Anatomy of shopping experience for malls in Mumbai: A confirmatory factor analysis approach

The city of Mumbai has not yet exhausted its potential in terms of availability of mall space. Yet shoppers of Mumbai seem to prefer high-street locations even if the product or format is operating from inside a shopping mall also. It means that shoppers look beyond the basic chore of shopping and experience plays a vital role. This study was undertaken to understand the composition of shopping experience so that mall developers and managers succeed in generating exciting among shoppers by orchestration of shopping experience using components as identified at the end of this research. It is based on empirical investigation of 400 respondents selected from four shopping malls in Mumbai. The study identifies ambience, convenience, marketing focus, safety & security and physical infrastructure as factors vital in defining shopping experience. Results were confirmed using confirmatory factor analysis.     

Impact of movie-watching on cross-selling revenue in shopping malls: Implications for post-pandemic recovery

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted consumers to postpone in-store purchases and shift to online shopping, decreasing overall retail spending. As the global lockdown eases and shoppers return to offline stores and malls, shopping malls seek to facilitate in-store consumer experiences at entertainment facilities. Given the importance of entertainment facilities to the cross-selling revenue of shopping malls, we investigate the relationship between consumers' movie-watching and subsequent (hedonistic) grocery purchases. Our analysis of a panel database that includes transaction details at the consumer level shows that movie-watching is negatively correlated with consumer spending. Furthermore, consumers’ psychological states induced by content and contextual factors moderate the negative effect of movie-watching; after watching a fantasy (as compared to thriller) genre or watching a movie in a less crowded theater, consumers are more likely to make hedonic purchases at the supermarket. These findings provide theoretical and managerial implications for retail operators exploring cross-selling opportunities post-pandemic.     

The death and life of shopping malls: an empirical investigation on the dead malls in Greater Lisbon

At a moment when new retail formats are emerging and consumers are changing their preferences, it is vital to reflect on the existing shopping malls, which are being challenged in European cities. With their vitality endangered, many become dead malls, a phenomenon that has increased over recent years. With this in mind, the objective of this study is to explain the factors behind the proliferation of dead malls through an empirical analysis of the evolution of shopping malls in Greater Lisbon, Portugal. We combine three sets of retail change theories (cyclic, conflict and environmental) with current perspectives on the resilience of urban retail. We expect that our study will contribute toward current debates on the resilience of shopping malls. The methodology of our study comprises two stages. First, we updated the Greater Lisbon shopping mall database and analysed the growth and decline of each shopping mall type over the last 44 years. In a second phase, we conducted a fieldwork survey on 150 shopping malls, which allowed us to identify and profile the dead malls of Greater Lisbon. Our results show that dead malls match declining shopping mall types, and we discuss four factors affecting the resilience of shopping malls.     

Satisfaction of mall shoppers: A study on perceived utilitarian and hedonic shopping values

Declining consumer footfall and diminishing sales in Indian metro cities have guided the expansion of malls in cities of central India. Shoppers of these cities are unfamiliar with the mall concept and have limited exposure of shopping values in the past. The present research focused on the influence of utilitarian and hedonic shopping values on satisfaction of mall shoppers of central India Bhopal by establishing a proposed research framework based on 288 responses from two shopping malls, using utilitarian and hedonic dimensions of shopping values. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) are used to analyze and validate the proposed research framework. The result supports the relationship between shopping values and customer satisfaction, where both the shopping values show positive significant influences on customer satisfaction. Therefore this research paper would help mall owners to focus on these shopping values effectively and efficiently while planning malls in central India for gaining competitive advantage, attracting new customer and hold their profitable customers by enhancing customer satisfaction with shopping values in the current retail scenario.     

Comfort in brick and mortar shopping experiences: Examining antecedents and consequences of comfortable retail experiences

This paper explores the comfort construct in brick and mortar retail settings. As a psychological construct, consumer comfort reflects a sense of ease and peace of mind during a shopping experience. Previous research suggests comfort carries a number of positive consequences for managers, such as strengthening customer relationships and increasing customer satisfaction (Gaur and Xu, 2009). However, these studies take a more interpersonal relationship theory approach and have not considered the impact of non-social aspects of retail environments on consumers' comfort. Moreover, these extant studies have not considered how comfortable environments create value for consumers. Consequently, this study examines how atmospheric elements contribute to creating consumer comfort, and how comfort impacts consumers' perceptions of shopping value. Findings from survey data demonstrate that not all atmospheric elements influence consumers' comfort levels. Moreover, comfortable environments were found to increase both utilitarian value and hedonic value. The implications of the findings for academics and managers are discussed.     

