Managing the Attractiveness of Evolved and Created Retail Agglomerations Formats

Purpose: This paper identifies those attributes of created and evolved retail agglomeration formats that have a substantial impact on overall attractiveness from the consumers’ point of view. From an agglomeration management perspective primary areas of concern are identified and suggestions to increase the competitiveness of diverse agglomeration formats are presented. Design/methodology: Through synthesizing pertinent literatures we produce a conceptual framework that proposes significant impacts between ten generic agglomeration attributes and different dimensions of attractiveness. We then test the hypotheses using a survey of more than 1,000 consumers of three competing agglomeration formats (a town center, a strip center and a regional shopping mall) in a particular locality. Findings: Retail related factors and the atmosphere influence attractiveness most significantly in each of the three settings. All other factors – in particular convenience related ones - show only format specific relevance or are of no direct importance on the consumers’ evaluation of attractiveness. Research limitations/implications: The findings can only be transferred to similar retail settings and do not consider supra-regional agglomerations. Practical implications: The results suggest that management of all three agglomerations is quite limited in directly influencing attractiveness. They should instead focus on the optimum selection of retail tenants and support or compliment the marketing endeavors of their tenants. Originality/value: The focus is on regional retail agglomerations and considers the interdependencies between different formats in one geographical area. The in-vivo survey approach takes into account the moderating effect of the shopping situation when consumers’ evaluate the attractiveness of competing shopping venues

Urban Place Marketing and Retail Agglomeration Customers

Through identifying the attributes of a place that have an influence on the patronage behaviour of urban retail customers, this paper presents a conceptual model that proposes direct and indirect antecedents regarding the different retail-related dimensions associated with urban place attractiveness. An empirical study was conducted whereby the model was tested by surveying approximately five hundred actual consumers at the time they visited a particular town centre for the purposes of shopping. The results showed that the retail tenant mix, the merchandise value and the atmosphere had a direct impact and the product range and the sales personnel an indirect impact upon the evaluation of attractiveness. Furthermore, a number of additional effects towards these antecedents were identified with respect to parking conditions, the non retail tenant mix, manoeuvrability and orientation. This revealed that retailing activities were a major driver of attractiveness for an urban place. The practical implication of these findings suggests that place marketing activities should be proactive in supporting and enabling retailers in fulfilling their roles

Examining the role of store design on consumers’ cross-sectional perceptions of retail brand loyalty

This paper compares new and established store design prototypes of the same retailer to examine the role of consumers’ cross-sectional perceptions of retail brand loyalty. In-store surveys were administered to capture consumers’ store-level perceptions towards a new store prototype and an older established prototype of the same fast fashion retailer. The data was subjected to multi-group analyzes with structural equations modeling. The findings suggest that store novelty and complexity promote both store design pleasure and retail brand loyalty outcomes. The different store designs do not, however, account for differences in brand loyalty perceptions at the overall retailer level when multi-group comparisons of both store designs are made. Consumers of newer store designs are found to possess a heightened sensitivity to price perceptions. Managerial implications of the effects of store novelty and complexity on retail brand loyalty are also presented

Internet or store? An ethnographic study of consumers' internet and store-based grocery shopping practices

Drawing on practice theory, this paper develops an understanding of the interrelationships between where and when consumers shop (the internet, stores, and their preferred retailers), and what they purchase (via the internet and in-store). Ethnographic case studies are presented of two consumers’ internet and store-based shopping practices, and how these intersect with their everyday lives, using data generated from multiple, complementary methods over an eighteen-month period. To this end, the paper contributes to the extant internet grocery shopping literature by offering a wider understanding of internet usage, as well as to broader debates surrounding retail change and shopping practices. The managerial implications of internet shopping on the contemporary retail grocery environment are also described and discussed

Place Marketing and Urban Retail Agglomerations: An examination of shoppers' place attractiveness perceptions

