Price Variations for Refrigerators Among Retail Store Types and Cities

This study investigated differences in prices of refrigerators among 5 different types of retailers in 11 different major U.S. cities. Significant differences in price among retailers were found with appliance stores and furniture stores offering the lowest prices. Discount department stores quoted lower prices than did conventional department stores. Some cities had lower average prices than others. There were considerable variations in price among all classes of retailers and among all cities. Dealers that serviced appliances quoted prices similar to those quoted by dealers that did not service appliances. Prices did not vary by the size of the store.     

The Role of Personal Values in Fair Trade Consumption

Research in the U.S. on fair trade consumption is sparse. Therefore, little is known as to what motivates U.S. consumers to buy fair trade products. This study sought to determine which values are salient to American fair trade consumption. The data were gathered via a Web-based version of the Schwartz Value Survey (SVS) and were gleaned from actual consumers who purchase fair trade products from a range of Internet-based fair trade retailers. This study established that indeed there are significant interactions between personal values and fair trade consumption and that demographics proved to be useless in creating a profile of the American fair trade consumer.     

Local competition, entry, and agglomeration

This paper analyzes competition between two spatially differentiated multi-product retailers who encounter entry from a low-cost discounter. We assess how entry affects the pricing of the incumbent stores and the role played by the location of the entrant. Our primary objective is to identify how traditional retailers respond to new forms of low-cost retailing. Results show that post entry, the prices for some products are higher than the pre entry. However, which product prices increase depends on the incumbent’s location. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we find that the store closer to the entrant is better off compared to the incumbent located further away. We empirically demonstrate the main workings of our theory using sales data from several grocery stores that saw entry by discount stores in their trading areas.     

Manufacturer-owned retail stores

Increasingly, manufacturers sell their products in their own retail stores, and many of these stores appear to be in direct competition with independent retailers; i.e., both types of retail stores are physically co-located. We analyze one way this practice affects the retail market. We find that, when independent retailers compete against company stores (instead of just against other independent retailers), they (1) charge higher prices and (2) are more willing to engage in marketing efforts on behalf of the manufacturer’s brand. Furthermore, when company stores and independent retailers compete in the same market, the company store charges higher prices and provides more marketing effort. Anecdotal data are consistent with these model predictions.

Cultures of service: strategies of Scottish grocers, 1915–1965

Studies of retailing have highlighted its long-run evolution, particularly the emergence of multiples. Such developments were a challenge to the market position of independent retailers, especially owners of small shops. Such retailers responded through collective action designed to justify their commercial and social functions and to counteract the competitive threats. Recent studies have emphasised the significance of trade associations and collective action in grocery wholesaling in Britain and Ireland. A substantial literature has documented the activities of trade associations representing English grocers. This paper examines the responses of Scottish grocers to their changing environment between 1915 and 1965. It highlights similarities to associational behaviour in England and Canada in terms of unifying independent traders and articulating their concerns in public and to governments. But it emphasises the limitations of collective action among Scottish grocers, highlighting their subordinate relationship to government and the difficulties of modernising their business methods. Of greater significance was the gradual adjustment of their concept of the service provided by local grocery stores.     

The International Activities of Japanese Retailers

Despite the upsurge of academic and commercial interest in the changes taking place in the retail sector within Japan, little has been published on the international activities of Japanese retailers. This paper illustrates the range and scale of activities.which have been undertaken by such companies. While Europe and America were favourite destinations up until the mid-1980s, most Japanese retailers have now refocused their expansion plans on Asia as the level of consumers' disposable income has risen and trade barriers have been lowered. At the same time, the early entrants into international markets, the development stores, have been joined by companies operating supermarkets, convenience stores, clothing stores, electrical outlets and so on. The paper considers the nature of these changes and the factors which have driven them.     

