subjective well-being, and job satisfaction. Methods A brief survey including measures of office type, ease of interaction with coworkers, subjective wellbeing, and job satisfaction was sent electronically to 1500 Swedish real-estate agents, 271 of whom returned usable surveys. The data were analyzed using a regression-based serial multiple mediation model (PROCESS Model 6), which tested whether the relationship between office type and job satisfaction would be mediated by ease of interaction and, in turn, subjective well-being. Results A negative relationship was found between the number of coworkers sharing an office and employees' job satisfaction. This association was serially mediated by ease of interaction with coworkers and subjective well-being, with employees working in small and medium-sized open-plan offices reporting lower levels of both these aspects than employees who work in either cellular or shared-room offices. Conclusions Open-plan offices may have short-term financial benefits, but these benefits may be lower than the costs associated with decreased job satisfaction and well-being. Therefore, decision-makers should consider the impact of office type on employees rather than focusing solely on cost-effective office layout, flexibility, and productivity.

Consumer lay theory suggests that women will spend more money than men in the presence of a physically dominant male employee, whereas theories of intrasexual competition from evolutionary psychology predict the opposite outcome. A retail field study demonstrates that male customers spend more money and purchase more expensive products than their female counterparts in the presence (vs. absence) of a physically dominant male employee. This effect has a more powerful impact on male customers who lack bodily markers of dominance (shorter stature or measures linked to lower levels of testosterone). When confronted with other physically dominant (vs. nondominant) men, these male customers are particularly prone to signal status through price or logo size. Their elevated feelings of intrasexual (male-to-male) competitiveness drive them to spend more money on status-signaling, but not functional, products and to prefer and draw larger brand logos. Because pictorial exposure is sufficient for the effect to occur, these findings are not limited to in-store interactions with dominant male employees but have broad implications for marketing and advertising.

Purpose Previous research on salesperson-customer proximity has yielded mixed results, with some studies documenting positive proximity effects on shopping responses and others demonstrating the reverse. To reconcile such mixed findings, this paper aims to test whether and how salesperson proximity influences a series of key customer outcomes in actual retail settings using sample sizes that are considerably larger than most former investigations. Design/methodology/approach We conducted two high-powered field studies (N = 1,312) to test whether salesperson-customer proximity influences consumers' purchase behavior and store loyalty. Moreover, we investigated whether the short-term effects on purchase behavior were moderated by the extent to which the consumption context had a clear connection to consumers' own bodies. Findings Salesperson proximity increased purchase incidence and spending in consumption contexts with a bodily basis (e.g. clothes, beauty, health), suggesting that consumers "buy their way out" in these contexts when a salesperson is violating their personal space. If anything, such proximity had a negative impact on consumers' purchase behavior in contexts that lacked a clear bodily connection (e.g. building materials, furniture, books). Moreover, the link between proximity and consumer responses was mediated by discomfort, such that a salesperson standing close-by (vs farther away) increased discomfort, with negative downstream effects on shopping responses. Importantly, the authors found opposite proximity effects on short-term metrics (purchase incidence and spending) and long-term outcomes (store loyalty). Research limitations/implications Drawing on the nonverbal communication literature and theories on processing fluency, the current work introduces a theoretically relevant boundary condition for the effects of salesperson-customer proximity on consumers' purchase behavior. Specifically, the bodily basis of the consumption context is discussed as a novel moderator, which may help to explain the mixed findings in this stream of research. Practical implications Salesperson-customer proximity may serve as a strategic sales tactic to improve short-term revenue in settings that are closely tied to consumers' own bodies and characterized by one-time purchases. However, as salesperson proximity was found to be associated with lower store loyalty, irrespective of whether the shopping setting had a bodily basis, the risk of violating consumers' personal space may have costly consequences from a long-term perspective. Originality/value The present field studies make three central contributions. First, we introduce a novel moderator for proximity effects in various sales and service settings. Second, we test the focal hypotheses with much higher statistical power than most existing proximity studies. Finally, we document that salesperson-customer proximity ironically yields opposite results on short-term metrics and long-term outcomes, thus underscoring the importance of not solely focusing on sales effectiveness when training frontline employees.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the positioning of textual and pictorial design elements on a package affects visual attention (detection time) toward these element types. The study has a 3 × 2 (Stimulus × Location) between-subjects design. One pictorial and two textual package elements, located on the top right- or top left-hand side of a package, were used as stimuli. Visual attention was measured by eye-tracking. A total of 199 university students participated. The data were analysed using a two-way ANOVA and a Pearson’s chi-square analysis with standardised residuals. The results show that in order to receive the most direct attention, textual elements should be on the left-hand side of a package, whereas pictorial elements should be on the right-hand side. This is inconsistent with previous design directions (based on recall), suggesting the opposite element organisation. Previous research has focused on recall (whether respondents remember having seen package elements) or preference (whether respondents prefer a package based on element positioning). The focus of the present study was whether respondents actually saw the different elements on a package, and how long it took them to detect such elements. Detection time for certain element types can be viewed as a new and complementary way of evaluating the position of package elements. The paper also addresses whether preference is a result of easy information acquisition.

