Multisensory Design of Retail Environments: Vision, Sound, and Scent (Science meets Practice)

Online retailers have gained massive popularity in recent years, plunging large parts of brick-and-mortar retail into an existential crisis. In order to survive in times of growing online retail, brick-and-mortar retailers must become aware of their unique potential to address non-digitizable consumer needs and transform retail environments into places of experience and discovery. A key building block for achieving this aim lies in the creation of sensory experiences that motivate consumers to enter and linger in stationary retail environments.

But how? To answer this question, this volume provides insights into the latest research results from sensory marketing on vision, sound, and scent. The authors describe the sometimes surprising effects of sensory cues on consumer behavior and provide clear recommendations for marketing practice. The second edition comes with an advanced coverage of various topics such as technology use in retail environments and includes new case studies.

Marko Sarstedt is a Chaired Professor for Marketing at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (Germany) and an Adjunct Research Professor at Babeș-Bolyai-University Cluj-Napoca (Romania). His main research interest is the advancement of research methods to further the understanding of consumer behavior. His research has been published in Nature Human Behaviour, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Multivariate Behavioral Research, Organizational Research Methods, MIS Quarterly, and Psychometrika, among others. His publications are among the most cited papers in the social sciences, with over 200,000 citations. Marko Sarstedt is a member of Clarivate Analytic's Highly Cited Researcher List. In March 2022, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj for his research achievements and international collaboration.

Monika Imschloss is a Professor of Business Administration, in particular Marketing, at Leuphana University Lüneburg (Germany). She primarily investigates questions relating to consumer behavior in retail contexts. Her research focuses on aspects of multisensory marketing, digitalization, and sustainability. As such, she examines how sensory stimuli, especially music, influence consumer behavior and how consumers react to digital innovations (e.g., self-tracking apps, software upgradeability) or sustainable products (e.g., upcycling).

Susanne Adler is a research associate at the Institute for Marketing at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (Germany). Her research focuses on consumer decision-making, with an emphasis on how context factors such as choice architecture can influence preferences and choice behavior.