M.A. Thesis:

The effect of visual merchandising purchase intention (the case of customers of selected clothing stores in Mashhad city)

The main goal of current study was to investigate the effect of visual merchandising on customer's purchase intention. Subsidiary goals were set based on merchandising components such as vitrine, color rendering, lighting, store interior, and store design. To fulfill these goals, the customers of apparels stores in Mashhad city were studied. After evaluating the content validity of research questionnaire, it was distributed between customers and 400 well qualified questionnaires were returned. After evaluating construct validity and reliability, two components of color rendering and store interior were eliminated. Remained data was analyzed by conducting structural equation modeling based on which the main research hypothesis was confirmed. Amongst subsidiary hypotheses, the effects of lighting and store design on purchase intention were confirmed and the effect of vitrine was rejected. Finally, the effective merchandising indicators were reviewed which can be used in practice considering the research limitations.

Keywords: visual merchandising, merchandising components, marketing, purchase intention, apparels stores