Lost in store navigation: What’s the bottom line of irritation, shortfall, and unplanned purchases?

Abstract

This article addresses shoppers’ wayfinding problems in-store. Study 1 identifies store layout illegibility (SLI) to be the main store environmental driver of shopping irritations, impacting negatively on customer satisfaction, based on a consumer survey (n = 150) in grocery retailing. Study 2 moreover finds a positive effect of wayfinding problems on shortfall and on unplanned purchases in grocery retailing (consumer survey, n = 402). Variety may well be the spice of life, but it’s apparently not that of the retailer’s business. A predictable layout, rather than the occasional change is advised in this paper’s implications for retail academics and managers.