The effects of in-store themed events on consumer store choice decisions

Retailers are increasingly using in-store events to provide shoppers with unique experiences that will enhance shopping value and help differentiate their stores from competitors. However, relatively little is known about how consumers respond to experiential retail events in terms of their store choice decisions. The purpose of this research was to find out how in-store retail events affect consumers in terms of their store choice decisions. The paper presents findings from a discrete choice experiment that manipulated the presence of different types of in-store themed events in a do-it-yourself (DIY) category. Participants were 312 randomly recruited residents of Melbourne, Australia, who had recently shopped at a hardware store. The experiment was implemented as a mail-back survey. Using logit models the authors assess the effects of the in-store events along with those of various traditional store attributes, including store appearance, price image and distance, on consumer store choice decisions.     

Age Differences in Response to Grocery Store Price Information

The study reported here investigated age differences in consumer response to grocery store price information. A sample of 160 female consumers shopped for twelve grocery products in a simulated store. Following the shopping task, subjects responded to an unannounced memory performance test requiring them to recall the prices of products on the shelves. Respondents' methods of encoding information and certainty regarding recall were also recorded. Analysis revealed age differences in usage of price information, in recall of product prices, and in certainty experienced by shoppers. Hypothesized age differences in the encoding of information did not surface. Discussion centers on the policy implications of these findings.     

Segmentation of Malaysian shoppers by store choice behaviour in their purchase of fresh meat and fresh produce

Differences in retail store choice behaviour are examined for the purchase of fresh meat and fresh fruit and vegetables in Malaysia. In purchasing fresh meat, cluster analysis identified two groups of respondents who purchased the majority of the fresh meat they consumed from either modern retail stores or the traditional market. However, with regard to the purchase of fresh fruit and vegetables, cluster analysis identified three groups of respondents (modern retail shoppers, transient shoppers and traditional market shoppers). Although the clusters were labelled using similar terms, several similarities and differences were identified in the respective clusters for each food item. The findings indicate that store choice preference was based on the food product that the consumer intended to purchase.     

The inter-store mobility of supermarket shoppers

The allegiance of a particular customer, and the distribution across customers of strength of affiliation to a store are important indicators of store health. It is therefore important to understand the extent and determinants of shopper mobility among competing retailers. While shoppers often patronize many stores, they typically have a primary affiliation to a “main store” that captures the majority of their purchases. We examine, in detail, the tendencies of shoppers to transition away from the current main store and adopt another in its place. That is, rather than study all types of store switching behavior, we focus on the decision to change primary allegiance. The model is established in a discrete time hazard framework and estimated as random-effects probit. Data from 548 households taking 88,945 shopping trips among five stores are used to calibrate the model.We find that state dependence is prevalent with nearly three quarters of the shoppers showing progressive attachment to their current main store. Interestingly, this finding is not simply driven by location (i.e., because shoppers are captive to a single store based on geographical distance). More likely, shoppers are unwilling to give up the benefits of store-specific knowledge of assortment, layout and prices. Second, the decision to transition from a current main store is not influenced by temporary price promotions on a common basket of items: Shoppers will cherry-pick, but this alone does not cause them to change primary allegiance. The majority of transitions occur across competing stores of the same price format, which suggests “format loyalty” is an important aspect of shopper behavior. After controlling for unobserved heterogeneity, we find little relationship between observable demographics and the transition probability. We do, however, find that shoppers who spend more per trip are less likely to change main stores, as are less frequent shoppers. Implications for retail management strategy are discussed.     

The Impact of Item Price Removal in Scanner Supermarkets: A Survey Study of Los Angeles Shoppers

The practice of removing item prices in scanner-equipped grocery stores has raised an important public policy issue relating to the ability of individual consumers to engage in effective shopping with less available price information at the point of purchase. This study investigated the likely impact of item price removal in scanner-equipped grocery stores as a function of consumers' use of price information, general consumer predispositions, and consumers' experience with scanner technology. Particular emphasis was placed on the likely effects of item price removal on disadvantaged consumers. The implications of the study for public policy are discussed.     

Fabric speciality stores: travel behaviour of female customers

This consumer travel behaviour study examined (i) the distance female customers travel from their home to the fabric speciality store they most often shop in, and (ii) the effects of selected factors on the travel behaviour of these customers. The procedure was to select 10 fabric speciality stores at random in the Phoenix (Arizona) metropolitan area and have 25 female customers complete the questionnaire at each store. The 250 questionnaires were analysed by examining the distances the respondents travelled in various situations and by chi-square tests to determine the relationships among the variables. The results indicated that the majority of respondents travelled 3 miles or less (oneway) from their home to the fabric speciality store they most often shopped in; however, the actual number of miles travelled in this situation was found to be dependent on the respondents' level of education. It was also found that many respondents were willing to travel farther than the distance from their home to the fabric speciality store they most often shopped in to (i) purchase a specific fabric; or (ii) seek a greater variety of fabrics and related items, lower fabric prices and helpful/knowledgeable salespeople.     

FABRIC SPECIALITY STORES: CONSUMER DISSATISFACTION WITH SELECTED IN-STORE ATTRIBUTES

This consumer dissatisfaction study focused on selected in-store attributes of the fabric speciality store. The procedure was to select fifteen fabric speciality stores at random in the Phoenix area and distribute thirty questionnaires to customers at each store. The 264 returns were analysed by examining the respondents' comments about the fabric speciality store most often shopped in, the respondents' ratings of the statements concerning the average fabric speciality store's attributes and the complaints the respondents made to fabric speciality stores. The fabric speciality store attributes found to be both important and dissatisfying included: salesperson's helpfulness, variety of fabrics, quality of fabrics, salesperson's product knowledge and fabric price.     

Directing store flyers to the appropriate audience

Grocery shoppers were questioned about the frequency of purchasing items that were featured in the store's flyers. This measure was used as the dependent variable in a multinomial logit model with the independent variables being various aspects of shopping behaviour, usage of store flyers, age and employment status. Since only one threshold parameter was significant, the four-level dependent variable was then collapsed and a binary model was estimated. This study evidenced that less than half of the respondents looked forward to receiving unsolicited flyers. Most shoppers read the flyers only to be informed of price specials that the store has to offer. The odds ratio of responding to store flyer deals among those who look forward to sales flyers is more than double the odds ratio of those who do not await the flyers, across every category of shopping frequency. Retailers could employ direct marketing to target specific audiences who look forward to receiving store flyers.     

Product perishability and multistore grocery shopping

Perishability, a largely unconsidered characteristic of consumer goods, is shown to play an important role in planned multistore shopping behavior. We present a model of consumers as cost minimizing inventory managers, who choose between two stores differentiated on location and price, and who purchase perishable and nonperishable goods. We show that the interaction between perishability of goods and price differences of stores can be an important driving force for planned multistore shopping. This rationale leads to a set of propositions. One unexpected result is that as the known price difference on a basket of identical goods increases between two stores, shoppers making store choice decisions on the basis of the basket price are more likely to shop regularly at both stores. We present survey results supporting our model’s predictions.     

Enhancing value for Chinese shoppers: The contribution of store and customer characteristics

This study tested the relationships between store and customer characteristics with perceived value and customer loyalty in retailing in China. Survey data were collected from shoppers in department stores (n=200) and supermarkets (n=200) in the tier 2 coastal city of Tianjin. Data for each type of store were analysed separately using structural models. In supermarkets, value was predicted by quality and price, but for department stores, only the customer orientation of the store was significant, suggesting that customers seek different shopping experiences in each context. In each case, value mediated the links to loyalty and, for supermarkets, choice of merchandise and consumer time pressure demonstrated direct links to loyalty. The paper discusses the implications of the findings, and concludes with possible future research.     