Retail profitability and sweatshops: a global dilemma

Today's social contract requires that retailers provide consumers with competitively priced merchandise that is produced under fair and humane conditions, a demand that is increasingly difficult to meet in a global environment where retail buyers are separated from merchandise suppliers both geographically and structurally. As retailers have increasingly turned to outsourcing as a means of protecting bottom line performance, they have become increasingly vulnerable to attack by sweatshop critics. This paper provides a chronological review of sweatshop reform efforts as they relate to world retail trade. The economics of sweatshops are considered, and retail responses to sweatshop critics are described.     

Pricing behavior in the online DVD market

Using a data set with of 5508 observations collected in the online DVD market, we compare the pricing behavior between online branches of multi-channel retailers (MCRs) and online-only retailers. We find that (1) prices by online-only retailers are lower than prices by online MCRs by an average of $1.51 or 6.8 percent; (2) the price dispersion for the popular titles is sharply lower among online-only retailers than that among MCRs online; and (3) online-only retailers change prices more often than online MCRs although price changes by both types are few. The evidence suggests that the pricing efficiency diminishes as the multi-channel retailing format dominates the online retailing market.     

The Impact of Store-Price Signals on Consumer Search and Store Evaluation

Always low price (ALP) and low price guarantee (LPG) are store-price signals that retailers frequently use to induce favorable store-price image and discourage consumers from comparing prices across stores. Although both policies signal low prices, only LPG is an obligatory promise to beat rival stores’ prices. Results of two shopping simulations show that when consumer search costs are relatively low, ALP may effectively discourage consumer search whereas LPG may trigger more search. Paradoxically, consumers tend to evaluate ALP stores less favorably (as having lower integrity and higher self-serving intention) than LPG stores even when both signals appear to be credible. These findings suggest that LPG is a superior tactic for creating a favorable store image while ALP is more effective for discouraging consumer search. The results also indicate that consumers visit fewer stores when the LPG is not a credible signal of lowest market price than when it is credible. This is because consumers are inclined to either claim discounts or refunds at the non-credible LPG store or to purchase at the competing store with a lower price rather than continue searching.     

Managing price expectations through product overlap

How should a retailer think about the decision to carry, price, and promote products that overlap with another store when such overlap is predicted to intensify price competition and drive down product prices? The existing research suggests that retailers should look to carry an ever-increasing percentage of unique or non-overlapping products [J. Marketing 61 (1997) 38; Marketing Sci. 19 (2000) 83], thereby eliminating the ability to compare prices across stores.We challenge this recommendation, arguing that overlapping products allow one type of retailer—the higher end retailer—to signal the fairness of its prices and foster a more favorable price image than might otherwise exist. In a laboratory study, we show that, for higher end stores, the existence of overlapping products can significantly increase perceptions of pricing fairness and subsequent store choice, even when those overlapping products are no cheaper in the focal store than in a competing store.     

The Role of Distribution Channel Agents in Promoting Innovative Activity in Small Retail Businesses: A Case-Study of IT Adoption

The successful application of information technology (IT) offers the retailer, large or small, a decisive source of competitive advantage. Smaller retailers, however, have generally been slow to embrace the new technologies of sales data capture, analysis and communication. Within the distribution channel, four intermediary agents - wholesalers, trade associations, voluntary groups and franchisors - are well-placed to encourage more widespread take-up of IT among small retailers. The role of each agent is examined through the presentation of survey-derived information, and it is suggested that none of these agents has exploited widely this potential to promote innovation adoption. However, the presence of identifiable geographical and organisational clusters of small retailers using IT illustrates the important role being played by some of these agents in promoting IT adoption and indicates ways in which many others could encourage innovative activity.     

