Unravelling the Threads of Customer Loyalty: Motives Shaping Supermarket Patronage in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Over the past couple of decades, profound changes in the business context in Sri Lanka, including the presence of global brands, emergence of new retail business formats, dominance of the service sector, application of direct marketing, industry convergence, and deregulation, have significantly shaped customer behavior. Accordingly, the supermarket concept has sparked renewed interest among shoppers in the contemporary retailing context in Sri Lanka. This note mainly focuses on comprehending the behaviour of supermarket shoppers and evaluating the motives behind their level of loyalty in the context of supermarket patronage in Sri Lanka. Recent study findings reveal that three major factors, namely ‘product motive’, ‘services motive’ and ‘location motive’ have significantly contributed to enhancing supermarket patronage in the context of grocery shopping in Sri Lanka.