Retail Practitioners Research Articles

Development of a classification framework for technology based retail services: a retailers’ perspective

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to identify different types of technology-based retail services (TBRS) for brick and mortar environments and analyze them by developing a framework that can be used to classify TBRS in respect of their dimensions, categories and category elements. The research design is twofold. First, this study conducts a systematic literature review to identify a relevant body of various TBRS in scientific literature. Second, it uses grounded theory as a method to analyze the identified TBRS from part one, in order to expose TBRS classification dimensions for developing a classification framework. This study identified 35 TBRS from 124 peer-reviewed articles, published worldwide between 2003 and 2019. It shows that TBRS can be classified along four dimensions: (1) participant issues, (2) technology issues, (3) information issues, and (4) intended purposes. The findings indicate that the majority of TBRS has technology-generated customer contact and is a fixed in-store totem with a low task complexity. Most TBRS enhance customer experience or improve store management. This study addresses a significant and on-going change in retailing. It provides insights into the TBRS market and offers an analytical classification framework to take TBRS to pieces, showing their elements and purposes. The framework can both guide future research and aid retail practitioners in analyzing TBRS.

Impact of Final Delivery Effectiveness of Online Purchases on Customer Loyalty, Focusing on Retail Industry: A Systematic Review

Final delivery is the most vital part of a supply chain and the current study focused on finding whether there is a relationship between final delivery effectiveness on customer loyalty, which is another vital factor for the sustainability of any business. Therefore, current study adopted a systematic review of peer reviewed journal articles to find a relationship through thematic synthesis, identifying various themes to measure final delivery effectiveness and customer loyalty. Author identified five themes to measure final delivery effectiveness and three to measure customer loyalty. Customer loyalty can be significantly enhanced through customer satisfaction, repeat purchases and order fulfillment through shortened delivery time and trusted relationship. In addition, retailer capacity, delivery conditions and delivery distance also are other factors to improve customer loyalty. However, due to limitations identified, author recommends a primary research using customer data from actual online purchases for wide generalizability and validity as a future opportunity stemming from this study. The study can be used to improve customer loyalty by retail practitioners who are also in the online retail business, and further research opportunities can be used by researchers contributing to the academia.

Towards professionalising Canadian retail management careers

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate patterns in the social construction of occupational jurisdiction and related professional career identity. It examines the agency associated with framing messages that influence perceptions about the professional nature and value of retail management careers. The aim is to identify sources which produce influential messages about perceptions about retail management careers and the content of these messages.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilises a qualitative research methodology (focus-group interviews) to explore the observations of people involved with the monitoring and management of career messages. Two focus groups were conducted with a) nine Canadian retail practitioners and b) seven post-secondary educators from retail management education programmes.FindingsThe focus groups identify five sources of influential messages including (1) part-time retail work experience, (2) educational institutions, (3) parents, (4) retail industry/practitioners and (5) media. They also identify three content themes presented by these sources including (1) the importance of educational requirements, (2) the nature of occupational roles and (3) the value of the career.Research limitations/implicationsThe significance and generalisability of the results are limited by the size and nature of the sample.Practical implicationsThis study makes a practical contribution by identifying potential career awareness strategies.Originality/valueThis research makes a theoretical contribution by expanding understanding of the role of communication with career perceptions and with the related constitution of career professionalisation.

Preventing shoplifting: Exploring online comments to propose a model

AbstractIn recent years, the marketing literature has expended considerable effort to understand and theorize consumer misbehavior. However, scant research theoretically explores shoplifting. This is surprising, as currently, the annual cost of shoplifting is close to $50 billion in the United States. Utilizing a mixed‐methods approach, we conduct two studies. Study 1 is a qualitative content analysis of online consumer discussions with regard to shoplifting. Study 2 is an empirical examination that uses a US national sample of n = 1,001 consumers; it is designed to test specific hypotheses regarding antecedents to consumers’ intentions to shoplift using an interdisciplinary theoretical framework from criminology, psychology, and marketing. The model integrates research from these different disciplines to improve our understanding of shoplifting by offering avenues to tackle it that supersede traditional security measures in retail. The integrated conceptual framework extends the theory of planned behavior and routine activity theory in understanding the behavioral intentions behind shoplifting. The results show that the suitability of shoplifting targets, offender motivation, and the absence of capable guardians affect potential offenders’ attitudes, subjective norms, and confidence in their ability to shoplift, which, in turn, all influence the intention to shoplift. The results contribute to our understanding of shoplifting and provide implications for retail practitioners over and above merely augmenting store security.

