Customer Experience of International Luxury Fashion Brands in Japan: A Mixed-methods Examination of Physical and Human Factors

抄録

This study aims to identify the components of the in-store experience that are valuable to customers during in-store events. This study investigates the relative impact of the physical environment and employee behavior on the customer experience and their evaluation of the in-store experience at a Japanese luxury fashion brand store. Prior research has described the relationship between the perceived value of the physical environment and employee factors in the in-store customer experience. Although it has been noted that East Asians and Westerners perceive and think differently, most prior studies on luxury have surveyed Westerners. Further, aesthetics depends on the perceiver’s processing experience, not on the characteristics of the object. Therefore, this study investigated what was perceived in the store experience of 4268 qualitative answers using 180 representative samples with multiple experiences with luxury purchases. A mixed-methods approach was employed, analyzing quantitative and qualitative data. The results revealed that the physical environment did not directly influence customers’ revisit intentions. However, physical cues influenced the evaluation of employee-related factors, which directly impacted customers’ revisit intentions. These results suggest that aesthetics and luxury environments enhance the processing of service quality, and customers value employees who understand the emotions and circumstances behind their purchases.