Consumer price knowledge before and after the euro changeover

This article examines how the price knowledge of Finnish consumers has changed since the adoption of the euro. Our study measures price knowledge by comparing consumers’ price estimations with actual market prices at two points in time: before (October 2001) and after (March 2002) the changeover to the euro. Furthermore, we study potential differences between three different age groups. We approach the issue using four determinants, namely (1) response percentage (the percentage of respondents who were able to give a price estimate); (2) the difference between the median of the market prices and the median of the price evaluations; (3) the difference between the average of the market prices and the average of the price evaluations; and (4) the average of the absolute deviations between the average of product prices and consumer price evaluations. Our results indicate that, on average, consumers know the prices of grocery products quite well despite the prevailing dispersion of actual prices in the market. Price knowledge was found to be rather good both before and after the introduction of the euro. Nevertheless, the good price knowledge after the changeover was probably because consumers remembered the prices asked in the old currency and converted them to euros. The majority of respondents were able to give price estimates that were within the range of actual price dispersion in stores. The results also show some deterioration in price knowledge after the advent of the euro. There was variation between different age groups, and it seems that the introduction of the euro has affected various groups differently. Consumers aged 30–50 years knew prices best both before and after the euro, whereas the ability to estimate prices had declined most among consumers above 50 years after the euro changeover.     

A Comparative Performance Analysis of New Wave Food Cooperatives and Private Food Stores

The purpose of this study was to determine what “new wave” store front food cooperatives offer their patrons, relative to private grocery stores. A marketbasket price survey of 73 non-meat food items was conducted at 10 cooperatives and eight private stores in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Area in 1981. Consumer satisfaction was examined via a mail questionnaire returned by 1,089 patrons of both store types. A new kind of food cooperative shopper was identified, the minor user. Minor users were more recent cooperative patrons and more closely resembled a traditional, established, middle-class family. Unlike the more traditional co-op user, price was the most important store choice criterion for the minor user. Cooperatives were judged by their patrons to be performing slightly less satisfactorily than private stores. However, the two store types were not found to differ in their performance of the two functions most important to consumers, i.e., price and quality. Member shoppers at a cooperative could save 15 percent, or about $290 per year for the average household, a return on a typical member's work contribution of $6.04 per hour.     

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.     

The cost (and the value) of customer attire: linking high- and low-end dress styles to service quality and prices offered by service employees

This study tests the impact of customer dress on the price of goods and services offered and on service quality. Mystery shoppers visited stores in three different business contexts. For each context, 30 mystery shoppers paid three visits each, once in sloppy, once in casual, and once in fashionable attire. Supporting research hypotheses, dress had conflicting effects on employees: customers wearing fashionable/casual clothing received better service than those dressed sloppily, while the latter were offered goods and services at lower prices. The findings imply that organizations should reconsider their customer discrimination policies, and engage customers in developing accepted dress codes.     

Retail channel price discrimination

This paper examines price differentials of identical items across retail channels. Many consumer packaged goods are sold through both grocery and drug stores. Liquor is unique in that in much of the country there is a third retail channel of distribution, liquor stores. If consumers in each retail channel differ in their willingness to pay for certain items, then sellers can exploit those differences and charge different prices for the same items in each channel. We examine a unique data set of pooled cross sectional retail scanner data on wine to test whether sellers use retail channel to identify heterogeneous consumer market segments and engage in price discrimination. We begin by presenting a model of price discrimination by retail channel along with behavioural assumptions regarding shoppers in each channel. Next we examine sales by retail channel and find persistent price differentials for the same item across retail channel after controlling for sample selection bias and seasonality. Lastly, we estimate the price elasticity of demand correcting for endogeneity and find differences across channel consistent with the price differentials. The extent of price differential, however, differs significantly with respect to price point.     

The moderating roles of shopper experience and store type on the relationship between perceived merchandise value and willingness to pay a higher price

In the retail domain, we consider the moderating influence of shopper experience (high versus low experience) and store type (high- versus low-priced stores) on a model that identifies three distinct routes (economic, affective and informational) from perceived merchandise value to willingness to pay a higher price. Each route accounts for a different outcome arising from merchandise value and leading to willingness to pay a higher price. Analyses of data obtained from a sample of 600 shoppers at four grocery stores provide results for specific hypotheses related to each moderator and each distinct route. The results of multiple sample analyses show that the economic route is stronger for high experience shoppers as well as for high-priced stores. Findings pertaining to hypotheses for moderation of both the affective and informational routes are mixed. We discuss the importance of these findings for retail managers as well as for future research.     