Augmented reality in retailing: a review of features, applications and value

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review augmented reality (AR) within retailing by identifying, outlining and discussing definitions of AR, applications of AR that are relevant for retailers, and the value AR provides for retailers and consumers. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a review of AR research within the business-oriented literature and an overview of current AR applications within retailing. Findings Based on previous literature, the paper presents a synthesised definition of AR, its main elements and how it differs from virtual reality. Furthermore, it reviews and provides examples of three major types of AR applications in retailing: online web based, in-store and mobile app based. Finally, the paper identifies the specific value that AR applications may provide for consumers and retailers. Originality/value The paper contributes an overview of a relatively recent but rapidly emerging theme that has not yet been sufficiently reviewed. It outlines areas for further research and thus provides value for both researchers and retail practitioners.

Real-Time Labour Allocation in grocery stores: A simulation-based approach

Aligning staff with changing customer and store needs is key to store operations management. There is considerable research on personnel scheduling, but little on the common phenomenon of Real-Time Labour Allocation (RTLA), where mismatches between workforce supply and demand are addressed by allocating potentially cross-trained employees in real time. Our interviews with retail practitioners confirm that RTLA decisions lack analytical justification. In view of this, we design a generalisable stylised Retail Store Simulator (RSS) and instantiate the RSS using data from a gourmet supermarket. Simulation results show substantial long-term benefits to store performance from RTLA – a potential 6.6% increase in market share compared with No-RTLA. We further discuss RTLA's benefits under various employee cross-training configurations, answering a question from the collaborating retailer – “given the benefits of RTLA, how should we manage workforce flexibility?” We conduct extensive “what-if” analysis and find that broadening employee skill range and deepening employee proficiency increase the benefits of RTLA. This research helps understand workforce management at the execution stage.

Jenny Kee and Flamingo Park: Independent fashion retailers as creative practitioners

Abstract It is contended in this article that independent fashion retailers who display conscious and proactive cultural positioning can be considered as not only retail practitioners, but creative practitioners playing a cultural role in the fashion industry. Australian fashion retailer and designer Jenny Kee is used as a historic example. Kee opened her Flamingo Park retail store in Sydney in 1973 and later became one of Australia’s best-known fashion designers. Using primary sources from the Jenny Kee Archive at the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney in addition to Kee’s recollections in her autobiography, Kee’s retail work is viewed through the lens of Bourdieu’s field theory and her position in the field of fashion and role as a cultural intermediary is established. By framing her work in this way, the potential for a fashion retailer to mediate culture for fashion consumers using retailing as their creative practice is demonstrated.

Demand Information Sharing in a Supply Chain of Durable Goods with Pricing Decisions

Problem definition: We study a supply chain of durable good product consisted of a retailer with demand forecast information and a manufacturer. The retailer's demand information is about the popularity of the product, which can help the supply chain members to better price the product. We examine how the retailer's policy to share his forecasts with the manufacturer depends on the and the production cost of the product. Academic/Practical relevance: In a supply chain, the retailer usually has better demand forecasts than the manufacturer. The demand forecast of the retailer can help the supply chain in many contexts including optimal pricing of a new product. Consequently, in supply chain management, demand information sharing has received substantial attention. This paper studies how the retailer's forecast sharing decision depends on durability of the product. Methodology: We employ an analytical microeconomic model for our analysis. Results: We show that when there is medium dispersion in the popularity of the product, the of the product has a large impact on the optimal information sharing policy of the retailer. In such cases, the retailer should share his information with the manufacturer when (i) the production cost is large and the product is not very durable, or (ii) when the production cost is small and the product is very durable, or (iii) the production cost is intermediate and the of the product is intermediate. Managerial implications: The previous literature analyzed forecasting sharing without durability. We demonstrate the importance of on forecasting sharing which impacts the supply chain performance. The insights from the paper helps the retail practitioners' to decide in which context they should share their demand information with their upstream partners, and guides the upstream firms to know when to consider working with the retailers to elicit their forecast information.

