Traditional Retail Outlets Research Articles

Customer Satisfaction towards Online Shopping with reference to Ujjain City

A fundamental understanding of factors causing customer satisfaction in online shopping has gained greater prominence with companies replacing their traditional retail outlets with the online interface. Online retailing helps retailers to serve their customers quickly and more efficiently by delivering superior customer value. It is in this regard a fundamental understanding of factors causing customer satisfaction in online shopping has attained greater prominence. The paper aims to apply the modified SERVQUAL model in the context of online shopping to describe how customers perceive online shopping quality. This empirical study mainly focuses on examining the major factors influencing online customer satisfaction. A survey research questionnaire of 24 items has been applied and the data of 200 respondents were collected from customers using online shopping service in Ujain city. A convenient sampling technique was used for selecting the respondents. Statistical tools such as factor analysis cross tabulation and frequency tables were applied to interpret the data. To achieve the objective reliability test was conducted. The reliability analysis shows that all dimensions are reliable. First, the study identified Ease of use, service reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and security are the major determinants of customer satisfaction with reference to online Shopping. The study primarily focuses on exploring the factors that influence online customer’s satisfaction. The study not also helps in assessing the significance of these factors in the context of online shopping but also provides an insight for retailers on the factors affecting customer satisfaction. Keywords – prominence, Online retailing, convenient sampling technique, reliability analysis, assessing.

Increases in retail sales of over-the-counter levonorgestrel emergency contraception in the United States, 2016–2022

ObjectivesTo understand patterns in demand for emergency contraception (EC), we characterize the sales of over-the-counter (OTC) levonorgestrel (LNG) EC in the United States from traditional retail outlets. Study designWe describe sales of OTC LNG EC using retail sales data aggregated from traditional retail channels, including grocery stores, drug stores, mass merchandisers, club stores, dollar stores, and military outlets. ResultsSales of OTC LNG EC doubled between 2016 and 2022 (approximately 7.2–14.8 million). ConclusionsIncreasing sales of EC are consistent with increased use and use frequency of EC by those at risk of pregnancy in the United States. ImplicationsOTC LNG EC sales since 2016 exceed what national survey usage estimates would suggest, indicating that national surveys underreport EC use, those using EC purchase it somewhat frequently, and/or individuals stockpile EC for later use. The role of EC in individual contraceptive strategies, particularly as access to reproductive healthcare is restricted, warrants further study.

Heavy metal contamination in retailed food in Bangladesh: a dietary public health risk assessment

Introduction Contamination with heavy and toxic metals along the food value chain is a public health concern in Bangladesh. Methods In this study, 608 fish and chicken samples from traditional and modern retail outlets in urban, peri-urban, and rural areas were collected and analyzed for chromium (Cr), cadmium (Cd), and lead (Pb) contamination, using atomic absorption spectrometry method. The daily intake, target hazard quotient and the target carcinogenic risk (for lead only) as a result of fish and chicken consumption was calculated based on mean results, and by Monte Carlo simulation in @Risk with 100,000 iterations (quantitative risk assessment). Results Cr and Cd were detected in 80–86% of both chicken meat and fish samples, while Pb positivity found in chicken meat and fish was 54.9 and 23.3%, respectively. The mean concentration (±SD) of Cr, Cd, and Pb in chicken meat were 0.66 ± 0.93, 0.02 ± 0.03, and 0.09 ± 0.10 mg/kg, respectively; and in fish were 0.49 ± 0.62, 0.02 ± 0.03, and 0.06 ± 0.09 mg/kg, respectively. The estimated daily intakes of Cr, Cd, and Pb from chicken and fish were lower than the maximum tolerable daily intake in all studied areas. In addition, the target carcinogenic risk for Pb in chicken was lower than the negligible range, which indicated the risk of cancer due to exposure to Pb through chicken meat and fish consumption was very low. Discussion The present study concludes that consumption of chicken meat and fish in Bangladesh, currently at very low levels, is unlikely to constitute a major health risk for humans in respect to these metals. However, continuous market surveillance for heavy metals in food stuff is recommended, especially since consumers may increase their meat intake.

