An Exploratory Study on the Components of Visual Merchandising of Internet Shopping Mall (An Exploratory Study on the Components of Visual Merchandising of Internet Shopping Mall)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국마케팅과학회
· 수록지 정보 : Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science(마케팅과학연구) / 18권 / 2호 / 19 ~ 42페이지
· 저자명 : 김광석, 신종국, 구동모

초록

This study is to empirically examine the primary dimensions of visual merchandising
(VMD) of internet shopping mall, namely store design, merchandise, and merchandising
cues, to be a attractive virtual store to the shoppers. The authors reviewed the literature
related to the major components of VMD from the perspective of the AIDA model, which
has been mainly applied to the offline store settings.
The major purposes of the study are as follows; first, tries to derive the variables
related with the components of visual merchandising through reviewing the existing
literatures, establish the hypotheses, and test it empirically. Second, examines the
relationships between the components of VMD and the attitude toward the VMD,
however, putting more emphasis on finding out the component structure of the VMD.
VMD needs to be examined with the perspective that an online shopping mall is a
virtual self-service or clerkless store, which could reduce the number of employees, help
the shoppers search, evaluate and purchase for themselves, and to be explored in terms
of the in-store persuasion processes of customers. This study reviewed the literatures
related to store design, merchandise, and merchandising cues which might be relevant to
the store, product, and promotion respectively.
VMD is a total communication tool, and AIDA model could explain the in-store
consumer behavior of online shopping. Store design has to do with triggering a consumer
attention to the online mall, merchandise with a product related interest, and
merchandising cues with promotions such as recommendation and links that induce the
desire to pruchase. These three steps might be seen as the processes for purchase
actions.
The theoretical rationale for the relationship between VMD and AIDA could be found
in Tyagi(2005) that the three steps of consumer-oriented merchandising are a store, a
product assortment, and placement, in Omar(1999) that three types of interior display are
a architectural design display, commodity display, and point-of-sales(POS) display, and in
Davies and Ward(2005) that the retail store interior image is related to an atmosphere,
merchandise, and in-store promotion. Lee et al(2000) suggested as the web merchandising
components a merchandising cues, a shopping metaphor which is an assistant tool for
search, a store design, a layout(web design), and a product assortment.
The store design which includes differentiation, simplicity and navigation is supposed to
be related to the attention to the virtual store. Second, the merchandise dimensions
comprising product assortments, visual information and product reputation have to do
with the interest in the product offerings. Finally, the merchandising cues that refer to
merchandiser(MD)'s recommendation of products and providing the hyperlinks to relevant
goods for the shopper is concerned with attempt to induce the desire to purchase.
The questionnaire survey was carried out to collect the data about the consumers who
would shop at internet shopping malls frequently. To select the subject malls, the mall
ranking data announced by a mall rating agency was used to differentiate the most
popular and least popular five mall each. The subjects was instructed to answer the
questions after navigating the designated mall for five minutes. The 300 questionnaire
was distributed to the consumers, 166 samples were used in the final analysis. The
empirical testing focused on identifying and confirming the dimensionality of VMD and
its subdimensions using a structural equation modeling method.
The confirmatory factor analysis for the endogeneous and exogeneous variables was
carried out in four parts. The second-order factor analysis was done for a store design, a
merchandise, and a merchandising cues, and first-order confirmatory factor analysis for
the attitude toward the VMD.
The model test results shows that the chi-square value of structural equation is
144.39(d.f 49), significant at 0.01 level which means the proposed model was rejected. But,
judging from the ratio of chi-square value vs. degree of freedom, the ratio was 2.94
which smaller than an acceptable level of 3.0, RMR is 0.087 which is higher than a
generally acceptable level of 0.08. GFI and AGFI is turned out to be 0.90 and 0.84
