Customer loyalty to food retailers in Northern Ireland: ‘devoted loyals’ or ‘promiscuous switchers’?

Store loyalty is a major challenge for food retailers, and the food retail market in Northern Ireland has been subject to considerable change in the past decade. Although shoppers will often patronize many stores, they typically have a primary affiliation to a ‘main’ food store that captures the majority of their food purchases. This study uses a unique approach to segmenting customers into groups based on loyalty in terms of both the type of data used to generate a loyalty score and the data collection techniques used. Innovative projective techniques have been used alongside traditional questioning techniques to reveal ‘behavioural’ and ‘emotional’ loyalty indicators, and in doing so create a holistic measure of customer loyalty to a main food store, allowing customers to be segmented into groups based on loyalty. A paper‐based questionnaire was administered to 152 food shoppers from throughout Northern Ireland. Responses to traditional questioning formats and projective techniques (cartoon friends and mini case studies) were analysed and used to generate a loyalty score for each respondent. The first group of customers nearly always visit the same store, are willing to recommend the store to others and are less likely to switch to a competitor, even when offered an incentive to do so. They also rate the ‘hard’ attributes of this store highly. As a result of these characteristics, customers in this segment were termed ‘devoted loyals’. The second group of customers may occasionally use a different supermarket for food shopping, some would consider switching to a competitor if offered an incentive, and they rate ‘hard’ store attributes at a slightly lower level than the ‘devoted loyals’. Based on their group profile, these customers were assigned the title of ‘susceptibles’. The third group of customers are less willing to actively encourage friends and family to shop at a specific store. Many in this group did not consider their current store as their number one choice in the next few years. An incentive to switch to a competitor store is more likely to trigger a transfer of loyalty by this group. These customers were termed ‘promiscuous switchers’.     

Do Store Image and Price Perception Matter to Store Brand Equity?

Store brands account for 41% of the Spanish market share in 2011, and a further increase is expected in the next year due to the economic crisis, which makes up an increasingly competitive market. Previous literature suggests that price and store image are antecedents with a relevant influence on store brand equity. Our study aims to analyze if the store image and price perception matter to store brand equity. A quantitative study was carried out obtaining a total of 362 valid responses. Results show that both variables have a positive influence on store brand equity, store image being the more relevant factor. The study is of great interest for retailers who wish to increase the value proposition.     

Organisational rigidities and marketing theory: examining the US department store c.1910–1965

By analysing the US department store during the period c.1910–1965, this article deepens our understanding of the nature of the transition to phases of ‘maturity’ and ‘decline’ that are fundamental to models of retail change (retail wheel, retail life cycle). By employing a close reading of key marketing and management writing of the period, it finds that ‘lock-in’ to an organisational structure associated with a single downtown store posed significant obstacles to suburban branched expansion. Only partial organisational centralisation occurred with the formation of holding companies in the 1920s, which contrasted with chains of general-merchandise and some department store retailers that were efficiently structured and better able to exploit suburban growth. When major department store companies finally embraced branched expansion, they were forced to significantly revise their operational structures.     

店铺自我认同概念界定与测量的探索性研究

商业集聚内的许多小店铺以自己的经营理念来组织备货,将店铺信息传递给消费者,在这一经营过程中,零售商店铺自我认同起着重要作用。但是,店铺自我认同的概念和测量问题几乎还没有学者研究。文章借鉴品牌自我认同的概念,将店铺作为一种品牌,界定了店铺自我认同的概念,明晰了店铺自我认同和店铺印象的关系,并对店铺自我认同这一构念进行了初步的测量。     

基于消费者认知的零售店铺印象形成过程拆解

基于消费者认知的零售店铺印象形成是解释消费者购买决策行为的重要内容,消费者对零售店铺印象的形成源于其对店铺重要属性的感知和三个认知参照标准:消费者以往的购物经历、零售店铺业态、店铺选址环境,这三个方面从不同的视角影响着消费者对零售店铺重要属性的判断和整体店铺印象的形成。本文在理顺以往学者研究结论的基础上,拆解并理顺了消费者零售店铺印象的形成过程。     

