Effects of Visible and Invisible Factors and Buying Impulse Intention upon Store Loyalty: Focused on Physical Evidence and Word-of-Mouth of Discount Store

Purpose - This study aimed to understand the influence of visible factors directly shown to and experienced by consumers such as physical evidence, and invisible factors obtained through acquaintances or other experienced consumers such as word-of-mouth, in the discount stores' marketing communication on impulse buying intention and store loyalty. Research Design, Data, and Methodology - This study examined the effect of factors in discount stores' marketing communication, for instance, physical evidence, word-of-mouth, and buying impulse intention. The questionnaire survey resulted in 68 completed questionnaires. Results - Physical evidence and word-of-mouth have a statistically significant positive effect on store loyalty. The results of regression analysis regarding whether visible or invisible factors have more impact showed that word-of-mouth has a statistically significant positive effect on store loyalty. With regard to impulse buying intention, only word-of-mouth was statistically significant. Conclusion - These results suggested that visible and invisible factors that appeal to customers are very important. In particular, the results suggested that stores should create invisible factors (e.g., positive word-of-mouth) for their customers.