An empirical test of experiential shopping in food retailing
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the influence of shopping experience on consumer satisfaction shown in non‐food retail sectors has a similar effect in food retailing, specifically with large‐scale grocery retailers. The paper also investigates differences in shopping experience and its effect across different retail settings.
Design/methodology/approach
An empirical study of a customer satisfaction database combining satisfaction with store attributes across several large‐scale grocery retailers in the specialty, traditional, and discount sectors. Hierarchal regression is used to meaure the effect of a composite shopping experience index on overall satisfaction, after controlling for basic economic factors of food shopping such as product quality, assortment, availability, and prices.
Findings
There was support for three hypotheses, suggesting that: food shopping experience effects overall consumer satisfaction for grocery retailers; shopping experience varies across different grocery retail settings; and the effect of food shopping experience on consumer satisfaction varies across grocery retail settings.
Research limitations/implications
Data report a single point in time and aggregate measures. Guidance is provided for food retailers wanting to further develop shopping experience to impact consumer satisfaction.
Originality/value
The paper gives important empirical support for the influence of shopping experience on customer satisfaction for large‐scale grocery retailers and across various retail settings.
Keywords
Citation
Lang, M. and Hooker, N.H. (2013), "An empirical test of experiential shopping in food retailing", British Food Journal, Vol. 115 No. 5, pp. 639-652. https://doi.org/10.1108/00070701311331553
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited