The Impact of Visual Complexity on the Elderly and Young Consumers: Browsing in a Clothing Store

Abstract

The aging of the world's population will have a considerable impact on the consumer market. Basically, the elderly is less able to accept online purchases than young people. Therefore, many elderly consumers are still accustomed to buying in physical stores. The spatial visual complexity of the store may have an impact on the elderly consumers’ perception, which in turn affects their shopping emotions and behavior. The primary purpose of this study is to empirically explore how visual complexity affects consumers’ perception and psychology in a retail environment; and to further explore the effects on the experiences of the elderly and young consumers. The findings of this study indicate that the combinations of spatial layout and pattern decoration have different influences on the elderly and young consumers’ perceptions and psychological responses in a clothing store. The elderly consumers believe that the higher visual complexity, the more easily their attention is disturbed, and they do not like shopping in the highest spatial visual complexity. In terms of the impact of visual complexity on pleasant emotions, the elderly consumers have stronger impact than the young consumers. The finding suggests that if retailers want the elderly consumers to concentrate on searching for merchandise, they can simplify spatial layouts and decoration patterns to reduce the visual complexity of the space.