Archives of Design Research

As the notion of escapism in consumer experience increases, many researchers have focused on the activity of shopping as a form of consumptive escape (Carù & Cova, 2007; Sharma & Arora, 2019). Particularly for retail, as escapism reflects the consumer’s reaction to their surroundings (Lichtlé & Plichon, 2014), the level of escapism depends on the store environment. Previous research has analyzed escapism in terms of an “Escapes from” structure and “escapes into” anti-structure, emphasizing immersive experiences (Cova et al., 2018). The focus has been on escapism within experiences outside the daily life structure, such as traveling (Ponsignon et al., 2020), and escaping into anti-structure as in the case of extraordinary experiences and extreme leisure activities like climbing mountains (Tumbat & Belk, 2011). However, Skandalis et al. (2019) have argued that extraordinary experiences lie not only within an anti-structure, but can also occur within “everyday” structures, such as in the case of shopping (Carù & Cova, 2007). Even within these everyday structures, most research focuses on extraordinary escapism (Skandalis et al., 2019; Tumbat & Belk, 2011) with less focus on the multi-dimensionality of consumer escapism experience.

With such a background, Cova et al. (2018) focused on the diverse characteristics of escapism in consumer culture according to distance from self and home and identified different types of escape, including Mundane, Restorative, and Warlike, based on the Turnerian framework (Figure 1). Mundane escapes are representative of small everyday escapes facilitated by digital technology, such as film, social media, and music (Cova et al., 2018). Restorative escapes are related to third places between work and home and between public and private spaces, extending homey and secure feelings (Alexander, 2019; Cova et al., 2018). Cafés and shopping centers are representative places that provide such feelings of Restorative escapes (Alexander, 2019; Chen et al., 2021). Warlike escapes are facilitated by intense physical and painful activities, such as Tough Mudder and CrossFit. Turnerian escapes are characterized by extraordinary experiences and thematic immersions. These escapes are generally bounded, secure, and thematized, such that the consumer can safely immerse themselves in a different identity or escape into a different world, such as salsa dancing and the Burning Man festival. Many of them also provide a sense of community or “communitas,” and a state of flow where consumers are so involved that nothing else matters (Cova et al., 2018). However, although separate escapes types, an environment can consist of more than one (Cova et al., 2018).

Figure 1 An Enlarged Typology of Escapism (Cova et al., 2018, p. 458)

As mentioned earlier, shopping as a general consumption activity can be regarded as a Restorative escape; nonetheless, as brands today strive to deliver distinct consumer experiences through diverse shopping environments, it has allowed shopping to provide a multi-dimensional escape, including Turnerian escapes. In particular, stores with spectacular environments providing pleasure, entertainment, fantasies, and hyper-reality (Cova et al., 2018) can be considered as Turnerian escapes. In addition, the provision of hybrid shopping experiences such as museums (Vukadin et al., 2016), dining, and sports viewing (Kozinets et al., 2002; Kozinets et al., 2004) within a themed environment, while enabling culture consumption, exemplifies such extraordinary Turnerian escapes (Cova et al., 2018; Triantafillidou & Siomkos, 2014).

As shopping induces varied levels of escapism, this study focuses on the difference in consumer experiences according to escapism types. While Turnerian escapes represent the extraordinary, the other three are considered more ordinary (Cova et al., 2018). However, with Mundane escapes representing online channels and Warlike escapes being hard to replicate in the shopping experience, Restorative escapes represent ordinary shopping. Therefore, this study focuses on ordinary and extraordinary consumer experiences by exploring Restorative escapes through the general shopping environment and Turnerian escapes provided by a themed environment for distinct thematic experiences. Specifically, the term “consumer” refers to consumption with or without a market relation (Carù & Cova, 2003), and a number of previous studies indicated store visitors as consumers (e.g., Bloch & Richins, 1983; Nierobisch et al., 2017; Vukadin et al., 2016). Thus, “retail consumers” in this study refers to people who engage in shopping, including various behaviors such as browsing (Benhamza Nsairi, 2012), evaluating pieces, and trying things on (Yun et al., 2015).

