Shopping mall ambience and customer preference: A study of shopping malls in federal capital territory Abuja, Nigeria

This research examined the effects of shopping mall ambience on customers choice of shopping malls in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja. The study specifically investigated how parking space, product display, and location affect customers choice or preference for one shopping mall over another in terms of patronage motive, repeat purchase, and referral. A survey design method was adopted for the research. The researcher used customer population of 480 which also served as the sample size for the study. The 480 customers were shared equally to the six area councils that make up the Federal Capital Territory – Abaji, Abuja, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje, and Kwali with judgmental sampling method with each council getting 80 respondents while the individual respondents from each council were randomly selected through convenience sampling technique. The research instrument for the study was questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed with Spearman Rank Order Correlation. At the end of the research, the result showed that parking space, product display, and location positively and significantly affect the buying behaviour of the customers in terms of preference of one shopping mall over another. The study concluded that shopping mall ambience have positive and significant effects on customers preference for one shopping mall over another in the Federal Capital Territory Abuja and by implication, Nigeria as a whole.