基于农产品“最后一公里”流通模式的思考

为加快农产品流通、减少流通环节,降低农产品终端零售价格,解决"卖难买贵"的难题,最近各地推出了"平价商店"和"平价市场"两种新的农产品流通模式。在客观分析"平价商店"对抑制农产品价格效果的基础上,指出其存在的不足,并提出建立公益性农产品直销"零收费平价市场"流通模式的设想以及配套措施的建议。     

Segmenting the market through the determinants of involvement: The case of fair trade

The fair trade market includes several types of actors, ranging from world shops to supermarkets, and from restaurants to clothing stores, involving a heterogeneous clientele. An analysis of fair trade consumers must be sufficiently granular to capture their different expectations, attitudes, and motivations; hence the need to segment the market. Through the concept of involvement, the objective of this research is to analyze and compare by segments the determinants of behavior of fair trade consumers. The research consists of three phases: segment identification, behavioral analysis by segment, and synthesis of the managerial implications. Two out of four hypothesized criteria prove to be effective in segmenting the fair trade market, namely age and distribution channel preference (whereas gender and education are not significant criteria). The analysis shows that the drivers of the involvement in the decision to buy fair trade products vary by segment. Thus, the article concludes with the development of communication axes that can trigger or strengthen the desired behaviors in each segment. It provides fair trade marketers with an efficient communication content that can be used for fair trade advertising, product packaging, branding, or merchandising. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Price matching and product differentiation strategies considering showrooming

Showrooming, a phenomenon in which customers use brick-and-mortar stores to assess products and then purchase them from online retailers (o-retailers) for lower prices, is considered a great threat to traditional retailers (t-retailers). To combat showrooming, many t-retailers have executed price matching which enables customers to pay o-retailers' lower prices for the identical product. To avoid direct competition with t-retailers who execute price matching, many o-retailers have begun to sell differentiated products from t-retailers, which weakens the information advantage to customers from practicing showrooming. Motivated by these observations, we construct a duopoly game, where a t-retailer and an o-retailer sell products in a same category, to study the profitabilities of product differentiation and price matching in the context of showrooming. The results show that in the scenario without price matching, the o-retailer is likely to benefit from product differentiation only when the o-retailer's differentiated product is more popular with customers than the t-retailer's product. However, in the price matching scenario, the o-retailer also has the opportunity to benefit from product differentiation when the o-retailer's differentiated product is less popular with customers than the t-retailer's product, and product differentiation can be a win-win strategy for the two retailers under certain conditions. Considering the o-retailer's product differentiation decision, the t-retailer is only likely to execute price matching if the non-digital attributes of the product category sold by two retailers are not very obvious.     

Shopping values of clothing retailers perceived by consumers of different social classes

With the advent of diverse forms of retailing, competition among retailers is becoming more intense. Due to this phenomenon, retailers now require marketing strategies that can differentiate themselves from other retailers. However, there is a lack of research on what kind of shopping values consumers perceive from the retailers they visit. This paper analyzes dimensions of shopping values consumers perceive and variations in perceived shopping values according to the types of clothing retailers, be it a department store, discount store, or internet shopping mall. More specifically, the paper analyzes the moderating effect of consumers’ different social class in perceiving the shopping values of each retailer. The results show that shopping value consists of five major constructs: experiential, diversional, reliable, efficient, and self-expressive shopping values. We also found that consumers perceive more experiential, diversional, and reliable shopping values in department stores and internet shopping malls than in discount stores, and self-expressive shopping value is highly perceived in department stores. However, consumers’ social class can moderate the perception of shopping values for department stores and internet shopping malls, but not for discount stores. Discount store shopping is likely to provide consistent shopping values to consumers of all classes. Based on these findings, managerial implications are then presented.     

Manufacturers' brand advertising and how it influences manufacturers' and retailers' margins

This article describes the effects of manufacturers' brand advertising on the costs, margins and prices of firms in a real-life, 'dual-stage' world where manufacturers sell to retailers who resell to consumers. Unlike 'single-stage' models, which are frequently used by economists, in which manufacturers appear to sell directly to consumers or to deal with them through an inert distribution system, retailers in a dual-stage world neither buy nor sell as perfect competitors. Although in some industry structures advertising will raise prices to consumers, the welfare effects of advertising are far more benign in a dual-stage world. In intensively advertised categories consumers are more disposed to switch stores within brand than brands within store (just the opposite of relationships in categories where brand franchises are weak) causing there to be an inverse association between margins at the two stages. Thus, while intensive advertising will normally raise factory prices it will drive down retailer margins, often to the point that retail prices are below the levels that would be obtained if the industry were only lightly advertised.     