Impact of Advertising in Creating Brand Equity with Reference to E-Tailers

As India embraces digitisation, the number of its residents who are comfortable using the internet has grown, creating a fertile environment for the expansion of e-commerce. These webizens are gradually moving away from traditional retail outlets and toward the virtual ones. The rise of services like home delivery and fast returns has contributed greatly to this transition. Since e-commerce is becoming increasingly popular, more and more Indian businesses are entering this industry. As more and more businesses enter the e-commerce space, shoppers have a plethora of options to choose from. The online shopper has the final say in the store they do business with. The content of various e-commerce companies’ websites greatly influences the sites that consumers choose to shop from. Moreover, the rise of digitalisation has proven once again that content is king when it comes to establishing rapport with consumers. There is a greater impact on purchasing decisions when online shopping is supported by factors such as convenience, durability, low perceived risk and a high-quality product’s features and attributes. For marketers, understanding the factors that shape consumers’ decisions requires an understanding of customer behaviour. Thus, innovations in e-commerce and its business model can be liable for change in the purchasing behaviour. Let us examine the results of e-commerce on online purchasing in this article. The purpose of this research is to examine the role of advertising in the development of brands among online merchants.

Exploring store atmospherics of FMCG brands flagship stores with an immersive 180-degree dome-shaped display

ABSTRACT The current study aims to use immersive technologies to examine how: (1) store design, (2) sensory pleasantness, and (3) store’s perceived luxury influence brand and product evaluation for an FMCG food brand. A total of 668 participants were immersed in a 180-degree, dome-shaped virtual reality display that simulated an FMCG flagship store. A self-reported survey was administered after the exposure to the stimulus to measure store design pleasantness, sensory pleasantness, store’s perceived luxury, product evaluation, brand evaluation, and purchase intent. The current research demonstrates the positive effects of store design and pleasantness and perceived luxury on consumer evaluations of food products and brands in the context of FMCG flagship stores. The present study indicates that flagship stores could serve as a potential alternative to traditional retail outlets for FMCG food brands. This is important for FMCG brands as they can negate their reliance on traditional retailers and stimulate positive perceptions towards brands and products.

Does Retail Food Diversity in Urban Food Environments Influence Consumer Diets?

The food environment influences consumer diets in significant yet underexplored ways. In this study, we assess the way in which the Nairobi urban food environment—availability, accessibility, affordability, desirability, convenience and marketing—influences the dietary choices and quality of poor urban consumers, by combining market-level diversity scores (MLDS) with household and individual data collected from resource-poor (slum) neighbourhoods in Nairobi, Kenya. We find that urban-poor settings are characterized by a variety of food retail venues, including informal markets such as kiosks, mom-and-pop shops and tabletop vendors, as well as modern retail outlets such as supermarkets. Most of these food outlets predominantly sell unhealthy, highly-processed and energy-dense foods rather than nutritious foods such as vegetables, fruits and animal products. Our analyses show that supermarkets have the highest MLDS, yet they do not significantly influence the diets of resource-poor households. However, a high MLDS among informal retail outlets has a positive association with diet quality; conversely, open-air markets have a negative association. The nutritional status of urban-poor consumers can be improved by promoting the diversification of healthy, nutritious foods across traditional retail outlets and improving accessibility of the outlets to consumers.

Examining Customer Loyalty – Empirical Study on Traditional Retail outlets

Examining Customer Loyalty – Empirical Study on Traditional Retail outlets

CBD products that resemble tobacco products enter traditional retail outlets

The US Food and Drug Administration issued a final rule in 2016 deeming new tobacco products (any product made or derived from tobacco that is intended for human consumption, including...

How important are supermarkets for the diets of the urban poor in Africa?