Comparisons of Website Visit Behavior between Purchase Outcomes and Product Categories

The online retail business has grown substantially. Given distinctive product categories (e.g. search or experience goods), owners must put an effort in the design of websites so every visit may end with a purchase. Clickstream panel data allowing examination into website visiting behavior (i.e. the number of pages viewed (or pageview) or the visit duration) are increasingly accessible. However, it is unclear whether the differences of the two visiting behavior between purchase outcome or product categories are significant. The present study hopes to fill the void. An analysis of 27,528 visit sessions extracted from ComScore verifies that (1) the difference of page views between purchase outcomes and that between product categories were significant and (2) only the difference of visit duration between the product categories was significant but that between purchase outcomes was insignificant. In addition to theoretical insight into online behavior across purchasing horizons and product categories using clickstream data, online retail practitioners could apply the findings to enhance the possibility of the purchases at their online stores.

Towards Future Customer Experience: Trends and Innovation in Retail

Retail companies today face new challenges with more intensified competition due to the accelerated pace of technological change, more sophisticated management practices, and industry consolidation. Hence, retail companies have shifted their focus from not only boosting sales but also to ways of attracting and retaining customers. This paper offers a new perspective on how to improve the performance of retail organizations by enhancing customer experience. It suggests that customer experience and use of technology are fundamental drivers of consumer loyalty. We propose a new shopping experience model based on a synergic combination of design thinking and marketing intelligence methodologies. The role of technology in customer satisfaction is also integrated into this novel approach. Based on this model, we developed a smartphone app and then applied it to a supermarket located in Monterrey, the third largest city in Mexico.We conclude that technology-based resources can contribute to improving interactions between the store and customers, supporting the latter to make decisions about purchases. However, regardless of how advanced the technology is, these solutions cannot guarantee adding high value to organizations unless an integrated context analysis is used and managers implement appropriate design strategies that factor in customer experiences.The current research has important implications for decision makers in business strategy, marketing intelligence, and strategic foresight, as well as retail practitioners.

The digitalization of retailing: an exploratory framework

Purpose– Digitalization denotes an on-going transformation of great importance for the retail sector. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the phenomenon of the digitalization of retailing by developing a conceptual framework that can be used to further delineate current transformations of the retailer-consumer interface.Design/methodology/approach– This paper develops a framework for digitalization in the retail-consumer interface that consists of four elements: exchanges, actors, offerings, and settings. Drawing on the previous literature, it describes and exemplifies how digitalization transforms each of these elements and identifies implications and proposals for future research.Findings– Digitalization transforms the following: retailing exchanges (in a number of ways and in various facets of exchange, including communications, transactions, and distribution); the nature of retail offerings (blurred distinctions between products and services, what constitutes the actual offering and how it is priced); retail settings (i.e. where and when retailing takes place); and the actors who participate in retailing (i.e. retailers and consumers, among other parties).Research limitations/implications– The framework developed can be used to further delineate current transformations of retailing due to digitalization. The current transformation has created challenges for research, as it demands sensitivity to development over time and insists that categories that have been taken for granted are becoming increasingly blurred due to greater hybridity.Originality/value– This paper addresses a significant and on-going transformation in retailing and develops a framework that can both guide future research and aid retail practitioners in analysing retailing’s current transformation due to digitalization.

