Perception of Crowding in Apparel Retail Environment and Its Behavioral Consequences - Differences in Its Influences across Retail Types -

The purpose of the study was to examine how shoppers perceive and are influenced by crowding in apparel retail environment. Because shopping occurs in a spatially defined environment within a relatively short time, both crowding and the consequences of experiencing it are very important to retailers and researchers. The study explores the consequences of retail crowding in terms of shoppers' perception of store image, shopping enjoyment, and repurchase intention across two retail types, department stores and wholesale markets. The result showed that if shoppers perceived lower level of crowding, they perceived more positive store image, and spent more time in department stores. However, interestingly, retail crowding didn't influence store image of wholesale markets. Rather, if shoppers perceived higher level of crowding in wholesale markets, they had higher level of shopping enjoyment and repurchase intention. This can be interpreted as shoppers consider the crowding of retail environment as a token of attractive shopping places in terms of better deals and good quality in case of wholesale markets.