Study: In-store music mitigates negative effects

The negative impact of high visitor numbers on shoppers’ willingness to buy is mitigated by the fast pace of in-store music.

Highlights:

• It was found that in-store music mitigates the negative effects of high social density.
• The results are based on a field study of over 43,000 shopping carts.
• It was found that the higher the social density, the lower the customer spending.
• The negative influence of social density on customer spending was mitigated by a fast pace of music in the store.
• Fast music has greatly increased the high-density output.
• The increase in the value of the shopping cart was driven by customers buying more items instead of more expensive ones.

Translation of the abstract: Our research indicates that overcrowding in stores can reduce customers’ spending and thus limits the overall benefit of high store traffic. Here, we propose that this negative effect can be mitigated by adjusting the store atmosphere, in particular by using certain types of in-store music. To test this idea, we conducted a longitudinal field experiment in which we manipulated the tempo of the music in the store and measured social density in six European retail stores. Analyzing over 40,000 individual shopping baskets, we found that social density has an inverted-u shaped effect on customer spending. This effect was moderated by in-store music tempo, such that fast music strongly increased spending in high-density conditions. The increase in basket value was driven by customers buying more items rather than more expensive ones. Fast-paced music thus mitigated the negative effects of crowding. We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings and describe how practitioners can use in-store music to counteract the negative effects of high customer density. Source