Sources of customer satisfaction with shopping malls: A comparative study of different customer segments

Abstract

In spite of the growing importance of planned, centrally managed and enclosed shopping centres in the retailing sector, the understanding concerning sources and outcomes of customer satisfaction with this kind of shopping malls is limited. This paper develops and validates a conceptualisation of shopping mall satisfaction based on field studies in Sweden. The results show that eight underlying factors of varying character are important to customer satisfaction. These are selection, atmosphere, convenience, sales people, refreshments, location, promotional activities and merchandising policy. Furthermore, this study investigates whether sources of satisfaction differ in importance with respect to gender and age, generally two important variables for retail segmentation.     

An empirical analysis of tenant location patterns near department stores in planned regional shopping centers

The location of a store within a mall can affect the sales and profits of the store and its neighbors, and those of the mall׳s owner/developer. Because the interests of retail stores and the mall׳s owner/developer with respect to choice of location might not coincide, bargaining power might come into play. To assess empirically whether relative bargaining power as between a retail store and the mall owner/developer affects store location within a center, we focus on locations of stores near the department store tenants of malls. Department stores might have the bargaining power necessary to affect which tenants are chosen as neighbors of the department store.Using data collected from 148 regional shopping centers (malls) in 2007 in the five westernmost provinces of Canada, we examine the relationship between variables that reflect store location patterns near a department store׳s entrance, and variables associated with the bargaining power of developers. We find that the density of stores selling comparison shopping goods is larger near department stores within centers that are older or have a larger gross leasable area. In addition, such density is negatively related to the number of department stores contained in the center. Because a shopping center׳s age, gross leasable area, and the number of department stores in a center are expected to be associated with a developer׳s bargaining power, the above findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the store location patterns near department stores depend on the relative bargaining power of the developer and the department stores.     

Crowding in the time of COVID: Effects on rapport and shopping satisfaction

Decades of research in marketing has established that crowding (human and spatial) in retail contexts significantly affects shopping satisfaction. Prompted by the profound changes in retail supply and demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this study expands knowledge in two ways: uncovering new relationships and replicating some of the critical findings previously demonstrated in the pre-pandemic context. Two studies (Study 1 scenario and Study 2 actual shopping trip) show that higher levels of human crowding results in lower levels of shopping satisfaction, and this effect is mediated by a new construct introduced into the crowding literature, namely, customer rapport with employees, emerging as a significant factor in the pandemic era. Importantly, the results show that these relationships differ according to customers’: a) perceptions about the appropriateness of retailer precautions, b) beliefs about the severity of threat that the pandemic presents, and c) perceived vulnerability to Covid-19, all of them new to crowding dynamics during the time of Covid. Finally, with Study 2, we replicate and extend selected findings from prior research on crowding. Overall, the results expand our understanding of crowding effects and provide novel insights in the “new normal” retail context.     

Linking atmospherics to shopping outcomes: The role of the desire to stay

This study relies on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S–O-R) paradigm to explore the mediating role of the desire to stay at the shopping mall in the relationship between shopper positive attitudes towards three atmospheric cues (color schemes, lighting, and music) and the shopping outcomes of shopper satisfaction, positive Word-of-Mouth (WOM) and patronage intentions. Moreover, the study elaborates on the path from the desire to stay to positive WOM and patronage intentions by considering the mediating role of shopper satisfaction. A survey-based study comprising a sample size of 451 mall shoppers has been developed to test the proposed research model. The results indicate that the desire to stay mediates the relationship between shoppers’ positive attitudes towards color schemes and music, on one hand, and shopper satisfaction and positive WOM, on the other hand. Although the desire to stay has a direct effect on positive WOM, it does not directly impact patronage intention. However, the latter path becomes significant when considering the mediating role of shopper satisfaction, indicating that satisfying mall stays enhance desirable outcomes. Based on these findings, implications for theory and retailers are discussed.     

