Literature ReviewThe environmental psychologist focuses behavior in two dimensions which are: approach and avoidance (Turley & Milliman, 2000). A famous study by Mehrabian and Russell (1974) also classified all behaviors as approach and avoidance. The approach includes all positive behaviors aimed at an environment. As the focus of the research is on the retail environment, this will include the desire to interact with others in the store, enjoy the store environment, patronage intentions, recommend the store to friends. Where avoidance behavior would be opposite to approach (Donovan & Rossiter, 1982). Zeithaml (1996) defines behavioral intentions as “the customer's willingness to provide positive word of mouth, to visit the restaurant again in the future, to stay longer than expected, and to spend more than expected”. Focusing further on approach and avoidance behaviors can generate four different outcomes such as: (1) the desire to stay or leave; (2) desire to explore and interact or tendency to want to leave and not explore the store; (3) desire to communicate with others or ignore them; and (4) thoughts of happiness or unhappiness (Hoffman & Turley, 2002), (Chebat & Michon, 2003). It is human nature that if a consumer develops a very positive or negative experience with a retail store, this will result in approach or avoidance behavior in the future (Zavotka, 2007). Turley and Milliman (2000) also found that there is a significant relationship between atmosphere and purchasing behavior. The term Atmosphere is defined as different environmental elements that can be deliberately controlled by retailers and help to improve the atmosphere of the retail store in such a way as to provide a positive experience at the heart of the card. In complex stores their blood pressure levels decrease, their energy increases and their positive feelings increase. Complex aesthetics are tied to design elements, including colors, textures, and feel for simple retail environments. It used a pre-culling survey and a post-feeling survey and collected data from four retail stores (DKNY, Banana Republic, Urban Outfitters, and Berlyne). He applied descriptive statistics such as frequencies and tables for data analysis (Zavotka, 2007). Backstroma and Johansson (2006) conclude their study by stating that retailers need to focus more on traditional values such as the behavior of their staff, which is not occasionally captured by the retailer. So they discover the gap that nowadays more and more retailers' attention is turning to the technological side, the result is that they are ignoring the traditional aspects.
tags