The Effect of Muslim Products as an Islamic Retail Store Attribute: A Study on Muslim Consumer Patronage Behaviour in Malaysia

Abstract

As Malaysian Muslim consumers are more concerned about religious teachings, the doubt about the halalalness of the ingredients, processing and handling of the products has attracted Muslim consumers’ attention. Recently, Muslims are not only concerned about halal but the issue of “halalal tayibbah” has obtained great attention. In order to verify the “halalal tayibbah” concept, the acceptance of Muslim-made products is increasing in the market. With the spirit of helping the economy of the ummah, Muslim consumers tend to give their support to Muslim products. With a high demand for Muslim products, an initiative to introduce an Islamic-focused retail store has shown significant growth. Essentially, the store will provide a range of Muslim products as a substitute for previous brands. With regard to this phenomenon, the present study investigates the effect of Muslim products in an Islamic retail store on Muslim consumer-patronage behaviour. In order to get feedback, self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 384 patrons of Islamic retail stores in the northern region of Malaysia. The result of the partial least square analysis concluded that the provision of Muslim products has a significant impact on the patronage-behaviour of Muslim consumers. By buying Muslim products, Muslim consumers feel more confident that they are buying products that are religiously allowable and it prompts Muslim consumers’ buying-decisions in patronizing a store. Keywords: Muslim product. Muslim and patronage behaviour.