Impact of Store Atmosphere on Customer Purchasing Intention inSupermarkets in Badulla District

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