Many developing countries are undergoing a profound transformation of food systems and retail environments. Especially in urban areas, a rapid growth of supermarkets is observed, which can affect consumer food choices and diets. Supermarkets may improve access to diverse foods at affordable prices, but may also encourage a switch from unprocessed to highly-processed and energy-dense foods that contribute to obesity. However, the use of supermarkets is positively correlated with income. That supermarkets already play an important role for the diets of many urban consumers does not necessarily mean that this is also true for the poorest population segments that are of particular interest for development policy. This article analyzes the diets and food purchase patterns of poor urban consumers in Kenya and Uganda. Representative data were collected from households in the slums of Nairobi and Kampala. The data show that the majority of these households are undernourished. They buy most food items in unprocessed form from various traditional retail outlets, including mom-and-pop shops, local markets, and kiosks. Relatively few sample households buy any of their food in supermarkets. Supermarkets account for only 3% and 0.4% of all food expenditures of slum dwellers in Nairobi and Kampala, respectively. Reasons for the low supermarket use of these poor households are discussed. The findings suggest that a focus on the modern retail sector alone will not suffice to ensure food and nutrition security for all.

By the People, for the People: Community Bookshops and Sustainable Business

This article analyses and discusses community bookshops as a viable commercial enterprise, by investigating the methods by which individual shops successfully balance a sustainable financial model with their prioritisation of social values. It uses secondary sources to conduct historical and contextual research, which is then synthesised with its primary research in the form of interviews and business model analysis. The article concludes that, by focusing on the needs of their local community, these bookshops are able to elevate the value of their business and products at a time when traditional retail outlets are struggling to retain customers. As beacons of social responsibility these businesses focus on collaboration and cohesion, along with developing the literacy of their local areas. Through their unique knowledge of their local community, and their community-ownership models, these bookshops display how economic function and social objectives can work hand in hand to create a sustainable and responsible business model.

The transformation of urban food systems in Ghana: Findings from inventories of processed products

Urban food systems in Ghana are changing, along with rapid urbanization and growth in household incomes. Using data from retail inventories of packaged products carried out in eight cities in 2015 and 2016, we find that the interplay of urbanization, imports and domestic processing and packaging has led to some surprising outcomes. Imports are dominant, especially for milled rice and tomato paste, and the shares are higher in smaller cities than in Accra. Imported products are more prevalent in traditional retail outlets than in modern retail outlets. Moreover, imported products come mainly from East Asia; excluding South Africa, which accounts for 6% of imports, less than 3% of imported products were from other African countries.

Molecular detection and antibiogram of virulent Salmonellae isolated from chicken meat

Salmonella has emerged as one of the most common and frequent pathogen associated with the food poisoning. In the present study, a total of 240 chicken meat samples were collected from retail markets of Shivamogga region; where, 13 samples were found positive for Salmonella species by genus specific PCR targeting invA virulent gene, giving an overall prevalence of 5.4%. Retail outlets (slaughter-cum-retailing units) that traditionally processed chicken meat showed higher prevalence of 7.5% (n=120); whereas, retail chicken meat originated from organized abattoirs showed prevalence of 3.3% (n=120). Among traditional retail outlets, those retail units processing multiple animal species showed higher prevalence (8.3%, n=60) of Salmonella spp. compared to those that processed chicken meat alone (6.6%, n=60). All the Salmonella species (n=13) isolated from the chicken meat possessed virulence (invA) gene indicating their potential pathogenic mechanisms and also showed varying degree of susceptibility against common antimicrobials (multiple antibiotic resistance index of 0.1176 to 0.3529). High prevalence rate of Salmonella spp. has important public health concern and underscores a need for intense surveillance and monitoring of retail chicken meat and implementation of food quality assurance systems across the chicken supply chain.

Analysis of homogeneity between organised and traditional retailers with respect to customer loyalty

Huge numbers of traditional retail outlets are functioning at every metro, urban and rural locations of the country. Organised retail outlets are started to growing from last ecade. Competition becomes stiffer due to increased number of retail outlets. Hence, this study was conducted with the objectives of comparing organised and traditional retailers in terms of factors influencing customer loyalty in both formats. This study was conducted in Chennai, its suburban, Vellore and Coimbatore. Around six factors such as location, customer database, pricing, customer relation, customer profile and customer support had relatively strong influence on customer loyalty in organised retail outlets. Whereas, eight other factors such as customer profile, business expansion, business performance, customer database, inventory decisions, customer relation, customer support and working hours were turned out to be statistically significant for traditional retail which implied that all these eight factors were important for building customer loyalty in traditional retail outlets.