A retail store is a multi-sensory environment filled with messages to tempt customers into making unplanned purchases. The purpose of this field study was to examine the interplay between three factors claimed to precede and influence unplanned purchases: store familiarity, visual attention, and navigational fluency (the subjective ease of navigating). Eye-tracking recordings and post-study questionnaires from 100 grocery store shoppers showed that store familiarity was positively associated with navigational fluency. However, customers' levels of dynamic gaze behavior (a frequent, widely distributed viewing pattern) moderated this effect. Dynamic gaze behavior significantly predicted navigational fluency among customers with low and moderate store familiarity, but not among customers familiar with the store. These findings challenge the formerly held assumption that store familiarity automatically implies navigational ease, and store unfamiliarity implies navigational difficulty. The results have implications for navigational aspects in stores. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Across a series of lab and field studies, with a total sample of over 1200 participants, we investigate how the physical proximity between salespeople and customers can impact store loyalty, purchase intentions, and actual spending. An initial survey among a representative sample of retail salespeople reveals that they associate close physical proximity between employees and customers with positive consumer outcomes, an intuition that dovetails with prior research documenting the positive influence of such proximity on purchase intentions, particularly in nonexpressive consumption contexts. Contrary to this work, we demonstrate, across four studies in which proximity was both measured and manipulated, that store loyalty, purchase intentions, and actual spending behavior are negatively impacted when consumers encounter a salesperson who is standing close by (vs. farther away), particularly in expressive consumption contexts. Psychological discomfort mediates this effect, such that consumers experience greater discomfort when a salesperson is standing close by, which in turn decreases spending. Importantly, this phenomenon is moderated by identity relevance, such that the negative influence of salesperson-customer proximity specifically emerges when consumers think about products in terms of their ability to express their identities. These findings carry important implications for retailers operating in expressive consumption contexts.

We used two eye-tracking field experiments to investigate the extent to which in-store signage is used during navigation and decision making, and how the viewing of signage influences customers’ visual attention and choice behavior. One hundred and seventy-five customers at a grocery store were exposed to signage stimuli while carrying out predefined shopping tasks. Experiment 1 shows that attention toward signage is affected by customers’ levels of store familiarity and in-store search stage (navigation vs. decision making). Experiment 2 demonstrates that signage has a considerable impact on the direction and magnitude of customers’ visual attention during decision making.

