A Study on the Impact of Background Music on Customer Experience in Departmental Stores.

Adarsh Ramesh Hulagejji; Padmavathi Koride

A Study on the Impact of Background Music on Customer Experience in Departmental Stores.

Author(s)	Mr. Adarsh Ramesh Hulagejji, Prof. Dr. Padmavathi Koride
Country	India
Abstract	In organized retail in India, competition is moving away from range and price towards the quality of the shopping experience and background music is one of the few ambient cues which the store manager can influence without significant cost. Evidence for understanding the reactions of shoppers in India towards such cues is scarce and limited to a single city or format. This paper presents an exploratory, cross-sectional study of 209 shoppers in Bengaluru who had visited departmental stores and shopping malls that have background music. A ten-item, five-point Likert scale instrument assessed three constructs, namely customer mood, shopping relaxation and store memory along with six categorical items pertaining to music preferences and stay duration. The instrument had high reliability (Cronbach’s α = 0.939) and all three constructs received very good responses (means 4.42 to 4.53 on a 5 point scale). Majority of the respondents (87.6%) reported being happy while hearing music while shopping. Customer mood accounted for 73.9% of the variation in shopping relaxation (β = 0.860, p < 0.001) and the three constructs were highly correlated (r = 0.768 to 0.860). There was a significant difference in responses according to the income per month as well as age groups (p < 0.001), wherein the highest earning group (earning above ₹50,000, n = 13) had the lowest scores, but not for occupation for mood and relaxation. Since this is a correlation study, with self-reporting and no no-music group, the results indicate how shoppers perceive music. However, the results seem to indicate the use of music as an inexpensive way to attract customers.
Keywords	background music; customer experience; retail atmospherics; shopping relaxation; store memory; departmental stores; consumer behaviour; India
Field	Business Administration
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 6, November-December 2026
Published On	2026-11-03

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A Study on the Impact of Background Music on Customer Experience in Departmental Stores.

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