Co-creating affective atmospheres in retail experience

Despite substantial research focusing on retail atmospheric elements and the creation of social atmospheres, a holistic theory of atmosphere addressing consumer heterogeneity remains elusive. This research examines how embodied interactions with retail socio-material elements and consumers’ expertise levels create affective atmospheres. Through a three-year-long ethnographic study of winery tours, we identify three core elements in the co-creation of affective atmospheres: material features, sensory modalities, and social interactions. We use text mining to build corresponding dictionaries and analyze customer review data from several retail sites, demonstrating the positive effect of retail atmospherics on customer sentiment. Focusing on consumer segmentation, we further show that different levels of consumer expertise (novices, enthusiasts, and experts) influence the subjective perception of atmospheric elements and the way staff members are expected to behave to jointly create affective atmospheres. Based on our multi-method findings, we offer theoretical and managerial implications that are generalizable to broader retailing contexts.