The Conditional Role of Store Interior Design in Customer Experience and Behavioral Intentions: A Qualitative Study in Istanbul

Mahtab Irani

Authors

Mahtab Irani Department of Business Administration, International Business Master’s Program with Thesis, Institute of Graduate Studies, Istanbul Nişantaşı University, Istanbul, Türkiye https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5617-0942

Keywords:

Store interior design, store atmosphere, customer experience, behavioral intention, qualitative content analysis

Abstract

This study aims to explain the role of store interior design in customers’ approaches to stores, shopping experiences, and behavioral intentions through participants’ interpretations. A generic qualitative research design grounded in an interpretive epistemology was employed. Semi-structured interviews comprising 14 questions were conducted between 12 June and 16 July 2026 with 16 adults in Istanbul who had recent experience of physical stores and were recruited through purposive criterion sampling. No audio recordings were made; detailed contemporaneous notes were expanded on the day of each interview, anonymized, and analyzed using conventional, inductive qualitative content analysis. The analysis generated five themes: (1) spatial legibility and access; (2) sensory comfort and product interaction; (3) the formation of reported behavior and behavioral intentions under multiple conditions; (4) the generation of meanings of quality, trust, and brand through design and their subsequent evaluation against performance; and (5) variation in experience according to the user, shopping purpose, budget, and cultural context. The findings do not support a linear claim that design causes sales or repeat visits. Instead, design shapes the conditions for intermediate evaluations involving entrance legibility, circulation, accessibility, comfort, product assessment, and initial brand meaning. Reported purchases, purchase abandonment, and revisit intentions were interpreted in conjunction with product suitability, price, stock availability, information, service, budget, and prior experience. The study proposes a conditional experiential chain that analytically distinguishes design conditions, intermediate evaluations, reported outcomes, and contextual constraints. This distinction offers a more defensible account of the contribution of interior design to the physical retail experience while maintaining the boundaries between self-reported experience, intention, observed behavior, and causal effects.

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