The Effect of Processing Modes and Lighting Types on Shoppers’ Engagement in a Store

When perceiving physical environments, Westerners tend to use a local processing mode by focusing on foreground objects with a narrowed scope of attention, whereas East Asians tend to see contexts through a global processing mode that includes a broadened scope of attention (Miyamoto, Nisbett, & Masuda, 2006). Patterns of attention associated with cultures exhibit predispositions toward approaching and exploring an environment (Masuda et al. 2008). In stores, shoppers either zoom out to see a whole store (global processing) or focus in on a product for its details (local processing). The type of lighting (holistic vs. focused) guides the shopper’s attention toward focusing on gestalt or detail in a store; therefore, lighting can potentially interact with shoppers’ processing modes. Despite the potential benefits of enhanced retail store lighting, little is known about how specific lighting decisions influence shoppers’ in-store behaviors (Quartier, Vanrie, and Van Cleempoel 2014). This study assesses the influence of focused versus holistic lighting. In this study, we posit that a person is more likely to approach and explore a store when a store environment arranges an attentional scope to match the person’s processing style.