Generating Success: The Effects of Curated Store Music on Sales, Customer Behaviour, Staff Morale and Other Variables

This project investigates how curated music can affect staff morale, customer behaviour, sales, and other variables. This research will explore the combination of visual and audio merchandising techniques to give shoppers the best possible experience while in the store, motivating them to return. The conduciveness of using music to influence a customer's behaviour was investigated through interviews, surveys and studies. A professional playlist curator and a retail store manager were interviewed to inform the playlist curation process and identify crucial customer demographic qualities. The interviews and surveys were conducted to collect quantitative and qualitative data. A playlist was curated based on the findings of these research methods and played for a week in the chosen store. The store’s sales, average sales, footfall and conversion rates were recorded. These figures were compared to figures from previous weeks. Feedback from the store employees, and from a professional playlist curator was collected via feedback surveys. The key methodologies are notated in a simplified step-by-step handbook guide for playlist curators or retailers. The findings of this research show that curated music did not directly increase sales, however, it can impact employee morale, customer mood and behaviour and subsequent conversion rates. This shows the benefits of curated music when catered to a store’s core customer demographic and employee preferences.