The Role of Customer Experience, Food Healthiness, and Value for Revisit Intention in GROCERANT

Se Ran Yoo,Hyeon Mo Jeon,Suk Won Lee

doi:10.3390/su12062359

Se Ran Yoo, Hyeon Mo Jeon + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su12062359

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Abstract

This study proposes a research model in which food healthiness is considered in addition to the five strategic experiential modules (sense, feel, think, act, and relate) to test the antecedent variables that may enhance customer value and intention to revisit grocerants. For the empirical analysis, consumers with experience of using seven Korean grocerants were surveyed. Grocerant experience and food healthiness were found to be associated with hedonic and utilitarian values and these values were shown to have a significant effect on revisit intention. This study differentiates itself from earlier studies of consumer experience in the foodservice industry that ignore the importance of food healthiness. The presented research model shows the importance of the roles played by food healthiness and the five strategic experiential modules in enhancing customers’ value perception and intention to revisit grocerants. The theoretical framework proposed and tested in the research model of this study is thus expected to serve as the basis for future research on experiential marketing in the foodservice industry.

Highlights

Living in today’s fast-paced world, people have less time to prepare food and look for fast, convenient, and delicious options to meet their meal needs [1]
Grocerants have emerged in the foodservice industry, differentiating themselves from other eating-out foodservice sectors by providing customers with a unique foodservice experience [3]: meals prepared on-site with the fresh ingredients selected by customers immediately after purchase
We adopted Schmitt’s [18] notion of strategic experience modules (SEMs) which has been put on center stage as a theory for customer loyalty and brand value creation

Summary

Introduction

Living in today’s fast-paced world, people have less time to prepare food and look for fast, convenient, and delicious options to meet their meal needs [1]. Time-starved consumers seek places that provide high-quality ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat meals [2]. The term grocerant initially referred to supermarkets where ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat meals, as well as freshly prepared dishes were offered on-site. Grocerants are convenient for making food purchases and meals at the same time; they offer excellent value for money because only a small cooking fee is paid for the ingredients [5]. As a portmanteau term combining “grocery” and “restaurant,” “grocerant” is a perfect and appropriate response to the growing trend of freshly prepared ready-to-eat instant meals provided by convenience stores, chain drug stores, grocery outlets, and other non-food retailers [2]. According to Technomic Inc., a U.S research and consulting firm, more consumers are choosing their local grocery stores over traditional fast food and restaurants. The NPD Group, a research outfit in Canada, reported that grocerants generated 2.4 billion new visits and over US $10 billion in sales in 2016 [8]

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