Several models of the in-store search process exist in the fields of retailing, marketing, and consumer-based research. The present article presents a new conceptualization of this search process, which captures customers' visual attention at three distinct levels of analysis: Stock, Shelf, and Store. We refer to this conceptualization as the 3S Model and illustrate its usefulness through three eye-tracking studies, one from each level of analysis. Our experimental examples, which range from manipulating certain stimuli on a single product (e.g., the placement of textual and pictorial packaging elements) to manipulating the entire shopping trip for customers during their stay in a store (e.g., through more or less specific shopping tasks), highlight the broad applicability of this alternative approach for understanding customers' in-store search behavior. Thus, our model can be seen as a helpful tool for researchers interested in how to conduct experimental eye-tracking studies that shed light on the perceptual processes preceding product choices and purchase decisions. The 3S Model is equally suitable in controlled lab conditions and under ecologically valid settings in the real retail environment. Furthermore, it can be used from the micro level, with a focus on the meaningful metrics on a particular product, through the intermediate level, with the emphasis on the area surrounding products in shelves and other in-store spaces, all the way to the macro level, examining customers' navigational paths throughout a store as a function of their shopping tasks, cognitive capacity, or ability to acquire in-store information.

This exploratory study investigates how consumer knowledge influences willingness to buy (WTB) insect food products. A comparative approach between Northern and Central Europe is adopted to explore whether consumer knowledge has different effects on WTB across cultural areas in Europe. The study analyses consumer survey data collected in Finland, Sweden, Germany, and the Czech Republic (N = 887) with structural equation modelling and multi-group models. The results suggest that the effects of distinct types of knowledge and food neophobia on WTB are mainly indirect and mediated by general attitudes, with these effects differing significantly between Northern and Central Europe. In Northern Europe, the consumers' objective and subjective knowledge of insect food predict WTB as much as previous product-related experiences and food neophobia. In Central Europe, product-related experiences and food neophobia are superior predictors to subjective and objective knowledge. Moreover, consumers in Northern Europe generally have a more positive attitude towards insect food than consumers in Central Europe. Possible explanations for the regional differences are discussed, and implications are suggested on how the region-specific features should be regarded when developing consumer education and promotion strategies for insect food.

This article introduces the concept of 'therapeutic servicescapes' to the retailing and services discipline. In the health literature, therapeutic landscapes emerge when physical and social conditions in a geographically bounded space combine to produce an atmosphere that is conducive to human well-being. Traditionally, therapeutic landscapes have been associated with natural and leisure settings, such as parks, green spaces, and beaches. This work breaks new ground in the marketing domain by linking therapeutic landscapes to commercial retail establishments. This study empirically demonstrates the extent to which physical and social conditions may combine in a customer-centric grocery store to positively enhance customers' well-being and promote feelings of attachment to the establishment. Furthermore, this study reveals that customers' future behavioral intention are driven by the store's impact on their well-being and their desire to maintain 'place attachment.' From a managerial perspective, this work recommends that retail and consumer service organizations facing online competition focus on creating architectural and human resource conditions that promote consumer well-being and place attachment.

Improving households’ waste and recycling behavior is essential for achieving sustainable production patterns. However, the potential for sustainable waste service offerings remains untapped as existing research largely relies on estimated data, short study periods, and unscalable interventions. We conducted a longitudinal field study to investigate the influence of a scalable, app-based behavioral intervention building on social norms on households’ waste and recycling behavior in a multi- residential setting. Using ‘smart’ waste chutes equipped with novel technology to collect objective data for municipal waste (MMW), plastic waste (PW) and newspaper waste (NPW) of 153 households over the course of 12 months, we find that while MMW levels remain stable and do not differ between households that did (vs. did not) install the waste-oriented smartphone app, recycling rates of PW and NPW increased for all households as a function of the intervention. Moreover, app users threw significantly more PW than households not using the app after but not before the intervention. Together, our results suggest that digital behavioral interventions based on novel data through ‘smart’ technologies can significantly improve households’ waste and recycling behavior, thereby presenting a pathway for increasing the service character of waste disposal and management that enables customers’ sustainability practices.

