Retail Spaces and Phenomenological enquiry in Lived Experience of Confusion through Consumers’ Perspectives

In recent years, one of the most important problems of consumers in retail spaces which leads to their incomplete purchase is the confusion phenomenon. Therefore, this study seeks to discover and identify the confusion phenomenon, consumers’ perception of it, and its hidden aspects. To this end, the retail spaces have been selected, since they provide a suitable environment for consumers' confusion. Qualitative approach and phenomenological method have been applied for this study. The data were collected through in-depth interviews with 27 participants selected according to the multi-purpose targeted sampling. Coding was carried out, and the concepts and categories were extracted. The findings indicated five main themes include decision-making style, the knowledge of persuading consumer, the consumer’s expenditures, the product properties, and other factors, cause emotional, cognitive, and behavioral states of confusion experience in consumers. Finally, solutions to decrease and remove confusion and its consequences were mentioned. This research is different from other studies of consumer behavior both in terms of the chosen topic and methodology.