Determinants of Shopping Mall Attractiveness: The Indian Context

Abstract This paper identifies the main attributes that lead to shoppers’ patronage of a shopping mall in the Indian context. The review of literature identifies sixteen salient attributes which converge into the following four main dimensions that can be considered as determinants of shopping mall attractiveness: (1) merchandising (2) variety & selection (3) milieu & facilities, and (4) convenience. The study is important to both practitioners and academics who have an interest and a stake in shopping centres and their patronage. The new found spending power of Indian consumers coupled with the heavy investments in shopping centres makes this study critical for retail practitioners, academics and researchers. This research has shown a fair degree of convergence between the preferences of shoppers in India and shoppers in other parts of the world in the context of shopping mall attribute evaluating criteria. This has important implications for future research.

Category captain arrangements in grocery retail marketing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine shelf management practices of grocery retail chains and their category captains (CCs) in the marketing of consumer packaged goods. Design/methodology/approach – This is a qualitative, exploratory study that is set in a duopoly retail environment in the Asia-Pacific region. The study employed 18 in-depth interviews with executives and managers of two umbrella retail organisations and their suppliers/manufacturers. The method of data analysis employed was content analysis. Findings – Despite CC input in merchandising decisions, it is the retail chains that have the final say on shelf matters. There is no risk of strategic loss of power in employing CCs to manage store product categories on behalf of, or in partnership with retailers provided the retail chains closely monitor the activities and decisions/recommendations of the captains. Research limitations/implications – The paper is developed from data obtained from the grocery retail industry of one economy. Future research would need to extend this study to other economies with similar as well as different conditions. Practical implications – The research offers reassurance to grocery retail practitioners who may be contemplating lessening the burden of managing all their store categories by themselves and switching to CC arrangements. The reassurance is that the reported risk associated with loss of power is manageable. Originality/value – The paper has created a typology termed the “category captain arrangement/grocery retail concentration matrix” and specific directions for further research.

Validating Bluetooth logging as metric for shopper behaviour studies

The ability to track shoppers as they move through retail environments using signals emitted by their communication devices kindles the interest of practitioners and researchers. This data collection method is cheap and has the ability to supply big data for shopper insights. However, this non-probabilistic sampling method can possibly under- or over-represent certain groups of the shopper population. This study assesses the validity of the data describing the length of shopping trips and representativeness of the sample of shoppers carrying Bluetooth-enabled devices. The authors track unique Bluetooth logs in-store and compare to simultaneously collected data from a manual, systematic sample of 324 shoppers observed and interviewed in the same supermarket. A comparison of the results obtained from the two samples (auto-logging and manual systematic) drawn from the same population indicates automated Bluetooth tracking produces very similar (r=.92, p<.001) trip lengths to that observed manually. Basket size, spend and occupation of Bluetooth trackable shoppers are similar to those with no Bluetooth-enabled devices. These findings present compelling evidence that the Bluetooth auto-logging method holds great potential for retail practice and research. An expected under-representation of the oldest demographic (66 y.o. and over) in the Bluetooth discoverable sample calls for complementary methods of data collection to minimise representation bias in real-time tracking technologies for shopper research. The benefits of using auto-logging data describing shopping trip length for retail practitioners and researchers are discussed.

Influence of Cultural Values on Indian Consumers’ Local Store Loyalty

ABSTRACTThe purpose of the study was to examine the influence of cultural values on Indian consumers’ local store loyalty behavior. The influence of collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation was studied on store patronage behavior. Demographic factors like age, income, marital status, and cultural values like collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation influence consumers’ store loyalty behavior. The findings of the study can be used by government policy makers, retail companies, and retail practitioners in promoting local stores. The local stores can use cultural values in building long-term relationships with consumers.

A Review of Contemporary Retail Formats in Emerging India

Trends of globalization coupled with reduced trade barriers are inducing competitive retailers to shift focus away from the hitherto attractive developed markets towards investing in the emerging underserved geographic markets. However, getting it right in the emerging markets requires thoughtful judgments on the existing structure and dynamics of the new markets. In the wake of relaxing regulatory climate, India's position as an attractive retail destination calls for scrutiny and introspection. While retail practitioners are critically exploring alternatives to come up with innovative India-specific retail business models or formats, an account of the modern retail landscape in India comes handy. Hence, the present paper attempts to present an account of the current retail formats in emerging India as a collation of evidences and estimations available from literature and other sources of academic interest that could be used as a point of reference by indigenous retail theoreticians and practitioners.