The amount of food waste needs to be reduced in order to sustain the world's limited resources and secure enough food to all humans. Packaging plays an important role in reducing food waste. The knowledge about how packaging affects food waste in households, however, is scarce. This exploratory study examines reasons for food waste in household and especially how and to what extent packaging influences the amount of food waste. Sixty-one families measured their amount of food waste during seven days and noted in a diary why each item was wasted. Thirty of the families had participated earlier in an environmental project including education in environmental issues of everyday life. About 20-25% of the households' food waste could be related to packaging. Three packaging aspects dominate the packaging related waste: packages that the consumer noted as being too big and packages that were difficult to empty, and wastage because of passed "best before date". The environmentally educated households wasted less, especially of prepared food. They also wasted less food due to passed "best before date". These households were more observant to packaging aspects in relation to food waste. The observations made could be used to learn more about packaging attributes that affect food waste. Although they recognised packaging influence on food waste, these households expressed lower satisfaction with packaging functions and wanted packaging to a lower extent. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

When we visit a retail outlet, we go there to complete some type of shopping goal. These goals may be very specific and precisely planned prior to entering the store, or more abstract, and something we think of on the spur of the moment. The stores may display tens of thousands of different products, making it difficult to achieve the shopping goal in a rational manner. As a result, we use different types of heuristics to meet our shopping goals. In this study, we investigate how a customer’s visual attention is influenced by their shopping goal, based on the results of three field experiments in three different contexts—a gas station, a sports store, and a grocery store. Firstly we establish that differences do exist in viewing behavior based on whether shopping goals are planned or unplanned. A more complex and unplanned shopping goal leads to increased observations of in-store stimulus. We then study whether or not the complexity of the first shopping goal also influences the viewing behavior of the next shopping goal, independently of the characteristics of the second goal. The findings confirm that complex decision heuristics deplete cognitive recourse. This finding results in diminished visual attention during subsequent choices. In turn, this has implications for a customer’s shopping behavior.

Several studies have investigated different facets of attention during the consumer choice process. Objectives have included how variation in attention changes throughout the choice process (Russo & Leclerc, 1994), its effect on preference formation (Shimojo et al 2003), the general distribution of attention (Wästlund et al, 2010), the effect of shelf placement (Chandon et al 2009), and the effect of a central placement on attention and choice (Atalay, 2010). The common drawback of these studies is that they are static lab experiments using digital images, which has been shown to influence gaze distribution (Tonkin et al, 2011). Therefore, in this study we use a head mounted eye-tracker to replicate previous research studies in a real retail environment to see if the results hold outside the lab. Data from 63 participants performing choice tasks in a supermarket are analysed. The results show support for a number of findings from previous research such as the initial central fixation bias and subsequent overrepresentation of observations of centrally placed products. Furthermore, the results support earlier findings on the general gaze distribution during the choice process but fail to replicate the strong effect of centrally placed products on choice. Additionally, methodological implications are discussed.

With thousands and thousands of items to choose from in supermarkets, finding a product on the shelf can be a challenge. Naturally, consumers do not see all products nor do they consider buying all products they see. The consumer first screens the original set of products and then considers a reduced set of alternatives. The consideration set is evaluated and reduced to one alternative that is chosen (Lapersonne et al. 1995). The choice is actually a consumer choice process including several steps, e.g., orientation, evaluation, and verification (Russo and Leclerc, 1994).

In the present study we investigated consumers’ consideration sets and consumer choice processes in an experiment with 52 respondents in a supermarket. The respondents were instructed to choose one package of sandwich meat that they would like to buy. The  experiment included two displays of shelves: The first shelf contained one section of sandwich meat and one section of products like pickled garlic and sun-dried tomatoes.The second shelf contained only sandwich meat but with two distinctly different types of packaging. Where the respondents looked first, if the chosen product were in that section, and how much they looked at areas outside their consideration set were investigated. The results show that in the shelf with two categories of products the participants hardly looked at the non-target products during the orientation phase or the verification phase. In the shelf with two differently packaged sandwich meats the participants looked at both parts of the shelf during the orientation phase but significantly more at their selfselected target area during the verification phase. These results highlight the importance of products signaling appropriate attributes in order to even be looked at.