Sunday consumer behavior: A case study in retail marketing

The Sunday opening of shops is a very debated topic on both international and national levels. On a European level, the regulation of Sunday work is varied, with most Member States that, like Italy, do not impose restrictions on openings and working hours. The present work aims to analyze the European reference framework of Sunday openings, focusing on the Italian situation, which is currently experiencing proposals for change. Moreover, from the statistical analysis of the purchase data made in the main Italian stores of a multinational company, the "profile of the Sunday consumer" is highlighted, analyzing the characteristics and peculiarities that orient Sunday shopping. The Two Step cluster analysis provides different profiles, among which emerges the consumer profile of Sunday, which assumes peculiar characteristics and different from those of consumers of the other days of the week

Factors affecting customer loyalty of different strategic groups in the Vietnamese supermarket sector

The main objective of this research is to investigate factors affecting customer loyalty of different supermarket strategic groups, as the term of strategic groups in the grocery sector appears to have been ignored by most researchers and the topic of comprehensive factors affecting customer loyalty are is under-researched. There were two main phases of emperical research, including expert and supermarket-consumer interviews (Phase One) and questionnaire survey (Phase Two). In particular, there were 3055 questionnaires collected from 17 March 2018 to 27 July 2018 in the Vietnamese supermarkets through many channels, including email, postal and face-to-face contact. After data screening, 2913 questionnaires remained in the dataset. The three main quantitative techniques used were exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM). The research used both SPSS and AMOS 24. The results revealed there are seven main direct indicators for customer loyalty: retail brand experience, service quality related to in-store employees’ knowledge and attitudes toward consumers, customer satisfaction, promotion effects, switching costs, e-service quality related to a core e-service quality scale, and alternative attractiveness. In that, customer satisfaction can explain only 17.8 percent variation in customer loyalty. In addition, price, habit and income also have a slight positive impact on customer loyalty. This research also revealed seven main factors directly and positively affecting customer satisfaction: customer perceived value, in-store logistics, service quality related to service employees’ knowledge and attitudes toward consumers, store image, customer experience, product quality, and alternative attractiveness negatively relating to customer satisfaction. Besides that, switching costs and price also have a slight direct impact on customer satisfaction. Furthermore, this research also found factors directly and positively affecting customer perceived value, including price, in-store logistics, trust, promotion effects, e-service quality related to a core e-service quality scale, service quality and customer service, and that switching costs are negatively associated with customer perceived value. The research also investigated differences across groups, including strategic groups, age ranges, location, gender, income, education level and occupation. The results showed that there were differences between groups regarding factors affecting customer loyalty, customer satisfaction and customer perceived value. It is believed that the research will prove meaningful for both academia and practitioners in understanding issues relating to factors affecting customer loyalty, especially since multigroup analysis was conducted to examine different relationships between constructs in the researched model; the research also revealed that the term ‘strategic groups’ in the grocery sector should not be ignored. The revised research framework generated in this research can be applied in any industry or market. There are some limitations to this research which are presented in section 8.3 and recommendations for future research

Application Analyses of Visual Information Processing Techniques in E-Commerce

Digital visual information plays a very important role in E-Commerce (EC). Their usage brings forth many novel research topics for digital visual information processing skills and software. Some issues of application analysis of image/video information processing techniques suitable for EC are described in the paper. Visual design for goods or services trading, image retrieval based on visual contents, applications of images to the trade safety on the Internet, 3-dimensional display, virtual reality for goods browsing, inquiry based on image and video contents, trade safety and copyright protection of digital works based on digital watermarking are mainly discussed which are considered as the technological solutions that could enhance EC

Muutosvoimat ja niiden mahdolliset vaikutukset pääkaupunkiseudun liiketilamarkkinoilla – Tapaus Helsingin keskustassa

