Perception Research and Its Significance for Retail Marketing and Shopper Research

Every person lives in his or her own world of perception. Normally, when shopping in a department store, consumers do not consciously perceive all the thousands of items available there, but concentrate on a selection and put together their own shopping basket, which differ from those of other customers, quite individually. This is a consequence of their perception. Perception is a subjective, selective and constructive process. In the context of this paper, we will first explain the concept of perception and point out that perception is usually a complex interaction of different sensory organs, whereby the individual ultimately attempts to form a cognitive representation of the environment (e.g., a shopping place). Visual perception is particularly relevant here. In addition to conscious perception unconscious perception at the point-of-sale (POS) plays a crucial role. Background music at the POS, for example, is often only experienced subconsciously, but it can influence our behavior. Perception is always contextual, the context can influence how we perceive the environment. For example, many consumers will probably perceive and subsequently buy freshly baked bread if a corresponding scent can be smelled at the POS. The context, in turn, can be designed accordingly. This article discusses the relevance of perception research for explaining consumer behavior at the POS as well as practical conclusions for (retail) marketing.