Abstract:
According to Kotler (1973), the environment or in other words the atmosphere can be more influential than the product itself. Kotler was the first to term the qualities and attributes of the store as “atmospherics”. From then, the influence of the physical environment and its influence on consumers buying behavior have caught heavy academic attention in various business settings. The studies began with researching the relationship between atmospheric variables with the consumers shopping behavior within the retail environment in conventional settings and later on shifted to electronic, web-based settings. With the spread of Internet and e-commerce, studies of environment influence on customers shopping behavior were transferred into electronic space. The atmospheric attributes applicable to physical stores had to be revisited and researched in the online settings.
