Tests of in-store experience and socially embedded measures as predictors of retail store loyalty (original) (raw)

Retail relationships and store loyalty: A multi-level perspective

International Journal of Research in Marketing, 1997

An important factor in retail store loyalty is interpersonal relationships between retail salespeople and customers. However, relationships can also exist at the person-to-store level. This paper examines the linkages between trust in a salesperson, trust in the store, and repeat purchase intention. A model of store loyalty which includes relationships at both the person-to-store as well as person-to-person level is tested. The findings reveal that for those with an interpersonal relationship, trust and commitment to the salesperson are directly linked with purchase intention as well as indirectly through store attitude. For customers without a salesperson relationship, trust in the store leads to loyalty indirectly through store attitude, but does not have a direct impact on purchase intention. The results illustrate the existence of multi-level relationships between customers and stores and how those relationships link to store loyalty. The research adds to our understanding of the complexity of relationship retailing, while providing further evidence of the value of generating and maintaining interpersonal relationships as a retail strategy. © 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.

Effects of store loyalty on shopping mall loyalty

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2012

The key purpose of this paper is to bridge a research gap in shopping mall literature by investigating the relationship between store loyalty and shopping mall loyalty. The paper also examines the effects of perceived store value and store relationship commitment on store loyalty en-route to loyalty towards the shopping mall hosting the stores. The study shows that store loyalty influences shopping mall loyalty under certain conditions and that such an influence is moderated by the geographic distance between the consumer and the shopping mall. Further, the study found that distance has a moderating effect on the relationship between perceived store value and store loyalty, but not on the association between relationship commitment and store loyalty. The insights provided by this study offer academics, retailers and shopping mall managers a richer understanding of the relationships between store loyalty and its antecedents, customers' distance from the mall, and shopping mall loyalty.

Customer Store Loyalty

Handbook of Research on Retailer-Consumer Relationship Development

This chapter examines the process of how store customers become loyal to their stores. The authors pursue a theoretical and empirical research approach designed to identify and test a parsimonious model. The result is an explanation chain that incorporates relational variables, trust and commitment, satisfaction, and the moderating factors of the relational variables. The findings reveal that customer commitment is the major contributing explanation for true customer loyalty, significantly more than the contributed explanation of customer satisfaction. The cognitive moderating factors (store familiarity, store choice, customer perceived risk, and communication) and the affective moderating factors (customer opportunistic tendencies, consumer involvement, shared personal values, and shared management values) are significantly related to the core variables and thus contribute some explanation, yet their contribution is very small compared to the contribution of the core variables, the...

INCREASING STORE LOYALTY AND PATRONAGE: WHAT MATTERS?

IAEME Publication, 2020

Retailing is a service industry. Customer satisfaction matters a lot while doing business with customers. The retailer has to understand the customer requirements to serve the customer properly. A store has several touchpoints which the customer comes across while shopping. A clear understanding of the customer requirements will help the retailer to address the problems and fill the gaps. Customers are interested in the products available in a store. The store environment and the customer service adds value to the products available. This enhances the level of customer satisfaction. Enhanced satisfaction helps in store patronage. The paper tries to measure the influence of product assortment, store environment, instore customer service, home delivery on customer satisfaction. Further it also probes the influence of customer satisfaction on loyalty.

The relationship between a satisfactory in-store shopping experience and retailer loyalty

South African Journal of Business Management

In this study consumer satisfaction with the in-store shopping experience is used to predict two measures of retailer loyalty. The first measure is an attitudinal measure of loyalty. The second measure is actual buying behaviour – actual sales recorded in monetary terms and in terms of units bought. The results suggest that a satisfactory in-store shopping experience enhances cumulative or ‘overall’ consumer satisfaction, which in turn enhances both attitudinal loyalty and behavioural loyalty (actual sales).

Explaining Customer Loyalty to Retail Stores

Handbook of Research on Retailing Techniques for Optimal Consumer Engagement and Experiences

This chapter reassesses the process of how store customers become loyal to their stores; what are the core subprocesses generating customer store loyalty, and what contributing moderators enrich the final outcome. A new empirical research is designed to identify and test a parsimonious model of core relationships and moderators. The result is an explanation chain that incorporates relational variables, trust, and commitment to the traditional transactional one, customer satisfaction, and the moderating factors of the relational variables. The findings reveal that 1) customer commitment is the major contributor of explanation to true customer loyalty, significantly more than the contributed explanation of customer satisfaction, and 2) four cognitive attitudes and four affective attitudes significantly moderate the relational effects of trust and commitment on customer store loyalty and, thus, contribute, though in small amounts, to a stronger explanation.