respectively. Both NFI and NNFI is 0.94, and CFI 0.95.
The major test results are as follows; first, the second-order factor analysis and
structural equational modeling reveals that the differentiation, simplicity and ease of
identifying current status of the transaction are confirmed to be subdimensions of store
design and to be a significant predictors of the dependent variable. This result implies
that when designing an online shopping mall, it is necessary to differentiate visually from
other malls to improve the effectiveness of the communications of store design. That is,
the differentiated store design raise the contrast stimulus to sensory organs to promote
the memory of the store and to have a favorable attitude toward the VMD of a store.
The results that navigation which means the easiness of identifying current status of
shopping affects the attitude to VMD could be interpreted that the navigating processes
via the hyperlinks which is characteristics of an internet shopping is a complex and
cognitive process and shoppers are likely to lack the sense of overall structure of the
store. Consequently, shoppers are likely to be alost amid shopping not knowing where to
go. The orientation tool enhance the accessibility of information to raise the perceptive
power about the store environment.(Titus & Everett 1995)
Second, the primary dimension of merchandise and its subdimensions was confirmed to
be unidimensional respectively, have a construct validity, and nomological validity which
the VMD dimensions supposed to have a positive correlation with the dependent variable.
The subdimensions of product assortment, brand fame and information provision proved
to have a positive effect on the attitude toward the VMD. It could be interpreted that the
more plentiful the product and brand assortment of the mall is, the more likely the
shoppers to favor it.
Brand fame and information provision as well affect the VMD attitude, which means
that the more famous the brand, the more likely the shoppers would trust and feel
familiar with the mall, and the plentifully and visually presented information could have
the shopper have a favorable attitude toward the store VMD.
Third, it turned out to be that merchandising cue of product recommendation and
hyperlinks affect the VMD attitude. This could be interpreted that recommended products
could reduce the uncertainty related with the purchase decision, and the hyperlinks to
relevant products would help the shopper save the cognitive effort exerted into the
information search and gathering, which could lead to a favorable attitude to the VMD.
This study tried to sheds some new light on the VMD of online store by reviewing
the variables mentioned to be relevant with offline VMD in the existing literatures, and
tried to link the VMD components from the perspective of AIDA model. The effect size
of the VMD dimensions on the attitude was in the order of the merchandise, the store
design and the merchandising cues.
It is said that an internet has an unlimited place for display, however, the virtual store
is not unlimited since the consumer has a limited amount of cognitive ability to process
the external information and internal memory. Particularly, the shoppers are likely to face
some difficulties in decision making on account of too many alternative and information
overloads. Therefore, the internet shopping mall manager should take into consideration
the cost of information search on the part of the consumer, to establish the optimal
product placements and search routes. An efficient store composition would be possible
by reducing the psychological burdens and cognitive efforts exerted to information search
and alternatives evaluation.
The store image is in most part determined by the product category and its brand it
deals in. The results of this study support this proposition that the merchandise is most
important to the VMD attitude than other components, the manager is required to take a
strategic approach to VMD. The internet users are getting more accustomed and more
knowledgeable about the internet media and more likely to accept the internet as a
shopping channel as the period of time during which they use the internet to shop become
longer. The web merchandiser should be aware that the product introduction using a
moving pictures and a bulletin board become more important in order to present the
interactive product information visually and communicate with customers more actively,
therefore leading to making the quantity and quality of product information more rich.

