Physical stores are significant contact points for customers to have unique shopping experience with hedonic values (Hirschman and Holbrook, 1982). The value is becoming even more important as a differentiating factor for companies in the digital era when e-commerce is dramatically expanding and growing (Kotler, Kartajaya, and Setiawan, 2017). In order to deepen our understanding on online for offline (O4O) shopping experience, we focus on Visual Merchandizing Design (VMD) as one of the key factors to differentiate physical stores from e-commerce. VMD has a long history since 18th century VMD and has been extensively researched in various ways, but no study has been done in the setting of online for offline (O4O). VMD is defined as an art of displaying the things in a manner to attract the attention of the customer and persuade them to buy the product (Kerfoot, Davies, and Ward, 2003; Krishnakumar, 2014). In the VMD's extant research, many suggest the importance of VMD from the viewpoint of experiential marketing. It has been discussed that VMD is an effective way to impress consumers with company brands (e.g., Kim and Kim, 2011; Park and Jeon, 2004 Sun and Lee, 2017). In order to analyze the effectiveness of VMD, we use the three elements commonly used in practice that include Visual Presentation (VP), Point of Sales Presentation (PP), and Item Presentation (IP). The role of Visual Presentation (VP) is to invite customers from outside to inside of the store. When a customer enters the store, it is expected to encourage customers to stay longer to look around through PP (Point of sales Presentation). Finally, attractive Item Presentation (IP) on the shelves or hangers encourages customers to purchase products. We combine this VP-PP-IP framework of VMD with New AIDA model proposed by Iwamoto, Kawakami and Suzuki (2016). New AIDA model is a revised version of AIDMA that incorporates online related factors such as search, keep and share. Using this framework, we conducted three case studies on JINS BRAIN Lab by JINS Inc. in Japan, LAB101 in South Korea and On and the Beauty by Lotte Shopping in South Korea. We visited the store to observe how these companies realize the elements of VMD (VP-PP-IP) at each store. The results suggest that, for the better O4O experience to shop at a physical store looking at a mobile device, companies need to design the store from VMD point of view in addition to data-driven or artificial intelligence supported merchandizing. Physical stores with better VMD also play a significant role for generating word-of-mouth for engaging other customers.

As well as all other branches of trade, so retail trade itself undergoes various changes and trends with regard to the development of information and communication technologies which affect not only traders themselves but also their customers. It is the retail store environment itself which is one of the decisive aspects of purchase because more than 70% of consumer decisions take place directly at the point of sale. It is the last place which can reverse the purchasing decision. A final customers´ decision is influenced not only by price, quality but also by in-store communication and visual aspects of each store. That is the reason for continuous gathering of feedback on the effectiveness and efficiency of these means of communication in real environment. Besides traditional research techniques there are situations which require the involvement of relatively new research methods. Thanks to the innovative interdisciplinary approach with the use of neuromarketing, it is possible to create effective marketing strategies and thus stimulate the customer attention and emotions. By these emotions, it is possible to achieve better motivation toward purchase and an increase in the number of sales and subsequent raise in income. The paper deals with a complex, interdisciplinary examination of the in-store communication impact on customer visual attention, emotions and related spatial behaviour of customers in grocery stores. Research integrates measurements of mobile eye camera (Eye tracker), mobile electroencephalograph (EEG), face reading technology (FA) and internal position system in real conditions of retail store. The purpose of this research is to recognise the attention, emotional response and spatial customer preferences by means of selected in-store communication tools. At the end of the paper we explain how the neuromarketing methods can be used for better understanding of consumer behaviour at the point of sale.

