IMPACT OF MALL AMBIENCE ON CONSUMER EMOTION AND BEHAVIOUR

Abstract

With the changing retail-scape and consumer needs in Singapore, experiential shopping is gaining significance, hence the growing importance of the mall atmosphere. This dissertation explored the relative significance of the impact of mall attributes on consumer behaviour with the mediation of consumer emotions, with the purpose of providing mall managers, developers and retailers an insight into the effect of mall features on practical consumer behaviour such as consumer spending and duration of time spend in the mall. The focus was placed on suburban malls in Jurong, with JEM, Westgate and Jurong Point included the mall sample. The malls were selected based on the location, accessibility and also the mall developer. The inherent assumption is that malls from different developer emanate a different atmosphere mainly due to difference in tenant mix and layout. Surveys were then conducted using random sampling at the subject malls over two weeks.

Findings using the Pearson’s correlation coefficient to determine the effect size revealed that all consumer emotions significantly impact on the re-patronage intention and duration of time spent in the mall except for anger, while happiness, romanticness, surprise and contentment exhibited significant positive impact on the amount of spending. On the other hand, impulse buying was only observed to exhibit significant positive relationship with happiness. Colour significantly correlated with all the negative and positive emotions, while greenery, music and scent were observed to enhance all the positive consumer emotions at 99% significance level. Mall attributes like lighting, temperature and layout were also studied. Tenant mix attributed to less than 5% of the variance, hence implying that brand and store variety might be becoming secondary to the experiential shopping. Mall managers and retailers are therefore recommended to utilize and even combine the use of the mall features as environmental stimuli to influence consumer behaviour with the mediation of consumer emotions. Atmospheric features like colour, music are flexible and easy to alter according to different festive seasons too.