Journal of Retailing
Special Section: Sensory Aspects of Retailing

Manuscripts are being solicited for an upcoming Special Section of the Journal of Retailing devoted to “Sensory Aspects of Retailing.”

Retailing is undergoing a significant transformation and one way retailers are striving to attract and retain customers is by creating a multi-sensory experience. Multi-sensory experience refers to how different sensory stimuli, such as visual cues (colors, design patterns), lighting, music, and scent, among other stimuli, have the ability to engage customers’ senses and behavior. In addition, retailers are presented with new opportunities to use sensory marketing to engage with customers via emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR).

The goal of this special section is to spur research into how sensory marketing can impact retail in both offline and online settings, and to explore opportunities for sensory marketing to use emerging technologies in the retail sector. A variety of perspectives and methodologies are both invited and welcomed. Research documenting actual marketplace behavior, through field studies, is especially welcome.

Areas of interest for this special section might include, but are not limited to the following.

• Main effects and cross-modal effects of sensory stimuli in retail contexts. For example, how might ambient light or music or scent influence purchase behavior?
• Differential effects of sensory cues across offline and online retail environments. That is, would the effects of a sensory stimulus be different in offline versus online settings?
• Role of sensory cues in multichannel retailing.
• Effects of sensory stimuli across different product categories at retail stores. For example, would the effects of different types of ambient light or music or scent lead to different types of purchase behaviors across different product categories?
• Sensory cues in a retailing world with AR, VR, and AI.

Papers targeting the special section should be submitted through the Journal of Retailing (JR) submission system and will undergo the same review process as regularly submitted papers. Submissions guidelines and the online submission system can be found at

https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing.

Submissions for the special section will begin on December 1, 2018, with the final deadline for submissions being January 31, 2019. In the submission cover letter, authors should indicate that they would like their paper considered for this Special Section. Inquiries can be directed to the Special Section Guest Editor: Dipayan Biswas (dbiswas@usf.edu).

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