The Relationship Between Malaysian Supermarket In-Store Shopping Experiences and Positive Word-of-Mouth

International Journal of Marketing Studies, 2019

Attitudinal loyalty such as customers’ willingness to spread positive words of mouth has received less attention compared to behavioural loyalty (e.g., reptronage intention) in retail studies, particularly in the context of supermarket. It is argued that supermarket consumers should be willingly share positive words of mouth when they are satisfied. The effect of Malaysian supermarket in-store experiences (convenience, merchandise value, internal shop environment, interaction with staff, merchandise variety, presence interaction with other customers, in-shop emotion) on customer satisfaction and mediating effect of customer satisfaction on the relationship between in-store experiences and positive WoM were examined. The results show significant relationship between customer satisfaction and willingness to spread positive WoM. Convenience and in store emotion have significant relationships with customer satisfaction, while the other in-store experiences have no significant effe...

Influence of Store Satisfaction, Merchandise Quality, andService Quality on Store Loyalty

International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, 2011

Loyalty is a phenomenon that has always received a great deal of interest among marketers, specifically from retailing side. The study tries to further the understanding towards this phenomenon by trying to test the inclusion of (merchandise and service) quality, and satisfaction as the determinants of store loyalty. The paper tries to answer the question whether merchandise quality and service quality are independently associated with store loyalty along with customer satisfaction or associated through interaction. Specifically, the present work aims to study the role of merchandise quality, amidst store satisfaction and service quality, in the formation of store loyalty. Hierarchical regression is employed to test the drawn hypotheses. The findings of the study indicate that service quality, and customer satisfaction show significant influence on store loyalty. The merchandise quality does not show significant influence on store loyalty. But the interactive effect of merchandise quality and service quality is found to improve the model. The results of the study help in identifying the factors which are more important to focus in strategizing issues related to store loyalty in a more specific manner.

The impact of retail store format on the satisfaction-loyalty link: An empirical investigation

Journal of Business Research, 2017

Maintaining and improving customer loyalty is an important strategic goal for businesses as competition has intensified in almost all sectors of the economy. Retailers, in particular, feel the need to invest in customer loyalty more than ever before as channels and store format alternatives available for consumers to shop at have proliferated. However, current research in marketing provides little guidance to retail managers about developing and sustaining shopper loyalty across different store formats. Toward filling this gap, the present research examines the shopper satisfaction-loyalty link in two different store formats (supermarkets and hypermarkets). Using data from surveys of 505 Spanish shoppers at both types of retail formats, we examined how shoppers' attitudinal and behavioral loyalty develop differently. Our results reveal important differences and offer directions for the pursuit of different strategies by supermarkets and hypermarkets. The specific strategies, and the implications of this research for theory and practice are discussed.

What are the Building Blocks of Customer Brand Loyalty in Department Stores? A Multi-Level Mediation Analysis

KEYWORDS brand commitment; brand loyalty; brand personality; brand trust; consumer brand identification; perceived value; positive word-of-mouth communication; service quality ABSTRACT Building customer brand loyalty through branding strategies to sustain competitiveness in the retail industry has gathered momentum among researchers. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of brand personality and consumer brand identification on customer brand loyalty via the mediating variables of perceived service quality, perceived value, brand trust, brand commitment, and word-of-mouth communication among Malaysian department stores' customers. Using a self-structured questionnaire, 381 usable responses are considered for data analysis by applying a covariance-based structural equation modeling approach. The results of exploratory factor analysis show that sincerity, followed by sophistication and competence, are the most significant dimensions used to predict brand personality in department stores. The outcomes also reveal that brand personality indirectly influences customer brand loyalty via consumer brand identification. Furthermore, perceived service quality, perceived value, brand trust, word-of-mouth communication, and brand commitment mediate the effects of consumer brand identification on brand loyalty. Finally, the proposed competing model implies that the indirect impact of brand personality and consumer brand identification is inevitable in building department stores' brand loyalty.