While Restorative retail environments can be represented by a general shopping environment, Turnerian retail environments can be seen through added experiences (Cova et al., 2018). Of the previously mentioned additional experiences, museumified settings have been shown to provide strong feelings of escapism (Triantafillidou & Siomkos, 2014). This is further underscored by Joy et al. (2014) who described general environments as akin to a typical store, whereas museumified environments are more akin to an art world, emphasizing the Turnerian characteristic of a “break with home” (Cova et al., 2018). In particular, these museumified environments are prevalent within the fashion realm and display distinctive characteristics (Joy et al., 2014; Logkizidou et al., 2019; Triantafillidou et al., 2017). Thus, we look at the Turnerian retail environment specifically through museumification.

General shopping environment characteristics have been considered as exhibiting a utilitarian architecture (Joy et al., 2014) such that browsing and purchasing a product are the central focus (Triantafillidou et al., 2017) in order to create a smoother shopping experience. In particular, these stores have a commercial focus (Alexander, 2019) with a market position such that employees act like sales associates (Yun et al., 2015), and the product orientation focuses on showing a variety of fashion styles as opposed to a distinct curated aesthetic (Joy et al., 2014). This product orientation also arises in the form of store designs that focus on displays using typical display fixtures such as shelves or rails. Here in particular, they focus on the efficient use of space such as organizing products and displays with greater density under general lighting for the whole store supporting utility, as the displays are usually multi-item (Logkizidou et al., 2019). Within fashion, such utilitarian design can also arise in providing multi-numbered fitting rooms and easily accessible mirrors that allow consumers to freely try on and evaluate items (Yun et al., 2015). Therefore, representative stores include H&M, Zara, and Bershka, whose utilitarian predisposition (Triantafillidou et al., 2017) makes them familiar to the public, and thus they are Restorative-escape type stores.

In contrast, museumified environments create an art world that is characterized by artistic and hedonic architecture, where the focus is on displaying and giving products artistic qualities. In this case, the store is not simply positioned for the market but also for additional experience. In particular, as providing distinct spatial experience is one of the main aims of the store, the store design focuses on presentation and curation, and the employees act more like curators (Joy et al., 2014). While direct incorporation of art, including paintings and sculptures, can be one method, other ways include thematic or museological display fixtures with a more spacious environment through lower merchandise and display density, with product-focused lighting that highlights the product as an artistic object (Logkizidou et al., 2019). Moreover, there is generally depth within the space, such as layers of different zones that can be explored in the architecture and interior, each with a distinct feature that encourages consumers to explore the space (Joy et al., 2014). The integration of these various characteristics gives rise to a presentation that is artistically staged and provides a form of brand storytelling (Logkizidou et al., 2019), creating a more immersive and spectacular experience (Alexander, 2019; Joy et al., 2014). Therefore, representative stores have mainly included high-end fashion or luxury stores such as Louis Vuitton, which has been called a M(art) World (Joy et al., 2014) and thus falling into Turnerian-escape type stores.

Escapism can usually be felt within activities such as browsing social media and extreme leisure activities such as salsa dancing (Cova et al., 2018; Holmqvist et al., 2020). These escapist experiences are characterized by enjoyment and a certain level of flow where the consumer becomes highly immersed in the activity (Cova et al., 2018; Holmqvist et al., 2020; Ponsignon et al., 2020). In addition, such escapist consumer experiences positively impact consumers’ satisfaction (Lichtlé & Plichon, 2014; Ponsignon et al., 2020).

Flow and immersion are considered a representation of environmental connection, and, therefore, are important factors in escapist experiences (Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi, 2014; Pine & Gilmore, 1998). Particularly, within escapism literature, they have been used as dimensions to evaluate escapist experiences (Pine & Gilmore, 1998; Tsao & Shao, 2018). However, flow is a more comprehensive measure as it captures immersion through consumers’ interaction with the store (Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi, 2014; Triantafillidou et al., 2017) as well as “shoppers’ feelings of absorption, total focus, and attention when they interact with a store’s environment” (Triantafillidou et al., 2017, p. 1038). In addition, flow captures consumers’ concentration, control or feeling at ease, immersion and loss of reflective self-consciousness, and distortion of temporal experience (Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi, 2014). This study looks at flow for the escapist experience.