Teenagers’ use of alternative shopping channels: A consumer socialization perspective

The consumer socialization (CS) perspective is applied to explore factors that influence a developing consumers’ use of different shopping channels—mall and Internet. The effects of channel involvement, access to funds, access to the channel, and socialization agent communication on adolescent shopping and intentions are examined using a high school student sample. Results indicate that involvement with a channel has a major influence on agent communication, time and money spent, and future intentions to shop in that channel. Agent communication was also found to influence shopping behaviors and intentions. Differences between channels are noted. Additional findings, implications, limitations, and future research directions are also presented.     

Beyond convenience: the future for independent food and grocery retailers in the UK

The UK's independent food and grocery retail sector's competitive advantage of 'convenience' has been eroded in recent years as major retailers increase opening hours and develop their own convenience trading formats. As a result, large numbers of independent retailers are closing. A UK-wide survey was undertaken to identify other sources of competitive advantages, and the changes needed to stop or reverse the decline in this sector. Exploratory semi-structured interviews led to the development of a questionnaire on six major issues affecting the sector. 'Snowball' sampling, using industry partners, provided 142 respondents. The provision of a 'social shopping experience' emerged as a key competitive advantage that could be developed. Improving vertical and horizontal trading alliances, and the wider use of information technology, provided other options.     

Macro-level change and micro level effects: A twenty-year perspective on changing grocery shopping behaviour in Britain

In this paper we summarise key elements of retail change in Britain over a twenty-year period. The time period is that covered by a funded study into long-term change in grocery shopping habits in Portsmouth, England. The major empirical findings—to which we briefly allude—are reported elsewhere: the present task is to assess the wider context underlying that change. For example, it has frequently been stated that retailing in the UK is not as competitive as in other leading economies. As a result, the issue of consumer choice has become increasingly important politically. Concerns over concentration in the industry, new format development and market definition have been expressed by local planners, competition regulators and consumer groups. Macro level changes over time have also created market inequality in consumer opportunities at a local level—hence our decision to attempt a local-level study. Situational factors affecting consumer experiences over time at the local level involve the changing store choice sets available to particular consumers. Using actual consumer experiences thus becomes a yardstick for assessing the practical effectiveness of policy making. The paper demonstrates that choice at local level is driven by store use and that different levels of provision reflect real choice at the local level. Macro-level policy and ‘one size fits all’ approaches to regulation, it is argued, do not reflect the changing reality of grocery shopping. Accordingly, arguments for a more local and regional approach to regulation are made.     

Diversity in deprivation: exploring the grocery shopping behaviour of disadvantaged consumers

Social exclusion has received much attention in recent years among governments and policy makers. While there are many aspects of social exclusion, of particular interest to marketing and consumer behaviour is the issue of the accessibility of consumer goods and services to socially excluded groups. The purpose of the research reported in this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the grocery shopping behaviour of disadvantaged consumers. The research was conducted with a sample of consumers living in a deprived residential area in Scotland. While the participants were mainly characterized as 'economic shoppers', they were heavily dependent on the local convenience stores, due, mainly, to the financial and mobility restrictions they faced. The experience of 'social exclusion' was not homogeneous within the sample, varying with other aspects of disadvantage, including social support networks, illness, age, family situation and mobility. The implications of this research are discussed and potential research directions highlighted.     

Smartphones and the reconfiguration of retailscapes: Stores,shopping, and digitalization

The aim of this paper is to examine and conceptualize how the integration of smartphones is reconfiguring the retailscapes of stores and the implications that this has for retailers and consumers. Departing from an understanding of retailscapes as socio-material assemblages and drawing on an ethnographic study of mobile shopping, this paper shows how the integration of smartphones into the activities of in-store shopping is reconfiguring how store space is enacted. The integration of this digital device reorganizes the activities of shopping, and new informationscapes, socialscapes, and experiencescapes unfold as a result. In the process, stores are reconfigured, agencies change, and the relationship between consumers and retailers is remade.     

The geography of lifestyle center growth: The emergence of a retail cluster format in the United States

Just as geographers have given much attention to the evolution of shopping malls and power center retail complexes, it is equally important for research in business geography to continue to provide developmental evidence as new and distinctive retail cluster formats emerge and grow. The lifestyle center is a unique type of retail complex that has experienced much expansion across the United States yet has not received much research attention from location researchers. This study provides answers to basic questions, including the geography of lifestyle center development, the relationship of lifestyle center development to traditional mall activity, and the characteristics of lifestyle center market areas in comparison with the trade areas of their mall counterparts. The results show that lifestyle centers are developing in distinctive locations and markets within American cities that are not well-served by traditional malls. The study results also establish that lifestyle centers have a significant bias toward location in large cities, representing a clear contrast with traditional malls and their locational orientation toward smaller centers. The study summarizes these findings and argues that the emergence of the lifestyle center format has important implications for retailers, commercial property developers, and local economic development officials.     

