Designing successful temporary loyalty programs: An exploratory study on retailer and country differences

Retailers increasingly adopt temporary loyalty programs (TLPs), in which consumers have limited time, often less than half a year, to save stamps and redeem highly discounted rewards. These programs often run alongside the retailers’ permanent loyalty programs in an attempt to increase customer engagement. Despite the growing popularity of TLPs, the literature on the topic remains limited. We address this gap by looking at the redemption rate, the industry’s primary success indicator, of almost 900 TLPs across a broad set of grocery retailers in 45 countries. We study the effects of four key design characteristics (the duration of the program, the discount offered, the spending requirement before an award can be redeemed, and the reward depth) on the redemption rate, and explore how these effects vary across a broad range of retailer and country characteristics. In doing so, we control for both a retailer’s potential self-selection into running a TLP and the potential endogeneity of the subsequent design choices. We derive a set of actionable results on how to design successful TLPs and show that high redemption rates are not only beneficial for the program operator and reward manufacturer, but also translate into higher sales and profit for the retailer.     

Is online-to-offline customer care support essential for consumer service?

Customer satisfaction is the main pillar for convenient and profitable retailing. The retail sector continuously tried to develop new strategies to improve consumer satisfaction. It is impossible to provide each service directly to the consumer by the retailer. In this direction, the retailer establishes customer care to provide the best service to consumers. Consumer care can provide promotional or prevention services, increasing the consumer's satisfaction level. This study is developed to show the impact of retailers' customer care service for an offline-to-online retailing strategy. The demand is consumer support, advertisement, and selling price dependent. For maintaining consumer service, some free home delivery policies are offered, when consumers ordered more than a certain percentage of the amount. Finally, the total profit of this O2O retailing system is calculated by the classical optimization technique. Some special cases are discussed in the numerical section to prove the impact of customer care services. Numerical results prove that customer care support enhances the profit by 48.20%, whereas investment in the advertisement and home delivery strategy helps the retail industry to earn 44.80% and 16.74% more profit, respectively. Finally, from this study, it is clear that customer care activities are essential to increase the profit of the retailing sector.     

Visual cues during shoppers’ journeys: An exploratory paper

The visual cues shoppers view at the point of purchase during the shopping process is vital to product selection and sales. We aimed to identify the intrinsic and extrinsic visual cues or touchpoints customers use to select a product (live plant) in retail stores. Eye-tracking technology (ETT) has enabled market researchers to conduct cost- and time-efficient studies. Few studies have been conducted in a retail setting to pinpoint how shoppers attend to visual cues in situ. Using ETT gave researchers insight into the cognitive processes leading to purchase. We recruited four retail greenhouses in Michigan to collaborate on the study, and researchers invited customers from the store’s email list to participate. Researchers used eye-tracking glasses to record eye movement during a <12-min shopping trip to purchase a $10 plant. We analyzed 150 useful videos to identify attention to marketing and non-marketing cues at the point of purchase (e.g., reading a sign, product interaction, cell phone use). Time spent in specific store areas (e.g., annuals, perennials, shrubs, etc.) was measured. For 67 shoppers who purchased an annual plant, we analyzed which cues and touchpoints influenced the shopping time spent. Results showed that the most frequently accessed cue/touchpoint was intrinsic: product interaction (looking at or touching a plant). Participants read, on average, 6.7 signs with price and 4.5 signs without price. Conversely, only 34% interacted with employees, and 19.4% used their cell phones. Building on this exploratory study, future research could investigate signage elements attracting attention and motivations for employee interaction and cell phone use.     

COVID-19 and retail: The catalyst for e-commerce in Belgium?

Since the turn of the century especially small, local retailers struggle with the advent of e-commerce. It is hence no surprise that the retail sector is one of the hardest-hit sectors in the current pandemic. To understand the short- and longer-term impacts of COVID-19 on retail, we conducted two surveys to understand ongoing changes in the sector. By contrasting changing consumer behavior with the actions taken by local retailers, we assess whether the current pandemic is potentially a catalyst for e-commerce in Belgium. We do this based on a newly constructed framework of e-retail accessibility, as the differences between online and physical retail require a revision of the traditional economic geographical perspective on retail performance as introduced by Christaller (1933). We conclude that the COVID-19 pandemic holds ample opportunities for an increase in the three components of e-retail accessibility, but that a lack of professionalism might prevent traditional local retailers to retain a share of the expanded online market. This could well mean the final blow for local brick and mortar shops if, as is predicted, the share of online shopping in total retail expenditure remains high after the pandemic.     