Traditional retail outlets or supermarkets: A probit analysis of shoppers in Trinidad and Tobago

The purpose of this study is to identify consumers’ retail outlet choice for Roots and Tubers in Trinidad and Tobago between traditional and modern retail outlets, and also to find out what influences consumers’ shopping preferences for one or the other retail format. A Probit model, where both demographics and store attributes were used to predict outlet choice was the methodology utilized in the study. The results obtained suggest that the traditional outlets are the preferred place to purchase Roots and Tubers with 71% of the sample selecting these outlets. Of the fifteen independent variables analyzed in the Probit model, four demographic variables – age, employment status, ethnicity and income – and two latent factors of the store attributes labeled “value” and “location” were statistically significant. Of note, older buyers are 12% more likely to choose the traditional outlet while there is a 16% higher probability that persons in the higher income brackets will choose supermarkets as their retail outlet. These results provide an insight into the choice of outlet of shoppers and the strengths and weaknesses of the two retail formats.
 JEL code: Q13, M31, C25

Factors Affecting the Retailer Perception for the Sale of Snacking Products through Traditional Trade Retail Outlets in India

The primary focus of the present study was to map the perceptions of retailers concerning different factors that may influence the sale of different brands under the snacking product category through traditional trade retail outlets. The study also attempts to identify the key factors affecting the sales of major snacking brands operating in India. Snacks form a major segment of the food industry which is highly competitive in India, as well as globally. Hence, it is necessary for marketers to map the important brand attributes that influence sales and which may help marketers to customize their product offerings so as to increase their top and bottom lines. The research was conducted at Delhi NCR Region that identified 10 factors, including packaging, product quality, festival sales, visual merchandising, price, stock replenishment (damaged and old), stock refilling (new stock), ladi packs (Rs 5) and margins and schemes were the major factors that influenced sales from retail outlets. Parle and ITC were found to be the closely competing brands in the snacking product market. It is established from the study that marketers should focus on the critical factors while designing their marketing strategies because such factors greatly affect retailer perceptions which in turn affect the sales of the snacking products involved. Additionally, the study highlights the relative position of different leading brands, vis-à- vis the local players in the same segment. This would help marketers of branded products to identify their respective positions in the competitive space as per the retailer perceptions. Hence, they would need to modify and redesign their marketing strategies so as to obtain a competitive edge in a high growth market. Keywords: ANOVA, retailer perceptions, snacking products, Tukey Kramer

Traditional Small Retail Shops vs. Emerging Supermarkets and Shopping Malls in a Sri Lankan City

Street retail shops are an emblematic image of the Sri Lankan urban landscape. Retail shops vary in size, sell a diversity of household, mechanical and convenience items and appear as an integral part of urban form. While retails shops provide essential services to a variety of consumers generate employment and make urban streets vibrant, there have been few investigations into the nature of retail form in Sri Lanka. It appears that the global spread of supermarkets and shopping malls are transforming the retail space in Sri Lankan cities. Utilizing field observation data, this study investigates the extent to which traditional retail outlets dominate the retail form in the urban landscape, creates employment, and attracts customers. This study also examines to what extent city retail outlets are retained as shop houses. Results show that while Sri Lankan traditional small retail shops form a greater number of retail shops and continue to be an emblem of the urban landscape, the development of a few new shopping malls and supermarkets have impacted the daily shopping behaviour of people and are slowly transforming the retail form as well as urban landscape.