Clustering Attitudes and Behaviors of High/ Low Involvement Grocery Shopper

The purpose of this exploratory and quantitative study was to examine the attitudes and behaviors of 14,807 grocery shoppers. These respondents across the US were asked to answer attitudinal, behavioral, and demographic related questions. Shoppers were profiled by analyzing their responses to 16 relevant attitudinal and behavioral questions. A cluster analysis was performed followed by a discriminant analysis to determine attitudinal and behavioral variables explaining cluster membership. A cross-tabulation analysis assessed demographic variables that correlated with cluster membership. Two clusters were identified: high and low involvement grocery shoppers. In an event that has long been perceived as low involvement, a large percentage (53%) can be categorized as high involvement grocery shoppers. These shoppers tend to be younger. They were more likely to enjoy the hunt of finding products/deals, seek the advice of others and perceive that the products they buy reflect upon them. Grocery stores have a significant opportunity to target this high involvement shopper. Grocery stores will need to create an integrative, engaging online and in-store experience to attract high involvement shoppers and ultimately increase store loyalty. The results of this research has significant communication, branding and digital marketing implications.     

Retailing strategy for customer growth and new customer attraction

The image that current and potential customers have of a retail store affects the magnitude of patronage at that store. In attempting to increase store patronage, management of a retail store must look to people who already are customers, as well as to people who are not current customers. The appropriate strategy depends upon the dimensions used by people in their evaluation of the store. The hypothesis is tested that the strategy used for gaining increased patronage from customers may have to differ from that used to gain patronage from noncustomers.Field survey techniques were used to collect data from 225 adult females. Respondents evaluated three large retail department stores, which were believed to have distinct images in the minds of female shoppers, on the basis of a set of 12 semantic scales that represented various store attributes. Each respondent indicated frequency of shopping at each store. The data were analyzed by two different multiple discriminant analyses. For the customer growth strategy, the semantic scale measures were used to develop a discriminant model for each store to determine which attributes would be the best predictors of shopping frequency. The analysis relevant to the strategy of new customer attraction differed. First, shoppers were classified as loyal to one store on the basis of their rates of shopping at each store. Second, the 36 attribute measurements (12 scales for 3 stores) were factor analyzed, and three factors were extracted. Those attributes which loaded highest on each of the factors for each store were used as predictor variables in the discriminant analysis.The results of this study indicate that different marketing strategies may be required for increasing sales to existing customers and attracting new customers. In addition, consumers do not necessarily differentiate similar type retail stores on the same dimension.     

Consumer usage of unit pricing

The aim of this study was to investigate the degree to which shoppers use unit price as a conventional piece of information to compare sizes and/or brands in supermarkets. Three-hundred and seventy-five shoppers were interviewed in a Kroger supermarket in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. About two-thirds of all respondents said they used the unit price information while shopping. Slightly over 84% of those who understand how the unit price information can be used to make more economical choices said they used it. Shoppers with lower levels of education used unit price less than those with higher levels of education. The same pattern was observed between low-income and high-income shoppers as well as between blacks and whites. The number of shoppers who recalled using unit price to compare sizes was about the same as the number of people who recalled using it to compare brands.     

从购物动机到商店选择:中国西北消费者的购物行为探索(英文)

虽然中国已经成为世界上最大的消费者市场,但是有关中国消费者的购物行为研究还没有广泛开展,特别是针对中国内地的购物人群而言。本研究探索的是中国西北消费者的购物经历。深度采访显示,那些被访者更多地展现出一种消费者角色,这种角色能够同时满足个人和社会地位需求的购物特征。除此之外,在选择零售商店(购物)时,商品、商店和服务标准也是重要的影响因素。本文为研究中国消费者的商店购买行为提供了参考文献资料,同时也为零售商拓展中国西北市场提供了非常有价值的观点。