Behavioral Determinants of Consumer Decision Making

The current study explores the issue how people behave in an actual store environment and what features determine their buying decisions specifically in a store. Behaviour-oriented research that explores people behaviour in the marketplace and measures actual behaviour, represents a new demanding course for further research in the area consumer psychology. Nowadays, recent technological developments such as video observational technologies provide researchers and retailers with an opportunity to analyze shopping behaviour of customers. The research question of the present study was formulated as follows: is there any relationship between in-store shopping activities of different customer groups and making a purchase decision? The aim of the study, therefore, was to explore differences, if any, between two types of shoppers, namely, the ones that buy something and the ones who do spend time in a store but do not buy anything. The data was collected through video observations in a shoe store (N of sample size = 876 of single shoppers and shopping groups). The findings of the study reveal differences in in-store behaviour in relation to shopping groups and give an insight into positive and negative predictors of making a purchase decision. Key words: consumer behaviour, purchase decision, customer groups, consumer emotions, social facilitation, approach and avoidance behaviour, video observation.