Designing a model for retail therapy

EXTENDED ABSTRACT
 

Therapy means the treatment of mental or physical illness without drugs or surgery and is a cognitive stimulation to change behavior. This concept when used in the field of shopping is reminiscent of the concept of Retail therapy. Retail therapy happens when consumers buy to improve their negative feelings and not just to get the product, they need its benefits include positive distraction, the motivation to escape from realit, increased self-confidence, a sense of control, and better social communication. the purpose of which is to design a conceptual model for Retail Therapy, which will greatly help to increase the understanding of this concept. This research, has been tried to fully investigate this concept and the causal, intervening, and contextual components that are effective on this behavior, as well as the positive and negative consequences that this behavior will have for the individual and the society. Be identified and finally, the possible strategies that help to weaken or strengthen these consequences are also identified so that finally a comprehensive model is based on the Grounded theory.
 

This research is a type of qualitative research, which is part of basic research in terms of its purpose and exploratory research in terms of data collection. In order to analyze the data, the Grounded theory method based on a systematic approach has been used. The data-based approach is a type of qualitative research method that uses the inductive approach of a series of systematic procedures to create a theory about the phenomenon under study. The reason for using this method is that in this method the theories are formed based on the concepts obtained from the data and provide a better explanation because they are more suitable to the situation and on the other hand, this method is an efficient method in the field of the model making and theorizing. In this research, the main data was collected through interviews with people who have experience in this type of shopping behavior. In qualitative methods, determining the sample size does not follow a specific formula and the researcher will continue the data collection process until reaching theoretical saturation, which this research is not an exception to this rule and the data collection process will continue until theorecal saturation is reached.
 
Discussion and

In the present study, the researcher reached theoretical saturation after 15 interviews. Understanding how and why people buy has led to a growing interest in studying consumer decision-making styles. The variety of consumer behavior is due to the variety of factors affecting the behavior and motivation of a person to buy. Among the types of shopping, we can mention Retail Therapy, which has attracted the interest and attention of researchers for more than 50 years. Currently, 50% of people do Retail Therapy and 50% buy a certain class of goods in this way. Retail Therapy is rooted in consumer behavior and is considered one of the valuable concepts of the market environment; Because marketing managers can increase their sales and profitability by identifying the drivers that influence the Retail Therapy. Internal factors (such as emotional states) and external factors (such as brand-related factors) have a great impact on Retail Therapy. In the current research, the design of Retail Therapy model including 9 main categories and 56 sub-categories was obtained. The main categories include: increasing savings and economic improvement, personal disappointment and disappointment, controlled behavior, cultural-social norms, interior design and store environment, family education context, lack of money risk, Retail Therapy and thoughts, emotions and feelings of people's personality.
 
 
 

The results show that according to the current conditions, Retail Therapy is rooted in consumer behavior and is considered one of the valuable concepts of the market environment; Because marketing managers can increase their sales and profitability by identifying the drivers that influence the purchase of therapy. The purchase process includes various steps such as search, selection, acquisition, and consumption. Research shows that sad feelings can be alleviated simply by liking a product without buying that product, which highlights the fact that Retail Therapy is not necessarily the result of buying or consuming, so the main concept of Retail Therapy is that Consumers, even by searching for products, can relieve their stress and expect numerous psychological improvements through Retail Therapy. But despite the high prevalence of this behavior, there is no correct understanding of it, and there is no source of information that could correctly clarify this issue.