Abstract:
As retail experiences have become more important to the modern consumer, the store
environment has taken on greater significance. The store environment is especially of great
significance to the millennial consumer. These consumers tend to spend more time in the
fashion retail store, while their expenditure on fashion items increases on a yearly basis. The
dressing room must be seen as the clothing retailer‟s selling room – the place where the retail
environment plays an immense role with regard to a consumer‟s cognitions, emotions and
purchasing behaviour. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe young
millennial clothing consumers‟ Functional, aesthetic, emotional and symbolic dressing room
experiences. A qualitative research strategy was followed. Two unstructured interviews were
held with 15 participants. Participants had to take photos of retailers‟ dressing rooms before
the second interview. A photo-elicitation technique was employed during the second
interview. Findings revealed that participants had specific expectations with regard to the
functionality and aesthetics of the dressing room, as well as with regard to the symbolic
messages and the emotions that they expected to experience. If the dressing room did not
meet their expectations they got disappointed, experienced negative emotions and thoughts
and the need to leave the dressing room. The behavioural response of avoidance strongly
came to the forth. Findings of this research point to the importance of the dressing room as
part of the retail experience and have implications for consumer specialists and retailers.