영어초록

This study is to empirically examine the primary dimensions of visual merchandising
(VMD) of internet shopping mall, namely store design, merchandise, and merchandising
cues, to be a attractive virtual store to the shoppers. The authors reviewed the literature
related to the major components of VMD from the perspective of the AIDA model, which
has been mainly applied to the offline store settings.
The major purposes of the study are as follows; first, tries to derive the variables
related with the components of visual merchandising through reviewing the existing
literatures, establish the hypotheses, and test it empirically. Second, examines the
relationships between the components of VMD and the attitude toward the VMD,
however, putting more emphasis on finding out the component structure of the VMD.
VMD needs to be examined with the perspective that an online shopping mall is a
virtual self-service or clerkless store, which could reduce the number of employees, help
the shoppers search, evaluate and purchase for themselves, and to be explored in terms
of the in-store persuasion processes of customers. This study reviewed the literatures
related to store design, merchandise, and merchandising cues which might be relevant to
the store, product, and promotion respectively.
VMD is a total communication tool, and AIDA model could explain the in-store
consumer behavior of online shopping. Store design has to do with triggering a consumer
attention to the online mall, merchandise with a product related interest, and
merchandising cues with promotions such as recommendation and links that induce the
desire to pruchase. These three steps might be seen as the processes for purchase
actions.
The theoretical rationale for the relationship between VMD and AIDA could be found
in Tyagi(2005) that the three steps of consumer-oriented merchandising are a store, a
product assortment, and placement, in Omar(1999) that three types of interior display are
a architectural design display, commodity display, and point-of-sales(POS) display, and in
Davies and Ward(2005) that the retail store interior image is related to an atmosphere,
merchandise, and in-store promotion. Lee et al(2000) suggested as the web merchandising
components a merchandising cues, a shopping metaphor which is an assistant tool for
search, a store design, a layout(web design), and a product assortment.
The store design which includes differentiation, simplicity and navigation is supposed to
be related to the attention to the virtual store. Second, the merchandise dimensions
comprising product assortments, visual information and product reputation have to do
with the interest in the product offerings. Finally, the merchandising cues that refer to
merchandiser(MD)'s recommendation of products and providing the hyperlinks to relevant
goods for the shopper is concerned with attempt to induce the desire to purchase.
The questionnaire survey was carried out to collect the data about the consumers who
would shop at internet shopping malls frequently. To select the subject malls, the mall
ranking data announced by a mall rating agency was used to differentiate the most
popular and least popular five mall each. The subjects was instructed to answer the
questions after navigating the designated mall for five minutes. The 300 questionnaire
was distributed to the consumers, 166 samples were used in the final analysis. The
empirical testing focused on identifying and confirming the dimensionality of VMD and
its subdimensions using a structural equation modeling method.
The confirmatory factor analysis for the endogeneous and exogeneous variables was
carried out in four parts. The second-order factor analysis was done for a store design, a
merchandise, and a merchandising cues, and first-order confirmatory factor analysis for
the attitude toward the VMD.
The model test results shows that the chi-square value of structural equation is
144.39(d.f 49), significant at 0.01 level which means the proposed model was rejected. But,
judging from the ratio of chi-square value vs. degree of freedom, the ratio was 2.94
which smaller than an acceptable level of 3.0, RMR is 0.087 which is higher than a
generally acceptable level of 0.08. GFI and AGFI is turned out to be 0.90 and 0.84
respectively. Both NFI and NNFI is 0.94, and CFI 0.95.
The major test results are as follows; first, the second-order factor analysis and
structural equational modeling reveals that the differentiation, simplicity and ease of
identifying current status of the transaction are confirmed to be subdimensions of store
design and to be a significant predictors of the dependent variable. This result implies
that when designing an online shopping mall, it is necessary to differentiate visually from
other malls to improve the effectiveness of the communications of store design. That is,
the differentiated store design raise the contrast stimulus to sensory organs to promote
the memory of the store and to have a favorable attitude toward the VMD of a store.
The results that navigation which means the easiness of identifying current status of
shopping affects the attitude to VMD could be interpreted that the navigating processes
via the hyperlinks which is characteristics of an internet shopping is a complex and
cognitive process and shoppers are likely to lack the sense of overall structure of the
store. Consequently, shoppers are likely to be alost amid shopping not knowing where to
go. The orientation tool enhance the accessibility of information to raise the perceptive
power about the store environment.(Titus & Everett 1995)
Second, the primary dimension of merchandise and its subdimensions was confirmed to
be unidimensional respectively, have a construct validity, and nomological validity which
the VMD dimensions supposed to have a positive correlation with the dependent variable.
The subdimensions of product assortment, brand fame and information provision proved
to have a positive effect on the attitude toward the VMD. It could be interpreted that the
more plentiful the product and brand assortment of the mall is, the more likely the
shoppers to favor it.
Brand fame and information provision as well affect the VMD attitude, which means
that the more famous the brand, the more likely the shoppers would trust and feel
familiar with the mall, and the plentifully and visually presented information could have
the shopper have a favorable attitude toward the store VMD.
Third, it turned out to be that merchandising cue of product recommendation and
hyperlinks affect the VMD attitude. This could be interpreted that recommended products
could reduce the uncertainty related with the purchase decision, and the hyperlinks to
relevant products would help the shopper save the cognitive effort exerted into the
information search and gathering, which could lead to a favorable attitude to the VMD.
This study tried to sheds some new light on the VMD of online store by reviewing
the variables mentioned to be relevant with offline VMD in the existing literatures, and
tried to link the VMD components from the perspective of AIDA model. The effect size
of the VMD dimensions on the attitude was in the order of the merchandise, the store
design and the merchandising cues.
It is said that an internet has an unlimited place for display, however, the virtual store
is not unlimited since the consumer has a limited amount of cognitive ability to process
the external information and internal memory. Particularly, the shoppers are likely to face
some difficulties in decision making on account of too many alternative and information
overloads. Therefore, the internet shopping mall manager should take into consideration
the cost of information search on the part of the consumer, to establish the optimal
product placements and search routes. An efficient store composition would be possible
by reducing the psychological burdens and cognitive efforts exerted to information search
and alternatives evaluation.
The store image is in most part determined by the product category and its brand it
deals in. The results of this study support this proposition that the merchandise is most
important to the VMD attitude than other components, the manager is required to take a
strategic approach to VMD. The internet users are getting more accustomed and more
knowledgeable about the internet media and more likely to accept the internet as a
shopping channel as the period of time during which they use the internet to shop become
longer. The web merchandiser should be aware that the product introduction using a
moving pictures and a bulletin board become more important in order to present the
interactive product information visually and communicate with customers more actively,
therefore leading to making the quantity and quality of product information more rich.

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