The retail property market is facing constant rapid changes and thus, the horizon has become unclear. The field of retailing is transforming and the market actors must modify their actions to meet the altered circumstances, customer needs, demographics and market structure. Future orientated analysis and studies help to understand and predict the possible future development. The goal of the thesis was to examine the possible future vision of commercial district called Tori Quarters located in the city centre of Helsinki in Finland. The research was conducted by applying the methodologies of the research field of futures studies. The future visions were studied by identifying the future forces of change, megatrends and trends, related to the retail property market in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (HMA) and by examining the possible influences of the forces. The research method called environmental scanning was applied in two phases: literature review and expert panel. First, the current market forces were examined by reviewing the existing literature. Second, the future retail property market forces in the HMA were studied by interviewing the members of the expert panel. The recognised future forces of change in the HMA were (1) Technologies reshaping retail (2) Urbanization (3) Emphasized experiences (4) Multifaceted premises (5) Clustering and specialization (6) Communal, social and collaborative actions (7) Changes in demographics and lifestyles (8) Globalization and (9) Environmental sustainability. These represent the main categories of the forces, but some of them also include sub-categories due to their wide content and diverse shapes. The forces differ in their magnitude and have various possible outcomes. Furthermore, the study investigated the possible influences of the forces on the Tori Quarters with a Futures Wheel research method. Finally, the future vision of the Tori Quarters was examined based on the studied observations regarding the future retail property market. The future vision of the Tori Quarters highlighted the communal, experiential and specialized features of the commercial entity.Liiketilamarkkinoihin kohdistuu jatkuvia muutoksia nopean kehityksen ja epävarmuuksien myötä. Markkinamuutokset vaikuttavat kaupunkien kaupalliseen rakenteeseen ja haastavat liiketilamarkkinan toimijat kehittämään liiketoimintaansa koko ajan. Tulevaisuuden tutkimus ja analysointi auttavat ennakoimaan ja ymmärtämään tulevaisuuden mahdollisia kehityssuuntia. Tämän diplomityön tavoitteena oli tutkia Helsingin keskustassa sijaitsevan Torikortteleiden kaupallisen kokonaisuuden tulevaisuuden näkymiä. Tutkimus on toteutettu hyödyntämällä tulevaisuuden tutkimusmenetelmiä. Tulevaisuuden näkymiä tarkasteltiin tutkimalla pääkaupunkiseudun liiketilamarkkinoilla vaikuttavia muutosvoimia, megatrendejä ja trendejä, sekä niiden mahdollisia vaikutuksia. Muutosvoimia tutkittiin toimintaympäristön muutosten tarkastelu –tutkimusmenetelmän avulla. Tämän hetkisiä liiketilamarkkinoilla vaikuttavia voimia selvitettiin olemassa olevan kirjallisuuden kautta. Tulevaisuuden muutosvoimia tutkittiin asiantuntijapaneelille tehdyillä haastatteluilla. Pääkaupunkiseudun liiketilamarkkinoiden tulevaisuuden muutosvoimaluokkia tunnistettiin olevan (1) Liiketilat teknologian uudistamana (2) Kaupungistuminen (3) Elämyksellisyys (4) Monimuotoiset tilat (5) Klusteroituminen ja erikoistuminen (6) Yhteisöllisyys, sosiaalisuus ja yhteistyö (7) Muutokset väestössä ja elämäntyyleissä (8) Globalisaatio ja (9) Ympäristöystävällinen kestävä kehitys. Muutosvoimaluokat sisältävät myös alaluokkia laajojen ja moninaisten ilmenemismuotojen vuoksi. Muutosvoimat vaihtelevat voimakkuuksiltaan ja seurauksiltaan. Diplomityössä tarkasteltiin lisäksi muutosvoimien mahdollisia vaikutuksia Torikortteleihin tulevaisuuspyörä –tutkimusmenetelmällä. Lopuksi Torikortteleiden tulevaisuuden näkymiä analysoitiin tutkimusmenetelmien tuottamien tulosten ja havaintojen perusteella. Tutkimuksen mukaan liiketilat tulevat säilyttämään fyysisen muotonsa, mutta niiden ominaisuudet ja sisältö muuttuvat muutosvoimien myötä. Torikortteleiden tulevaisuuden visio korosti alueen roolia avoimena, yhteisöllisenä, erikoistuneena ja elämyksellisenä kivijalkakaupan keskittymänä

The effect of prior knowledge and decision-making style on the online purchase decision-making process: A typology of consumer shopping behaviour

This paper provides an empirical typology of online decision-making purchasing behaviour. The study explores how the online purchase process is affected by individual decision-making style and knowledge of product. Drawing from the decision analysis and consumer behaviour literatures, we present a typology of online purchase decision-making behaviour and introduce four archetypes of online consumers. A number of experiments have been conducted in two online settings: retail banking and mobile networks. Based on an extensive video analysis, we have captured four process-related dimensions (number of cycles, duration, number of alternatives and number of criteria) using a business process modelling approach. Significant differences in all process-related dimensions were found across the four archetypes. The study improves understanding of the different types of online consumers and their process outcomes. The findings are useful for online retailers seeking to improve the way they support the four archetypes of online shoppers throughout the decision-making purchasing process

Gratifications and Credibility Judgment of Online Information for Task Completion – A Comparison of Students and Workers

