A graduation thesis by a former UTM student was the basis for a fresh academic paper about pop-up stores and Chinese consumers. Graduate Ms. Lovi Lyu Jiayi joined forces with two UTM faculty members and a former scholar at the University, to transform her thesis into a fully-fledged piece of research
Pop-up stores are increasingly popular within the retailing sector, including at shopping malls inside Macao’s integrated resorts. Such temporary shops often promote products by high-end fashion brands. A new study involving researchers from UTM aimed to understand how the ‘retailscape’ of pop-up stores influenced young Chinese tourists’ emotional response to brands using this approach, and the subsequent intention of such consumers to shop at these stores.
The research involved UTM graduate Ms. Lovi Lyu Jiayi, working with two University scholars: Assistant Professor Dr. Catherine Li Zhuo, who is also the Coordinator for UTM’s Tourism Retail and Marketing Management Programme; and Prof. Eve Ren Lianping, the Coordinator for Postgraduate Programmes.
Their research paper, titled “Scrutinizing the effects of pop-up stores’ retailscape on young Chinese tourists’ emotion and patronage intention”, was featured in the latest issue of the scholarly journal Young Consumers, released in May. (Click here for access to full paper.)
The overall work stemmed from Ms. Lyu’s graduation thesis topic at UTM. She presented her research, under the name “The Effect of Pop-up Store’s Retailscape on Chinese Young Tourists’ Patronage Intentions Towards Luxury Shopping”, at the 2022 edition of UTM’s Tourism Education Student Summit, clinching a ‘Best Paper’ award.
The academic paper now published elaborated on Ms. Lyu’s initial work. The research involved a quantitative approach, with a survey directed at young Chinese tourists in the age range 18 to 41, and who were travelling in Macao. It was a requirement that participants had visited a luxury retail pop-up store in the city. The collection of questionnaire data was completed via a face-to-face survey.
To buy or not to buy
Retailscape refers to the overall landscape and environment of retail businesses. It aims to offer a comprehensive view of the retail ‘ecosystem’, focusing on how various factors interact and shape people’s shopping experience.
The researchers defined the retailscape of pop-up stores as including three major elements: internal ambience, exterior appearance, and social interaction. Regarding the latter, it was noted that “friendly social interaction may help increase consumer’s confidence in ‘surfing’ inside the shop, and support [brands’] marketing objectives, such as patronage intention.”
The researchers concluded, based on their findings, that a luxury pop-up store’s retailscape had a positive influence on young Chinese tourists’ emotional response. But such retailscape by itself had only a partial influence on young Chinese tourists’ respective intention to shop at such a store. Nonetheless, a positive emotional response could in the end be a positive influence on shopping intention.
The authors noted that their work corroborated previous research that having pop-up stores was an effective marketing strategy.
Due to the particular characteristics of young customers, a “careful incorporation” of the three factors of retailscape was “important”, said the researchers. They added that use of the three factors “could contribute to young customers’ positive emotional responses” in the context of pop-up stores. Such “emotional changes could be consequential to customers’ patronage intention,” added the authors.
The team highlighted that ambience appeared to be the foremost influential factor of retailscape of pop-up shops regarding young consumers’ emotional responses. Therefore, when targeting Chinese young customers, interior ambience was found to be the “dominant catalyst for inducing positive emotional states and potential patronage intentions”.
“Patronage intention is not significantly affected by the exterior factor of retailscape,” the researchers added.
Editor: UTM Public Relations Team
