Abstract:

Contemporary consumers are very demanding when it comes to shopping habits, spending their precious time, but also when it goes about the design of the stores they visit or experience they had there. Therefore, a successful retailer has to meet the demands of its consumers in order to create a positive image in the consumer's mind, which can be often reflected on the sales level of its stores. Previously emphasizes the importance of visual merchandising, which should leave a pleasant impression on consumers and enable better results for retailers. Although visual merchandising includes many elements, this paper focuses on in-store space elements and their influence on impulse buying tendency of consumers in grocery stores. Store layout, way of exposing the goods on the shelf and store displays are researched as a main store space determinants. The importance of researching in-store space elements as part of visual merchandising and their effects on impulse buying arises from the high costs of store space, both for retailers and manufacturers. Empirical research focuses on consumers of retail grocery stores in the Osijek-Baranja County, Croatia. It was conducted on a sample of 226 respondents, who are involved in shopping in a grocery stores. The main finding of this research suggests a positive influence of store displays on the impulse buying tendency. Store displays as marketing tools directly influence consumers’ impulse buying tendency and therefore, they are one of the most powerful tools for sales increase.