Investigate the visual merchandising of a fashion store using fNIRS

This study is to examine the possibility of a brain-scientific approach of the fashion-store visual merchandising display (VMD). In marketing area, VMD has become a research topic of interest. However, a few VMD research has been done by using human brain signals. In this work, the hemodynamic responses (HRs) in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) using functional near-infrared spectroscopy were measured from 12 participants while exposing them to four categories (menswear, womenswear, underwear, and sportswear stores with positive and negative picture displays). As features for classifying the HRs, the t-value, the peak value of the averaged trial were used. The results compare all the HbO responses of positive/negative displays of four categories. The results showed that the HRs of four categories were distinguishable. It is concluded that, among four categories, the importance of positive display in VMD is the order of sportswear, menswear, womenswear, and underwear. This finding suggests that the brain signal reaction is involved during the evaluation of VMD that can be related to the judgment of attraction or pleasantness. With the development of VMD, the brain-scientific approach can be utilized in fashion marketing.