The Effect of Store Environment on Shoppers Urge to Buy Impulsively: An Application of Stimulus-Organism-Response Paradigm

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of store environment elements (e.g. music, light, layout, employee’s friendliness) on Egyptian shoppers’ urge to buy impulsively (UBI) via affecting their hedonic shopping motivation and their impulse buying tendency (IBT). The study utilizes Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) paradigm to investigate the proposed research model in the Egyptian retail context. Mall-intercept method with self-administered questionnaire were applied to collect data from 449 shopper at hypermarkets/supermarkets located in Cairo, Egypt. Structural Equation Modelling was used to examine the proposed model. The results indicate that store environment has a significant positive effect on hedonic shopping motivation, shoppers’ impulse buying tendency (IBT) and urge to buy impulsively (UBI). In addition, the findings reveal that hedonic shopping motivation has a strong positive effect on shoppers’ impulse buying tendency, which in turn positively affect shoppers’ urge to buy impulsively. The findings can be of interest to Egyptian retailers as they provide better understanding of the store environment elements that affect shoppers’ urge to buy impulsively. Hence, they can draw on the results to deliver the promised value to their target shoppers, thus generate more sales and boost their retail store overall performance. Finally, the study contributes to the extant literature as it incorporates store environment elements with individual factors in one holistic model to extend the comprehension of shoppers urge to buy impulsively.