Examining the response of female fashion shoppers towards the mall atmosphere

Introduction The mall environment is central to the perception of merchandise quality, and the place where respondents gain their shopping experience. Environment is one of the factors that are capable of influencing a wide range of behaviour as well as providing a context in which this behaviour occurs. Atmosphere consists of elements such as brightness, size, shape, volume, pitch, scent, freshness, softness, smoothness, and temperature. Nowadays, with more time, money and willingness to travel further to shop, and the increasing quantity and variety of retail development, consumers have a growing choice of shopping destinations (Kirkup & Rafiq, 1999). At the same time, there are various other factors that will influence the consumer's visit to the shopping mall. Traditionally, developers attracted consumers to malls through the promise of a wide assortment of stores and merchandise available in a single location. One of the most important tasks of store retailers will be how to attract and retain consumers. According to Holman and Wilson (1982), consumers shop stores that provide a proper environment relative to image and services. Often consumers evaluate the environment to determine the firm’s capabilities for providing a particular service before a purchase. Therefore, the environment of service organizations should reflect the needs and preferences of the consumers and its employees (Bitner, 1992). The needs and preferences of retail consumers relative to the environment has been discussed in terms of physical dimensions, as well as other store attributes. These attributes are thought to produce the store’s image. The physical dimensions are facilities in stores such as elevators, lighting, air conditioning, washrooms, store layout, aisle placement and width, carpeting and architecture (Engel, Blackwell, and Miniard, 1995). However, other store attributes are studied more often than physical attributes and include categories of merchandise, service and clientele (Lindquist, 1974). Besides the factors of location, price and merchandise offerings, Martineau (1958) states that the store’s personality draws shoppers to one store rather than another. Martineau says that not only should retailers be concerned with value and quality of merchandise, but also with a wide range of other factors (e.g., environmental dimensions). All of these factors are expected to play a critical role in the success or failure of stores. Female shoppers tend to change their buying behaviour and value when the mall environment is different. Girls with a high degree of self-confidence still expressed a lot of concern in dealing with salespeople and engaging in impulsive shopping behavior (Mallalieu & Palan, 2006). The significant mall environment affects the buying behaviour. This research is meant to examine the response of female fashion shoppers towards the mall atmosphere. Increasingly, it is necessary that managers know which retail attributes are important to which shoppers so that the appropriate retail strategy can be developed, particularly among female market. By understanding satisfaction with mall attributes and the shopping value that customers derive from a visit to the mall, developers may learn what features drive customers to return. In addition, it would be valuable to understand differences in mall attribute satisfaction and shopping value. Many store patrons are not aware of the effects of the store environment towards consumer shopping behaviour. This is due to the lack of exposure about store environment that influence consumer shopping behaviour. Furthermore, store patrons also cannot identify the true reasons why they patronise a particular store. Hence, this study aims to examine the response of female fashion shoppers towards the mall atmosphere. This paper is structured as follows: Section 2 presents the model employed in this study, focusing on the rationale of the constructs used and deriving testable hypotheses. Section 3