Experiential Marketing and Long-Term Sales

ABSTRACTThis study investigates the ability of winery tasting rooms to create brand awareness and build long-term brand loyalty. Specifically, we test the conjecture that if tasting rooms create brand awareness and a pleasurable tasting room experience, then those visitors are more likely to recognize and seek out those brands once they leave the tasting room. To measure these effects, we exploit differences in tasting room characteristics to conduct a series of natural experiments from which we analyze differences in off-premise retail sales away from the tasting room. We use scan data on wine sold off-premise through traditional retail outlets to then test for differences among tasting room characteristics. Our results indicate that tasting rooms act as a form of experiential marketing for wineries, creating brand awareness and generating greater growth in off-premise retail sales. Finally, we address issues of endogeneity and unobserved heterogeneity as potential sources of bias.

Attributes and retail format preference for branded pulses

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to analyze the attribute preferences of buyers of branded pulses and to study the differences in preferences between consumers who purchase from traditional retail stores and those who purchase from modern retail stores.Design/methodology/approach– A total of 300 respondents (150 respondents from traditional and 150 respondents from modern retail outlet) participated in the study. Conjoint analysis was used to assess the consumers’ attribute preferences for branded pulses.Findings– For both traditional and modern retail outlets, profile with highest utility was the profile with established brand, low price, high quality and normal packaging.Research limitations/implications– Shoppers of traditional and modern retail outlets have similar attribute preferences for branded pulses. Hence, it can be concluded that the purchase point makes no difference in consumer attribute preferences.Practical implications– Results indicate that in both traditional and modern retail outlet customers prefer the same profile of attributes. Two important attributes determining their purchase are also the same. Hence a company entering into the sale of branded pulses will have to focus on these two important attributes irrespective of the purchase point.Originality/value– The topic is relatively less researched in emerging markets especially where both branded pulses and organized retail are in their nascent stages.

The prospects of making small retail outlets in the Townships aggressively competitive

<p>Historically, township Small Retail Outlets were mostly established for survival and operated under a generally closed market system where the competition was not very strong. However, with the advent of democracy many people lost their formal income through retrenchments and out of desperation, many of these people opened Small Retail Outlets thus most of the existing and new entrants into the township market were unskilled or semiskilled labourers with little or no formal skills in business or entrepreneurship. Such efforts were rarely guided by any specific and informed strategy of identifying and exploiting a gap in the market. With the consolidation of the free market system under democracy, big brand businesses such as Shoprite Checkers and Small Retail Outlets of foreign nationals with different strategies entered and competed in this township market. With fewer formal skills in business and entrepreneurship, the owners of the Small Retail Outlets struggled to compete and thrive under these relatively new economic conditions. Given this situation, I conducted semi-structured interviews with fifteen of these traditional Small Retail Outlets to find out and better understand the challenges they face and the skills that might be needed to aggressively compete in this space. Based on these findings and understandings, I further examined these issues and suggest infusions of specific entrepreneurship skills that could develop their aggressive competitiveness.</p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> entrepreneurship, competitiveness, small retail outlets, shopping complexes, innovation</p>

Wrigley India Pvt Limited: Leveraging Trade Promotions for Competitive Advantage

The Indian confectionary market consisted of sugar and non-sugar confectionary items. The confectionary market was highly fragmented with several local players. The confectionary market had been growing at over 6% but the gum-based confectionary segment was growing faster at over 10% in last few years. The principal players in this segment were Perfetti, Wrigley, Lotte, Candico and a few local players. Wrigley acquired Joyco group from Spanish food conglomerate Agrolimen in 2004 in India. The deal further added to a long list of various brands available to Wrigley. Recently the company had been acquired by Mars. The acquired brand from Joyco, Boomer had been the undisputed leader in the bubble gum market in India since 1995. Orbit from Mars-Wrigley was also not only India's but the world's no. 1 sugar-free chewing gum. Mars-Wrigley India distributed its product both through organized retailers and traditional CFA-distributor-wholesaler-retailer route. 85% of food and beverage sales to consumers in India took place through traditional retail outlets such as Pan and Beedi shops, Kiryana merchants etc. Wrigley had an elaborate system of market coverage and distributors, salespeople and merchandisers performed an important role in the total system. Wrigley India spent heavily on marketing communication. Trade promotions played an important role in increasing the sales and market share and the company's sales force need to possess adequate skills in carrying out trade promotions and making it a success.