Creating immersive in-store atmosphere through design thinking

Yujia Huang: Lecturer in Design Enterprise at University of Dundee

E-commerce takes over physical retailers’ function of selling and buying on fulfilling the needs in physio pleasure and to some extent socio pleasure. However, to achieve a higher level in socio, psycho, and ideological pleasures, will need multiple channels working together simulating consumers’ full senses, which include see, hear, touch, smell, test and feel. In the field of consumer behaviour, Philip Kotler (1973) presented forty years ago that physical shopping space has a significant influence on the purchase decision making, even than the selling product (or service); stores have to consider the “total product” which includes tangible products and intangible features associated with it. Environmental psychology suggests that consumers react more emotional than cognitive in a physical shopping environment and create a positive in-store atmosphere which hugely contributes both to pleasure and purchase decision making processes.

Take Dyson Demo store (at https://www.dyson.co.uk/inside-dyson/dyson-demo) Oxford Street as an example, by showing the product working mechanism, design and development process, allows consumers to directly communicate with the leading technology innovation that the company represents. All the elements instore, including decoration, layout, materiality, light, sound, colour movements, and professional and friendly human assistance gives people a full degree of exploring what Dyson represents. The showroom itself cannot create direct profits for the brand; however, channelling the brand story to mass audiences could reach potential consumers and create word-of-mouth marketing. Yujia Huang yhuang002@dundee.ac.uk