The Effects of in Store Music on Shopping Behaviour in a Retail Setting

This article extends research linking shopping behaviour to music as an environmental stimulus. Spanning across five sports apparel stores shoppers shopping in a real retail experience reported their perception of time spent inside the store, their overall hearing/aural rating on a ten point bi polar scale and the actual time spent in the store was noted down. Also their level of music familiarity was asked on a 5 point bi polar scale and the tempo of music in each store was analyzed. Results show that music familiarity has a positive relationship with the perception of time. The subjects reported shopping longer when exposed to familiar music but actually the time spent shopping was longer, when exposed to unfamiliar music. This result can be attributed to the notion that time appears to be longer when one can remember more about it and which is what happens when people listen to familiar music. The overall perception of the aural/hearing sense of the consumers also showed a positive relationship with music familiarity. An extensive literature review reveals interesting findings in various types of retail settings, on various consumer behaviour variables, and effects of various music dimensions..