Cross-channel free-riding consumer behavior in a multichannel environment: An investigation of shopping motives,sociodemographics and product categories

Cross-channel free-riding, in which consumers use one retailer′s channel to prepare a purchase and then switch to another retailer′s channel to purchase, can substantially erode profit margins. This research aims to understand such free-riding from a consumer empowerment perspective, investigating shopping motives and sociodemographic covariates, as well as how this behavior might differ across product categories. A survey study of decision-making behavior shows that cross-channel free-riders mainly seek to fulfill price comparison, convenience and flexibility needs. The likelihood of free-riding is higher when consumers adopt cross-channel rather than single-channel behavior, which highlights a negative outcome of multichannel retailing. The likelihood of cross-channel free-riding differs across products but not sociodemographic covariates. The findings can be used to develop recommendations for managing retention strategies.     

Perceived value,transaction cost,and repurchase-intention in online shopping: A relational exchange perspective

This study proposes a framework to understand the impacts of both value-related and transaction cost-related factors on repurchase intention from online shoppers' perspective. In particular, this study defines the construct of cost as a three-component conceptualization (i.e., information searching cost, moral hazard cost, and specific asset investment). Based upon empirical evidence on a survey of 887 online shoppers, this study shows that consumers' perceived value and each cost component are positively related to repurchase intention. Importantly, information searching cost exerts the most significant influence on repurchase intentions among the four relational factors. The result suggests that providing sufficient cues to reduce consumers' information searching cost is the core element of repurchase intention formation. This article closes with theoretical and practical implications.     

Electronic logistics service quality and repurchase intention in e-tailing: Catalytic role of shopping satisfaction,payment options,gender and returning experience

This paper empirically examines the mediating role of shopping satisfaction between electronic logistics service quality (e-LSQ) and repurchase intention. Further, this paper investigates the moderating role of gender, payment options, and returns or replacement experience on the link between e-LSQ and shopping satisfaction (and repurchase intention). Empirical data comprising 640 Indian online shoppers are analyzed with covariance-based structural equation modeling. The findings indicated that the condition of the shipment is the most crucial e-LSQ dimension and its linkage with shopping satisfaction varies across payment options, gender, and returning experience. The poor condition of the shipment might have triggered the returns in e-tailing in the Indian context. The findings will help e-tail managers design a robust logistics network to retain and win despondent customers.     

An empirical study of the relationship between shopping environment,customer perceived value,satisfaction, and loyalty in the UAE malls context

This study aims to investigate through structural equation modelling (SEM) the relationships between the shopping environment, customer perceived value, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty in regard to malls in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The main results of this study show that the mall environment is an antecedent of the customer perceived value of malls (MALLVAL) and customer satisfaction. MALLVAL has a significant positive effect on both customer satisfaction and customer loyalty to malls. In addition, MALLVAL and customer satisfaction mediate the relationship between the mall environment and customer loyalty. Finally, customer satisfaction mediates the relationship between MALLVAL and customer loyalty to malls. Some theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.     

A Three Country Comparative Analysis of Managerial CSR Perspectives: Insights From Lebanon,Syria and Jordan

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a concept that has acquired a new resonance in the global economy. With the advent of globalization, managers in different contexts have been exposed to the notion of CSR and are being pressured to adopt CSR initiatives. Yet, in view of vastly differing national cultures and institutional realities, mixed orientations to CSR continue to be salient in different contexts, oscillating between the classical perspective which considers CSR as a burden on competitiveness and the modern perspective that views CSR as instrumental for business success. Capitalizing on the two-dimensional CSR model developed by Quazi and O’Brien (Journal of Business Ethics 25, 33–51, 2000), this article assesses managerial perspectives towards CSR in three neighboring Middle Eastern countries (Lebanon, Syria and Jordan) through an empirical study involving 333 managers. The findings lend support to the Quazi and O’Brien model (2000), suggesting some commonalities in CSR orientations as well as minor divergences. The findings are discussed and cross-cultural implications drawn accordingly.