The information technology has affected many aspects of retail world as in other areas of human life. This makes understanding consumers’ acceptance and usage of such technological innovations a critical task for both retail businesses and scholars alike. The technology acceptance model (TAM; Davis 1989) is one of the most widely adopted theoretical frameworks for explaining and predicting consumers’ acceptance of technology. Implementing the meta-analysis method, this study aimed at testing the validity of TAM for understanding consumers’ attitudes and behaviors toward the various technologies adopted in fashion retail stores and online commerce sites. Specifically, the effect sizes of two TAM antecedents of perceived usefulness (PU) and ease of use (PEOU) were estimated and compared. Moderating factors that affect the effect sizes of PU and PEOU on attitudes and behaviors were also explored. A meta-analytical SEM methodology was expected to deliver more thorough and valid test of the model than single sample studies, because accumulation of multiple samples through meta-analysis would bolster the test's statistical power (Hom et al., 1992). A sample of studies on consumers’ acceptance of retail technology in fashion retail context that adopted the TAM model were collected through a systematic search through the databases such as EBSCO, Google Scholars, and Dissertation Abstracts. Efforts were made to include unpublished studies to avoid publication bias. A total of 31 published and unpublished research reports that allowed the calculation of effect sizes of the key paths in the model were included in the final analysis. The effect sizes were calculated out of the identified samples, and the homogeneities of the effect sizes were tested using comprehensive meta-analysis software. The types of technology, product type (apparel vs. general merchandise), subject characteristics (gender; country; student vs. general), and study setting (actual experience vs. simulated situation) were considered as moderators to explain for the variances in correlations among variables. Finally, a meta-SEM model was tested on the aggregated data using AMOS.

According to the development of information technology (IT) and new media, customers’ needs have changed to seek not only high quality goods but also a differentiated service in retail stores (Lee & Shin, 2011). For this reason, fashion retail stores started to provide an interesting service by setting up an IT machine or a gadget in the stores. Thereby, customers can get the information or have a special experience while they shop fashion goods. IT shopping service is defined as using technology in retail stores to enhance interaction between retailers and customers. Retailers have tried several types of IT shopping services, which offer information or experience with a high or low level of technology. Informative IT shopping service provides various and useful information, which is related to each product such as size, color, contents, stock, location and fashion styling. Retailers use experiential IT shopping service as an emotional appeal that gives direct experience to customers in some way or other such as watching or acting in a virtual situation. Also, as technology develops, IT shopping services are embodied with diverse technology that are simple or complexity. Some are easy to use with one button and shows 2D images only, but some have a lot of contents such as video clips, SNS share service, showing 3D images, and implementing augment reality. We saw customer responses on the attributes of IT shopping service (informative vs. experimental) x technology level of IT shopping service (high vs. low) x fashion innovativeness/technology innovativeness (high vs. low) This study aims to see the effect of the attributes of IT shopping service and the level of technology on procedure satisfaction and outcome satisfaction, and the moderating effect of perceived enjoyment and perceived complexity. Furthermore, this study will see whether these effects affect visit intention. In this study, the experimental design was adopted as the main methodology, and a total of four stimuli types were selected: 1) informative x high technology 2) informative x low technology 3) experiential x high technology 4) experiential x low technology. The common element, which all types of stimuli have, is a digital touch screen since it is a general equipment nowadays, and the common fashion good for all types is a black blazer. The type of informative service only has the information (size range, color assortment, contents, stock) about selected fashion good with its image. High technology in informative service shows the image with 3D simulation that can help to see 360° of the blazer, and styling tips including a video clip. Moreover, it helps to share the information with friends via SNS. Low technology in informative service only shows a front side of the blazer and presents a store map for customers to find a product they want to try. The types of experiential service draw customer participation providing a picture of customers that are trying on clothes. Experiential service use augment reality (AR) as a high technology and take the back side of customers picture as low technology. For the manipulation check, 18 graduate students in total viewed for each type, and the total sample comprises 387 college students via survey instrument. All hypotheses were tested using AMOS and SPSS 18.0. The main findings of this study are as follows: depending on type of the attributes of IT shopping service and the level of technology affect perceived enjoyment and perceived complexity differently, and there were significant mediating effect of perceived variables toward IT shopping service on procedure satisfaction, outcome satisfaction, and visit intention. Implications for usefulness and role of the IT shopping service in fashion retail stores are provided. And also, limitation of this study and future study are suggested.