This article approaches the perceptions of shoppers towards urban retail agglomerations from the perspective of place marketing. Acknowledging that place marketers need to be mindful of how place users can be best fulfilled, this research conceptualises the agglomeration as a place marketing site. The literature reveals the role of place users, in particular the retail customers, in the place formation process. As such, an evaluation framework proposes antecedents of (retail-related) place attractiveness in order to understand what the key drivers of this behaviour are. An empirical study is presented involving almost 500 face-to-face interviews of shoppers at the time they visit a town centre. The results show that the retail tenant mix and the atmosphere influence attractiveness most significantly. Critical reflection of the literature, with respect to the empirical findings, reveals the crucial necessity to understand and integrate the place user’ s point of view into the concept of place marketing. This research addresses a gap in the literature on place marketing, focusing on place users ’ perceptions as opposed to the dominant theme of place actor’ s strategic needs

Conceptualising and measuring consumer-based brand–retailer–channel equity

This paper presents a critical review and synthesis of the extant literature which underscores the complexities of conceptualising and measuring the synergies created by brand, retailer, and channel equity. To this end, the concept of Consumer-based Brand–Retailer–Channel Equity (CBBRCE) is developed. The concept and its measurement are subsequently tested empirically using survey data and structural equation modelling with path-PLS. The results confirm that CBBRCE is created by CBBRC Awareness, Quality and Loyalty. The paper concludes with a discussion of the managerial implications of CBBRCE, and signals areas for further academic research

Extending the Theory of Planned Behavior to examine the role of anticipated negative emotions on channel intention: The case of an embarrassing product

The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is successful in predicting consumer intentions for a wide variety of products and behaviors. However, little is known about how effective the TPB is when the behavior under study is embarrassing. To this end, this paper extends the TPB to create a conceptual model to examine the role of anticipated negative emotions on channel intention. An empirical study was conducted whereby the model was tested using survey data on the purchase of Regaine (a hair loss product that is embarrassing to buy) in Boots (a well-known UK multichannel drugstore). The embarrassing nature of Regaine created differences in the importance that emotions played when consumers intend to purchase using face-to-face channels (such as the physical drugstore) as against multichannel options or the internet. The results were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The effectiveness of the TPB was improved. The variance explained (R2to intention) was 0.44% for the total sample, 49% for the drugstore, 58.4% for the internet, and 42.5% for multichannel

Consumer vulnerability and the transformative potential of Internet shopping: An exploratory case study

Ten million individuals in the UK who suffer from long-term illness, impairments or disability can be considered as vulnerable consumers (Office for Disability Issues, 2010). Despite this, there are few studies on the use of the Internet for grocery shopping by the disabled and none which offers an understanding of the multiple facets of consumer vulnerability. The purpose of this study is to contextualise the use of the Internet for grocery shopping using an exploratory case to provide fresh insights into the 'actual' vulnerability of "Danni" – a disabled housewife and mother. The consumer focussed methods used here were combined multiple complementary approaches. The findings illustrate that whilst the use of the Internet reduces the impracticalities of shopping in-store, the normalcy afforded to Danni through shopping in-store (including her sense of self) was not met by the technological offerings. The paradoxes associated with using online provision and the strategies adopted to manage these by Danni demonstrate engagement/disengagement and assimilation/isolation. Policy implications and insights for retailers are provided

The food superstore revolution: changing times, changing research agendas in the UK

This paper considers the changing scope of research into UK food superstores over a 30-year period. Rather than catalogue changing market shares by format, we seek instead to show how change links to national policy agendas. Academic research has evolved to address the growing complexities of the social, technological, economic and political impacts of the superstore format. We exemplify this by tracing the progression of retail change in Portsmouth, Hampshire, over 30 years. We discover that academic research can conflict with the preconceptions of some public policymakers. The position is exacerbated by a progressive decline in public information – and a commensurate rise in factual data held by commercial data companies – that leaves policymakers with a choice of which data to believe. This casts a shadow over the objectivity of macro-policy as currently formulated. Concerns currently arise because the UK Competition Commission (2008 but ongoing) starts each inquiry afresh with a search for recent data. Furthermore, it has recently called for changes to retail planning – the very arena in which UK superstore research commenced