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ouraged by targeting their emotions through effective store design and physical environment. Belk (1975) agreed and specified that physical surroundings are one situational attribute of the store environment that motivates and promotes consumer purchasing behavior. Creating an effective and interesting store atmosphere is a strategy used by retailers to gain a competitive edge over their competitors (Marsh, 1999) and to manipulate consumer behavior which leads to an increase in sales (Chebat and Michon, 2003). 'An environment richer in ambient esthetic cues enhances the holistic and hinders the analytical responses of the subject.' Massara (2003, p. 33).

Baker (1986) developed a typology grouping the store environmental building blocks that trigger the in-store atmosphere perception in the customer's mind into three factors; ambient factors, design factors, and social factors. Firstly, the ambient factors which are non-visual, background settings of the store may include elements such as music or sound, lighting, scent and temperature. The second factor is the store design; it is classified into functional elements (layout of the store, display of products, comfort, and privacy) and aesthetic elements (architecture, color, material, and style). Retailers use these elements to create store individuality and to encourage a consumer's purchasing behavior. Additionally, store design is a method followed by retailers to present merchandise in the store to encourage and motivate a consumer's purchasing behavior. Therefore, store design has been called a silent salesman for the reason that it has been employed to draw and grab consumers' attention (Buttle, 1984). Finally, social factors which include the number, type and behavior of salespersons and other customers in the store and tries to describe them and how do they affect purchasing behavior of an individual.

Regardless of the huge amount of attention in studying the relationship between store image and retailer loyalty, only a little recent empirical research has addressed the effect of store image on other dimensions of retailer equity (retailer awareness, retailer associations and retailer perceived quality). Jinfeng and Zhiong, (2009) focused on a few key dimensions of store image (perceived price, convenience, institutional factors, physical facilities and employee service) to investigate the relationship between store image and retailer equity while Chaudhuri and Ligas (2009) examine the relationship between merchandise value and store affect and attitudinal loyalty and how do they lead to customer willingness to pay a premium price. Studies have found that there is a relationship between customer expectation of merchandise value and store image.

2.8.3 Merchandise Value

Retailer products are the most important element of the retailer mix as it is what customers need and what drives them to visit the retailer, while for the retailer, products are what generate profits and add value to the retailer.

Product can be defined as 'anything that can be offered to a market that might satisfy a need or a want' (Cox and Brittain, 2004, p. xx). Retailers have created their own terminology. They prefer to use merchandise rather than product to本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。