Culture, small retail stores, and Indian consumer preferences: A moderating role of demographics

Growth in the Indian retail industry in the last decade has attracted interest from both academicians and retail practitioners. Earlier research has discussed the impact of organized retailing on the future of small retail stores. It is understood that economic factors like rising income, consumption levels, economic growth, and large middle class segment have contributed toward the growth of organized retail in India. This study examines Indian consumers’ preference to shop from small retail stores with respect to cultural- and store-related factors. Demographic factors – education, age, and gender – moderate cultural factors of long-term orientation and collectivism and consequently consumers’ preference to shop from small retail stores.

I Have Paid Less Than You! The Emotional and Behavioral Consequences of Advantaged Price Inequality

This study examines the emotion blends and the subsequent customer reactions that occur in advantaged price inequality situations, that is, when consumers learn that retailers charged them a lower price than what the same retailers charged another customer. Drawing on the appraisal theories of emotion and on social comparison theory, an experiment ( n = 272) and a field study ( n = 261) are conducted. The results reveal that in advantaged price inequality situations, customers experience a host of positive and negative emotions depending on two factors: the quality of relationship that the customer has with a disadvantaged other customer (neutral, positive, or negative) and the attribution of agency for the price advantage (situational attribution to competition, external attribution to store policies, or internal attribution to customer abilities). Positive emotions include happiness, gratitude, pride, and malicious joy; while negative emotions include pity, outrage, and guilt. These emotions are shown to mediate the occurrence of customer reactions (i.e., customer satisfaction, loyalty, WOM referral, and WOM activity). The article concludes with theoretical implications and recommendations for retail practitioners on how to use dynamic pricing.

Technology: advancing retail buyer performance in the twenty‐first century

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explain how buyers can more effectively and efficiently utilize technologies to improve their performance and to inform top executives in retail firms how these technologies can be used to improve the overall performance of the retail store.Design/methodology/approachUsing a descriptive approach, the paper identifies current technologies that are being used and shows how technology can be used by retail buyers.FindingsTechnologies developed over the past 20 years have changed the way buyers execute their responsibilities with advancements in various technologies; faster transmission of data results in the ability of buyers to immediately react to inventory and pricing issues. However, given that technology investments can exceed millions of dollars, and that many retailers' margins and inventory productivity have been eroding over the last ten years, the stakes for information technology decisions have grown exponentially, so care must be taken in making these decisions.Practical implicationsThis subject matter is most important for retail practitioners because it identifies areas where the performance of buyers can be improved. It is also valuable to college professors who teach retailing and buying and to their students because it provides current subject matter that should be incorporated into classes.Originality/valueThis paper identified the most current technologies being used by buyers in a variety of stores to improve their performance. In addition, this paper identified the future trends in technology adopted by innovative retailers.

An Opportunity Analysis Framework for Apparel Retailing in India: Economic, Social, and Cultural Considerations for International Retail Firms

Despite seemingly large market potential, little is known about the scope of opportunities and threats for international apparel retailers seeking to enter the growing Indian retail arena.A low level of organized retail penetration, coupled with an ineffective supply chain, characterizes the infrastructure of the Indian retail industry.Analysis of the current state of Indian retail, along with opportunities and threats to growth, would have immense significance for international retailers vying to enter the Indian market.This paper presents a conceptual framework that offers advice for international corporations regarding successful entry and sustainability in India. Using a metatheory approach, a series of testable propositions are presented in relation to opportunities for international retail development in the Indian apparel retail sector. Propositions are guided by theoretical perspectives from Rostow (1960) and Dunning (1988, 1993, 1995). Discussion and implications of the resulting opportunity analysis framework are presented for both academic researchers and retail practitioners.