Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of store image attributes, customer attitude and perceived value on consumers’ satisfaction, behavioral response and intentions and also, the effect of customer satisfaction on behavioral response and loyalty intentions. A structured questionnaire was successfully distributed to 600 respondents, who had made purchases from sixty retail formats operated in Delhi and Gurugram belonging to the domain of Shopping Malls, Hypermarket, Supermarket, Department Stores, Discount stores and Category Killers through systematic stratified sampling for the collection of data. Factor analysis was employed to identify the store image attributes as perceived by retail customers. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to predict customers' satisfaction, behavioral response (word of mouth communication), intention to switch, and customers’ loyalty intention from retail store image attributes, customers’ overall store attitude and perceived customer value, and to predict behavioral response and intentions from customers’ satisfaction. The results of the study showed that customers’ overall store attitude and perceived customer value are significant for all the dependent variables (customers' satisfaction, behavioral response (word of mouth communication), intention to switch, and customers’ loyalty intention), while store image is partially influencing customers’ satisfaction, behavioral response and intentions, furthermore customer satisfaction is significant predictors of customers’ behavioral response and intentions. The implications for marketers and managers have also discussed.
Highlights
The image of a store in customer’s mind is extremely important and concerned with the present & future behaviour of retail customers, its increase customers’ frequency for buying and gain new customers, if retail store is able to introduce itself to customers through creating true image will lead to sales and profitability of retailers
Author argue that store image, customer overall store attitude, perceived customer value, customer satisfaction and subsequently store loyalty have gained great importance in the retail stores settings, which aim to survive in the market and store image is a key factor for influencing customer satisfaction (Bluemer and Ruyter, 1998; Koo, 2003) and affects positively on customer patronage intentions (Chang and Tu, 2005), the role of store image for attracting and retaining the customers becomes extremely important (Du Preez et al, 2008)
After the reviewing of existing literature, it is found that most of the studies on retail sector are reported from developed countries and no studies were identified that evaluate the impact of store image attributes, customer attitude and perceived customer value on customer satisfaction, behavioral response and intentions collectively in Indian retail store settings
Summary
The image of a store in customer’s mind is extremely important and concerned with the present & future behaviour of retail customers, its increase customers’ frequency for buying and gain new customers, if retail store is able to introduce itself to customers through creating true image will lead to sales and profitability of retailers. The question arise that why to study store image, customer attitude, perceived customer value, customer satisfaction, behavioral response and intentions in a linking manner. Author argue that store image, customer overall store attitude, perceived customer value, customer satisfaction and subsequently store loyalty have gained great importance in the retail stores settings, which aim to survive in the market and store image is a key factor for influencing customer satisfaction (Bluemer and Ruyter, 1998; Koo, 2003) and affects positively on customer patronage intentions (Chang and Tu, 2005), the role of store image for attracting and retaining the customers becomes extremely important (Du Preez et al, 2008). After the reviewing of existing literature, it is found that most of the studies on retail sector are reported from developed countries and no studies were identified that evaluate the impact of store image attributes, customer attitude and perceived customer value on customer satisfaction, behavioral response and intentions collectively in Indian retail store settings. The validity of theories and previous findings on customer satisfaction and loyalty behaviour needs to be tested in different economy and socio cultural environment in order to assess their universal applicability, so the present study aims to fill in this gap and the findings of this study will be of interest with existing and would-be multinational and domestic retailers of organised retail sector in India
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