PERCEIVED MALL EXPERIENCE AND ITS ROLE IN SHAPING CUSTOMER ATTITUDE: A STUDY OF URBAN SHOPPERS IN TAMIL NADU

Abstract

In today’s competitive marketplace, customer attitudes are shaped by perception and experience in a particular mall. It has evolved from a mere point of purchase to a center for lifestyle retailing offering a multitude of services like socializing, entertainment, and emotional bonding. This study investigates ‘mall atmospherics and their impact on customer attitude of urban shoppers in Tamil Nadu with special focus on mediation of emotional response. The S-O-R model serves to explore the triadic relationship between a stimulus in the form of mall atmospherics, consisting of ‘ambient,’ ‘design and layout,’ and ‘social’ sub-systems, the emotional response of the customer comprising of ‘pleasure,’ ‘arousal,’ and ‘relaxation,’ and attitude consisting of ‘cognitive,’ ‘affective,’ and ‘conative’ response. The customers in the malls of all major towns and cities of Tamil Nadu, namely Chennai, Coimbatore, and Madurai, are the focus of a structured questionnaire survey conducted on 400 respondents. Hypotheses are tested using correlation and regression analysis. In research, correlation analysis has shown a high proportion of positive impact of mall atmospherics on customer emotions, r = 0.78, and customer emotions toward overall attitude, r = 0.72. Regression models of the study indicate that positive attitudes are driven from the customer by the ambient conditions, β =0.61, and the social environment of the mall, β =0.58. The research proves that the emotional reactions affect the relationship of the mall experience with the attitude of the customer which emphasizes the role of the mall's sensory and social design in enhancing customer engagement and loyalty.