Emotions in retail setting: a systematic literature review based on current research

Abstract

This study aims to find out how emotions influence shoppers’ behaviour in offline retail settings and how they get influenced by different elements. This research makes use of secondary data with an in-depth study of research papers published in the last ten years (the year 2012 onwards) in ABDC category ’A’ research journals. Emotions play a complex role in retail consumption. Personal and interpersonal relationships, atmospheric factors, including messiness & crowding, and the interplay of different emotions exert significant influence on consumer emotions. Positive emotions encourage ethical buying, which in turn gives a boost to positive emotions. Consumer ambivalence is prevalent in luxury shopping where negative emotions complement positive ones. The study is based entirely on secondary data. All the research papers which are a part of this study dealt with shoppers in malls, shopping centres, and retail stores. There is a lack of research in the context of shopping markets and shopping streets. Retailers and marketers can plan their atmospherics, marketing mix, and promotions based on the emotions they wish to engineer amongst shoppers. As the role of emotions varies according to the retail format experiences can be customized and designed to cater to target customers and staff should be trained to understand consumer emotions. An understanding of emotions can help enhance ethical buying which is beneficial for the environment and society.