Building Consumer Loyalty through Servicescape in Shopping Malls

Abstract

India is experiencing exponential growth in retail sector and Global Retail Development Index consecutively ranked as one of the most promising retail destinations of the world. Due to this reason lot of investments are happening in India and new players are entering the market. Shopping Mall being the latest organized retail format entering the market witnessed huge popularity and consumer attention, luring mall developers going all out to launch their projects. However the mushrooming growth of shopping malls has posed lot of challenges. Recent studies have revealed that 45% of the malls in cities are vacant. Poor mall management and poor tenant mix have resulted in poor mall traffic and low conversion rate. This paper attempts to explore the possibility of building consumer loyalty through effective use of servicescape (physical environment) in a shopping mall to attract and retain serious buyers. Study revealed that seven servicescape dimensions considered i.e., ambient factor, aesthetic factor, layout, variety, cleanliness, signs, symbols & artifacts, and social factor are all relevant in shopping mall context and capable of inducing significant variations in consumer loyalty.