中国零售业结构性调整分析——2014年中国零售业关店报告

近几年,随着我国经济、消费高速增长时代的结束,受品牌快速扩张、运营成本快速增长、供需矛盾加剧、市场形势变化以及电子商务快速发展等多方面因素影响,零售企业关店现象频繁出现。零售企业关店是我国零售业结构调整与发展方式转变的一种重要表现,对此要辩证地看待。短期看,关店会导致销售额下降,影响零售企业业绩;但长期看,有利于企业调整战略,提高整体利润率与行业集中度,降低外资零售企业影响力。未来零售业销售渠道将进一步向三四线城市拓展下沉,兼并整合将成为零售业自然规律并促使多业态零售商崛起,价格低廉将不再是网络销售的优势,网络销售必须依靠便捷省时、货品丰富齐全来吸引消费者,实体店将逐步演变为全体验性业态,以更好地适应消费者全体验性消费的需求。在我国零售业调结构转方式的大背景下,零售企业必须适应市场需求,努力提高单店效益,以更好地实现调结构转方式的目标;必须转变商业运作模式,改变营销思路,打造新的营销模式,开展多渠道营销;必须适应市场形势,线上线下相互配合,及时调整发展战略。     

自有品牌对连锁商业品牌战略的影响分析

零售商实施品牌战略是制造商和零售商之间垂直竞争加剧的产物,也是应对零售商之间水平竞争的需要.零售商品牌战略包括企业品牌和商品及服务品牌两个层次.作为零售商商品品牌的重要内容,自有品牌通过企业品牌和制造商品牌两个路径对零售企业的品牌战略产生影响.为保证品牌战略的有效实施,零售企业必须处理好业态选择、品类管理、品牌策略的管理等.     

从国美电器门店转型看我国零售业态的变迁

本文通过对国内外零售业态变迁史进行了对比研究,分析了影响零售业态变迁的动因。在家电连锁店扩张过快,规模太大的背景下,国美电器转变了门店业务模式,通过实行品类管理和建设自有销售队伍,逐渐探索向自有营业模式转变。国美电器开启的"新活馆"将成为家电连锁店新的增长点,对促进国零售业态的创新有积极的意义和影响。     

The Impact of a New Retail Brand In-Store Boutique and its Perceived Fit with the Parent Retail Brand on Store Performance and Customer Spending

With data from a specialty apparel retailer, we present two studies that investigate the impact of an in-store boutique displaying merchandise of a new retail brand on overall performance of the parent stores in which the boutiques are placed, and on customer spending on merchandise offered by each of the two brands. Findings from the two studies generally support that the in-store boutique enhances three key store-level metrics: average customer transaction value per store visit; comparable sales growth from one year to the next; and customer conversion ratio. At the customer-level both studies show that average customer transaction value on merchandise offered by the new brand is negatively related to average customer transaction value on the parent brand, and vice versa. Furthermore, both studies reveal that the relationship between the perceived fit between the two brands and average customer transaction value on the parent brand increases at an increasing rate (positive main and quadratic effects of perceived fit), but that the impact of perceived fit on average customer transaction value on the in-store boutique brand increases at a deceasing rate (positive main effect, but a negative quadratic effect of perceived fit). Implications for retail practice and theory are offered.     

商店氛围对顾客情绪、非计划性购买行为的影响

非计划性购买是衡量零售商与顾客之间沟通效果的一个重要指标。本文以M-R模型为基础,提出了AS-OE-BR(氛围刺激-个体情绪-行为反应)模型,试图在中国背景下探索影响顾客情绪的商店氛围因子,进而研究这些氛围因素对顾客情绪和非计划性购买的影响。研究表明中国顾客对商店氛围各因子的感知基本与西方顾客相同,但中国顾客似乎比外国顾客更少受商店氛围的影响,由情绪变化产生的非计划购买率也较低。