Abstract:
The atmosphere is a retail chain store design that has a specific emotional
impact on the customers that increases the likelihood of purchase. A good store
atmosphere is importantto give a positive impact on customers who come to
supermarkets. Based on that the storeatmosphere of a place is influenced by the
customer purchasing decision than the products they going to purchase.
Therefore this study is conducted to identify the impact of store atmosphere
on customer’s purchasing intention in supermarkets in Badulla district. For
this purpose, four hypotheses were proposed and tested. In this study, store
atmosphere ismeasured by the four components: store layout, ambient factors,
human variables, and point of purchase, whereas purchasing intention was
measured through three dimensions:plan to buy, intent to buy and recommend
to others. The sample size is 150 customers above 18 in Badulla urban area.
The sample was selected using the convenience samplingtechnique. Data was
collected through primary sources. To collect the primary data the researcher
used a structured questionnaire which is consisted of three sections and 35
questions. The statistical methods of correlation and Regression analysis were
used for the testing of the research hypotheses. Results revealed that ambient
factors and point of purchase impact the purchasing intention of customers.
However, the store layout and human variables did not significantly impact on
purchasing intention of customers. Also, this study recommends that the
supermarkets needed to increase the ambient factors andpoint of purchase in
order to increase the purchasing intention of customers.
Keywords: Purchasing intention, store atmosphere, supermarket