This study aims to examine the impact of U&G determinants on intention to search online information and to investigate the effect of the intention to intention to evaluate quality of information and its corresponding behaviour between two user groups: students and workers who use the Internet information to complete their tasks. Structural equation modeling is utilized to assess the research model. Findings reveal U&G factors that are important to full-time students and full-time employees. The results also show the differences between the two groups in terms of the effect of a U&G factor and intention to search on its tentative dependent factor. The comparison between students and employees, the exploration of nascent dimensions of U&G theory, and the focus of the task-fulfillment purpose provide insights to educators, managers, and policy makers on how to enhance the credibility of information used in school or office works

The use of mobile devices in‐store and the effect on shopping experience: A systematic literature review and research agenda

The use of mobile devices continues to change the in‐store shopping experience and constantly increases curiosity among academics and retailers. However, in spite of the emergence of studies on this topic, the information about the effects of their use is still scattered. The aim of this research is to provide an overview on what is currently known about the effect of the use of mobile devices in‐store on the shopping experience, and describe the most important findings. Furthermore, future research directions are also provided in order to extend the existing knowledge. This systematic literature review has analysed a top‐quality poll of papers, published in the past decade. As a result, it contributes to a better understanding of this focal phenomenon by analysing the different types of use and the value added to the shopping experience. Our framework provides a systematization of these findings.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Sustainability in Retailing – Environmental Effects of Transport Processes, Shopping Trips and Related Consumer Behaviour

This thesis is concerned with sustainability in retailing. It begins with a literature review that provides deeper insights into relevant developments in retail research and practice with a focus on sustainability developments. Highlighting the importance of the topics CO2 and CSR, particular attention is paid to the environmental pollution caused by shopping processes in brick-and-mortar and online retail. To gain a more profound knowledge of the relevant processes and their influences, the analysis factors in the environmental effects of the transport processes of retailers, parcel services and consumers during shopping trips. It is shown that, in general, online retail causes fewer CO2 emissions, but that its advantageousness can change with respect to certain aspects such as returns, distance to stores and the transport mode used. Another important result is that the CO2 emissions are mainly caused by customer journeys to the stores, making this an important starting point to mitigate the environmental pollution caused by shopping processes in brick-and-mortar retail. Therefore, the focus also lies on consumer shopping behaviour and its environmental effects. After structuring the relevant influences on travel behaviour for shopping trips and their environmental effects, the shortcomings of quantitative approaches for analysing behavioural aspects are discussed. Considering these, a qualitative approach using narrative interviews is applied to gain a deeper understanding of the relevant drivers behind consumer travel behaviour with respect to shopping trips. In doing so, differences in behaviour regarding various life cycles are highlighted. Furthermore, different shopping types are distinguished and consumer expectations regarding the environmental commitment of retailers and policy makers evaluated. Based on the results, implications for retailers and policy makers are deduced to highlight how they can support consumers by behaving in more environmentally-friendly manner

Contribution to Quality of Life: A New Outcome Variable for Mobile Data Service

The rapid spread of technological innovations like mobile data services (MDS) has made mobile computing a fact of everyday life for many people. Therefore, we need to understand the contribution of mobile computing to overall quality of life (QoL). Employing the satisfaction hierarchy model and bottom-up spillover theory, this study proposes a theoretical model in the context of MDS that connects user satisfaction (a traditional outcome variable of IT) with contribution to QoL (a new outcome variable for mobile computing) in a range of life domains. The validity of the proposed model and outcome variable was tested through three empirical studies conducted in Korea. User satisfaction with MDS was found to affect the contribution of MDS to QoL in eleven life domains, and these contributions in turn influenced the overall contribution of MDS to QoL. The paper ends with a discussion of the study\u27s implications and limitations

ICT for Sustainable Last-Mile Logistics: Data, People and Parcels

In this paper we present a vision of how ICT can be leveraged to help combat the impact on pollution, congestion and carbon emissions contributed by the parcel delivery sector. This is timely given annual growth in parcel deliveries, especially same-day deliveries, and the need to inform initiatives to clean up our cities such as the sales ban on new petrol and diesel vehicles in the UK by 2040. Our insights are informed by research on parcel logistics in Central London, leveraging a data set of parcel manifests spanning 6 months. To understand the impact of growing e-commerce trends on parcel deliveries we provide a mixed methods case study leveraging data-driven analysis and qualitative fieldwork to demonstrate how ICT can uncover the impact of parcel deliveries on delivery drivers and their delivery rounds during seasonal deliveries (or “the silly season”). We finish by discussing key opportunities for intervention and further research in ICT4S and co-created Smart Cities, connecting our findings with existing research and data as a call to the ICT4S community to help tackle the growth in carbon emissions, pollution and congestion linked to parcel deliveries