A model of consumer's retail atmosphere perceptions

The authors propose a new model of the effects of four perceived atmosphere constructs on hedonic and utilitarian shopping evaluations. Survey data demonstrate that the perceived atmosphere constructs are positively associated with both hedonic and utilitarian evaluations of retail shopping value. Importantly, the relationship between the customer's perception of the store's level of sophistication (perceived style) and the customer's overall assessment that the store is a pleasant place (perceived overall atmosphere) is different for different retail brands. The results suggest that the relationship between constructs can be used to detect differentiation between retail brands. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.