Through Thick and Thin: How Fair Trade Consumers Have Reacted to the Global Economic Recession

Research on fair trade has flourished over the past decade as fair trade food products have gained popularity amongst consumers in many developed economies. This study examines the effects of recessionary economic conditions on fair trade consumers’ purchasing behaviour. An online survey was administered to 306 fair trade consumers from Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The results reveal a discrepancy among fair trade consumers as only consumers that purchase fair trade on an occasional basis adhered to established consumer behaviour norms, i.e. decreasing their purchases of fair trade products and becoming significantly more price aware. Respondents who actively consume fair trade generally remained loyal to their purchase. While some active consumers altered their purchasing behaviour, this phenomenon was not common amongst this group as no statistically significant changes were observed. Differences were also noted among the three countries as the Canadian and US fair trade consumers significantly decreased their consumption of fair trade as a result of the recession, whereas the UK consumers did not. In addition to the research results, theoretical and managerial implications will be discussed along with future research directions.     

浅谈网络环境下服装零售新模式及策略

作为代表未来贸易方式发展方向的一种新型商业模式,电子商务是在计算机技术、网络技术以及以数据库的基础上发展起来的。传统零售商开展电子商务面对的最重要问题往往是如何将线下的资产与电子商务进行整合,本文就传统服装零售业发展电子商务的新策略进行了探讨,分别对产品、价格、渠道及促销新策略进行分析总结。     

Online Price Search: Impact of Price Comparison Sites on Offline Price Evaluations

Consumers increasingly rely on Internet price comparison sites (PCS) to gain knowledge about the market. The prices generated by a PCS search can act as contextual reference prices and influence the attractiveness of prices encountered later as consumers shop offline at local stores. This paper demonstrates that both PCS retailer ratings and the shape of the PCS price distribution influence the impact of PCS search results on later price evaluations. A favorable PCS retailer rating increases the perceived validity of the price associated with that retailer, enhancing the impact of that PCS price on offline price evaluations (Study 1). The shape of the PCS price distribution can also influence later price evaluations, however this effect depends on the information provided by the PCS retailer ratings. When PCS retailer ratings are similar, implying similar validity for the associated prices, low PCS prices and those appearing more frequently in the PCS price distribution have more impact (Studies 2 and 3). When PCS retailer ratings are variable (some high and some low), the PCS price distribution effect occurs only when the PCS retailer ratings provide congruent information about price validity — that is, the most frequent price is offered by retailers with more favorable ratings. Study 3 shows that price validity inferences do mediate this result. Finally, we depart from the offline shopping context to show that when consumers choose a retailer directly from the PCS search results, the effect of PCS retailer ratings is stronger for high-priced retailers and for consumers who rely less on the retailer price as a heuristic to infer retailer service level. Based on our findings we offer insights for online and offline retailers when considering strategic responses, such as price matching guarantees.     

The relationship between in-store marketing and observed sales for organic versus fair trade products

To stimulate sales of sustainable products, such as organic and fair trade products, retailers need to know whether their in-store instruments effectively enhance market shares. This study uses sales data and a multilevel modeling approach to explain the market shares of sustainable products according to shelf layout factors, price level, price promotions, and consumer demographics. It argues that the effect of these variables differs between organic versus fair trade products, as buying motives might differ, organic buyers tend to be more loyal, and price is a more informative signal of quality for organic products. Results show that the number of facings has a positive relationship with the market share of fair trade brands, but not with the market share of organic brands. The same holds for the price difference with the leading brand, which is important for fair trade brands but not for organic brands. In contrast, an arrangement of the product category by brand is associated with higher market share for organic brands but not for fair trade brands. Additionally, placement at eye level and clustering of items benefits both types of sustainable brands, whereas they appear to be not very sensitive to price promotions. Finally, higher sales of sustainable products are found in areas where the customer base is older and has a higher education level.