Understanding retail strategy and shopping behaviour: Perspectives from a developing country
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Date
2012
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Publisher
Academic Journals
Abstract
This research indicates that in order for retailers to achieve their primary objective of increasing the
amount of customer traffic into their stores, some powerful, highly effective and strategic tools that
retailers possess need to be utilised in an effective manner – in order to meet their objectives. This
research has been developed to examine the strategies that retailers can utilise – in order to influence
the customers’ preference to shop in their stores. From the multitude of strategic choices available for
each decision, a retailer can choose any combination. A survey was conducted, in order to collect data
on customer behaviour, recruiting, store design, retail marketing, Supply chain management (SCM),
customer relationship management (CRM) – as well as a few other criteria – in the South African retail
sector. This descriptive study establishes whether a retailer who makes an initial choice about which
strategy to implement, complies with the existing understanding on the customers’ preferences.
Patterns and trends were detected when studying the determinants of various strategic retail
combinations for retailers. The data indicated asymmetric evaluations of choices, in combination with a
few distinct patterns. Additionally, a few associations between store preferences and price were
identified with specific locations for the customers. Some combinations are more alike than others; and
a concern exists that the pricing strategy in isolation fails to portray a complete picture. The study
reveals that retailers should be more customer-focused; while at the same time, providing the requisite
skills to their employees, in order to retain their existing customers, and to attract new customers.
Description
Keywords
Retailers, Customers, Merchandise, Retail management, Consumer behaviour
Citation
Naicker, V. & Brijlal, P. (2012). Understanding retail strategy and shopping behaviour: Perspectives from a developing country. African Journal of Business Management, 6(22): 6471-6479