Understanding business customer value in a retail environment: a scale development study

Abstract

Our study has two primary objectives. First, we intend to contribute to the understanding of critical success factors retailers need to consider when aiming for the growing target group of business customers. To this end, we develop a new scale for measuring business customer value in a retail environment, based on a literature review and in-depth interviews with scholars and decision-makers from retail, wholesale and market research in Germany, Switzerland and the UK. Second, we examine the relative importance of the dimensions of business customer value through a combination of statistical techniques, such as exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. We determine that business customer value should be measured along seven dimensions. In descending order of relative importance, these are: conditional value, value of business services, value of personal care, value of assortment quality, value for money, value of assortment size and variety and emotional value. Retailers from different branches of trade, such as food, DIY, electronics or office supplies, are provided with strategic guidelines that will help attract business customers.