Ketchup with your fries? Utilizing complementary product displays to transfer attention to a focal product

Does placing a display of complementary condiments (e.g., ketchup, mustard, buns,etc.) next to a display of hamburgers make shoppers more likely to attend to the hamburgers? Prior work has established that in-store marketing strategies play an important role in drawing attention to products in a retail setting. Building on this research, the present study develops a framework to better understand how shoppers in a natural retail environment attend to displays of complementary products, and how this attention transfers to a focal product. The results suggest that assortment complexity of a display positively affects initial attention capture.. Further, initial attention capture leads shoppers to spend longer evaluating the complementary products in the display, which, in turn, increases evaluation and choice of the focal product. As such, our framework indicates that complementary product displays can be effective at increasing attention to and choice of an associated focal product.     

Increasing Shopper Trust in Retailer Technological Interfaces via Auditory Confirmation

This research examines the effects of sounds made by retail technological interfaces – self-checkout kiosks, credit card readers, mobile apps, websites – at point-of-sale. We propose that such sounds, retail transaction auditory confirmation (RTAC), increase trust in technological interfaces by providing auditory confirmation that stages of the checkout process have been successfully executed. Increased trust in technological interfaces leads to positive downstream consequences in the form of satisfaction and purchase intention. Visual and auditory distraction in the retail environment reduces trust, even when visual confirmation is provided, but synchronously provided audio-visual confirmation attenuates the negative effects of environment distraction.     

Understanding on-the-go consumption: A retail mix perspective

On-the-go (OTG) consumption is a growing phenomenon in the food and beverage industry. Drawing on the theory of consumption values, this study is conducted to acquire a better understanding of the influence that retail-mix elements have on OTG consumption outcomes. Specifically, this study examines the role of value for money, customer service, general assortments and healthy assortments in driving intention and satisfaction related to OTG consumption. The study also assesses the conditional value generated by the consumer's health orientation, impulsiveness and perceived time pressure. Based on a sample of 433 OTG consumers, and applying multi-group structural equation modelling (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), value for money was identified as the key driver of OTG consumption outcomes. Impulsiveness and time pressure are shown to increase the effects of value for money perceptions on OTG consumption intention, while health orientation enhances the relationship between customer service and satisfaction. This study contributes to the literature on OTG consumption, explains the managerial implications for retailers, and offers recommendations to target OTG consumers better.     

SKU performance and distribution: A large-scale analysis of the role of product characteristics with store scanner data

This study investigates the relationship between distribution and market share across various consumer packaged goods (CPG) categories and specific stock keeping units (SKUs). The study identifies product-related characteristics that result in substantive deviations above or below market shares predicted by the distribution – market share relationship. The association of product price, brand (private label [PL] v. national brand [NB]) and pack size with above (or below) expected market share for a given distribution level is analysed. Results indicate larger pack sizes, PL and medium price levels result in market share above what would be predicted by an SKU’s distribution. This presents a source for competitive advantage in markets driven by push–pull dynamics.     

Managing transformations in retail agglomerations:Case Itis shopping center

Shopping centers have received much interest in recent years. This interest comes as many centers have struggled with declining footfall and the demise of many large anchor tenants. The bankruptcy of one anchor tenant has often led shopping centers into a downward spiral from which there is no return. In this paper, we provide an example of how a shopping center can develop sustainably in the transforming retailscape. Our findings highlight the role of the shopping center management in the success of contemporary shopping centers, particularly in crafting a tenant mix in which each tenant has a role to play.     

Value co-creation and social media: Investigating antecedents and influencing factors in the U.S. retail banking industry

This study seeks to examine and unearth antecedents to co-creation behaviours within a U.S. retail banking context. A critical aspect for marketing managers and academics alike, co-creation has a strong influence on tangible factors such as profit and intangible factors such as referrals, satisfaction and feedback. Antecedents were identified as trust, customer engagement and participation attitude whilst social media usage was a consumer characteristic identified as influencing co-creation. Data was collected from 489 U.S. retail banking customers via an online survey. The data was analysed via structural equation modelling. The findings indicate that customer engagement influences trust, co-creation and participation attitude. Participation attitude was found to influence trust and co-creation but trust had no direct effect on co-creation. The study further found that social media usage intensity influenced co-creation behaviours. The findings contribute in three ways. First, this is one of the first studies to scrutinise participation attitude in an attempt to explain co-creation behaviours for U.S. banks over social media. Second, identification of precursors to value co-creation has been ascertained in a U.S. retail banking social media context. Third, the study additionally contributes to the findings that social media usage has a moderating effect in value co-creation and offers a potential segmentation strategy.