Flooring Has Impact on How Shoppers Respond

Ottawa, Canada, Oct. 21, 2009--Shoppers with aching feet could spend more, says a new North American study on flooring in retail operations, according to a story in the Calgary Herald.

That's because our own pain makes products look better, said the study's author, Joan Meyers-Levy.

"I would evaluate the product as more comforting when I'm actually standing on the hard tile floor as opposed to the carpeted floor," Meyers-Levy, a marketing professor in Minnesota, said Wednesday. "When you're on tile, which feels bad . . . that product really looks good."

The study, a joint project between the University of Minnesota and the University of British Columbia, was also conducted by UBC researches Rui (Juliet) Zhu and Lan Jiang.

It's probably the first study to look at how flooring affects people's assessments of products when they shop," said Meyers-Levy.

In various experiments, students and volunteers were asked to evaluate different products — a vase and a gift basket, for instance — while standing on carpet and tile from different distances.

The study, Context Effects from Bodily Sensations, will be published in the Journal of Consumer Research some time in 2010. It was funded in part by the Humanities Research Council of Canada

In addition to other factors affecting our shopping mood — such as colour, music, or lighting — flooring directly affects our "bodily sensations," causing shoppers to view products in a different way, said Meyer-Levy.

Uncomfortable tile floors, for instance, create a "reverse effect" on shoppers when they view products up close, said Meyers-Levy. However, things look better from afar while standing on carpet, which is called assimilation effect, she said.

"I'm feeling comfortable, I can't really make out this product really well, and so I use my feelings to sort of guide my interpretation of the product," explained Meyers-Levy. "They feel good. They think, 'Oh, well maybe that's coming from the product I'm looking at.'"

Outside the Sears department store in Ottawa's Rideau Centre, shoppers Catherine Piehl and Stephanie Roy, both 21, admitted that they've never really thought about the floor before.

But come to think of it: "You do feel different when you're on the carpet," said Piehl.

Meyers-Levy has also studied ceiling heights in stores, determining that high ceilings cause people to think about the bigger picture, while low ceilings make them focus on details.

"All these kinds of things that we just totally think we're tuning out, we're totally insensitive to, in fact they do affect us, and affects in ways that are relevant to marketing," she said.