Along with flow, another main factor contributing to escapism in shopping is hedonic and enjoyment. Hedonism takes into consideration emotion (Cachero-Martinez & Vazquez-Casielles, 2017) and feelings of fun and enjoyment (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982). It represents that the experience is a leisure one (Holbrook et al., 1984; Triantafillidou et al., 2017), and leisure is a key component in transforming an experience into an escapist one (Babin et al., 1994; Carù & Cova, 2007; Sharma & Arora, 2019). In particular, as one of shopping’s hedonic values is its “escapist potential” (Babin et al., 1994), previous research has looked at escapist experiences through a hedonic lens (Holmqvist et al., 2020; Ponsignon et al., 2020). However, enjoyment has also been considered a part of flow (Wang & Hsiao, 2012), but as the focus of flow here is the environmental connection, enjoyment will be considered separately.

The culmination of flow and hedonic factors in a positive escapist experience can improve consumer satisfaction, which ultimately has a positive effect on the brand experience (Lichtlé & Plichon, 2014; Ponsignon et al., 2020). Therefore, to explore characteristics of consumer escapist experiences by escapism level, this study analyzes flow, hedonism, and satisfaction.

The means of both Restorative and Turnerian escape stores were high, greater than 4, and above average for flow (R=4.35, T=5.25), hedonism (R=4.71, T=5.47), and satisfaction (R=4.66, T=5.71), confirming that shopping in general can be considered an escapist activity. Findings from the qualitative interview also showed that both Restorative and Turnerian store participants were absorbed in and enjoyed the act of shopping itself; however, more importantly, the interviews highlighted the specific aspects of the shopping activity that contributed to its escapist qualities. Specifically, the participants mentioned being “lost in the activity” (R1) and “focused on the glasses you’re trying... so you don’t really think about other things” (T1), and that a display of “lots of products” (T1) could promote this behavior. R2 even mentioned she was so focused and immersed that she “keep trying on that one ring.” These statements reveal that immersive flow can be instigated not only during typical shopping behavior but also by product interest. In addition, many participants said that one reason they prefer shopping offline to online is the act of shopping itself, highlighting that the physical activity of shopping itself provides enjoyment regardless of whether a purchase is made. However, in the Restorative store, participants specifically focused more on the shopping activity when discussing their experience. This can be explained by the fact that Restorative stores represent the typical utilitarian-focused shopping environment, unlike Turnerian stores, in which the space designs are more hedonic and aesthetic. Furthermore, the survey analysis of the Restorative stores also supports the statements from the interviews. Restorative stores showed the highest values in flow items F1 immersion, F2 absorption, and F3 attention and focus (R > 4.50) and in hedonic items H3 enjoying the shopping trip regardless of purchase, H5 staying in the store out of want not need, and H6 excitement in the product hunt (R > 5.00). While H3 and H5 show that there is enjoyment in the shopping activity itself, the flow items show that escapist feelings in shopping are characterized by shopping itself being an immersive experience, and H6 shows that such immersion can be product centered. These findings are also in line with previous research where typical shopping behavior like browsing was found to be an immersive escapist activity (Benhamza Nsairi, 2012); however, the results of this study also suggest that such behavior is tied to product interest as well as product density.

We further examined shopping as an escapist experience through a store-environmental lens by comparing Restorative and Turnerian escapist consumer experiences. Although both experiences provided escapist feelings, Turnerian stores were found to significantly enhance the consumer escapism experience in all three aspects in comparison to Restorative stores (p < 0.001) confirming the aptness of Cova et al.’s (2018) framework. However, the ways in which the environments induced and impacted such an experience differed. Through a qualitative analysis of the interviews, the main reasons can be identified for the differences in flow, which affected hedonism and satisfaction.