From home to the store: Combined effect of music and traffic on consumers shopping behaviour

This study provides a theoretical framework to assess the combined effect that traffic stream and music could have on consumers’ shopping behavior throughout their journey to the stores. Through the Virtual Reality (VR) simulation of a car journey, two traffic conditions (light/heavy) and two types of music (relaxing/energizing) were tested, evaluating the effects on the time spent during shopping and on consumption choices (in terms of expense, number of items purchased). Moreover, participants’ physiological reactions have been analyzed by measuring their heartbeat variation (ΔHR). The results indicate that regardless of the type of music listened, heavy traffic leads consumers to spend more time in the store and to buy more products, increasing overall spending. The same effect is determined by relaxing music, regardless of the traffic encountered during the trip to the store. Finally, the most evident result on the heartbeat is given by the music, which going from relaxing to energizing, increases the hearth frequency, regardless of the traffic.