Using Visual Retail Atmospheric Audits in Retailing Education

Abstract

Despite the increased utilization of observation research, marketing students rarely if ever get the
opportunity to apply ethnographic or observational market research methods in their educational
endeavors from both the consumer perspective as well as from the retailing/marketing perspective. To bridge the gap between knowledge and application of observation research methods to assess and determine retail strategy implementation, students were asked to assess their ability to do visual assessment of stores or a retail store audit, prior to and after visually assessing retail stores. This study explores whether students can conduct a physical retail store assessment (a retail audit) to understand what factors and rationale are utilized by retailers when they design their retail environments.Despite the increased utilization of observation research, marketing students rarely if ever get the opportunity to apply ethnographic or observational market research methods in their educational endeavors from both the consumer perspective as well as from the retailing/marketing perspective. To bridge the gap between knowledge and application of observation research methods to assess and determine retail strategy implementation, students were asked to assess their ability to do visual assessment of stores or a retail store audit, prior to and after visually assessing retail stores. This study explores whether students can conduct a physical retail store assessment (a retail audit) to understand what factors and rationale are utilized by retailers when they design their retail environments.