Visual merchandising and the creation of discernible retail brands

This research presents the results of an initial investigation on “visual merchandising” and its effects on purchase behaviour and brand recognition. The context is concessionary branded female fashion offerings within a department store. The research utilises semi‐structured interviews with a small sample of female undergraduate students. The interviews incorporated the use of stimulus material – photographs taken of concessions in a department store some 150 miles away from the research location. The results suggest that the themes that linked most strongly to purchase intention were: merchandise colours, presentation style, awareness of fixtures, path finding, sensory qualities of materials and lighting. Initial findings suggest that liking of display does not totally determine purchase, but does make it four times more likely.