Journal of Retailing最新文献

To accommodate consumers’ increasing demand for access convenience and immediacy, big-box grocery retailers have started to rethink their store formats – adding small-box proximity stores to complement their traditional large-size super- and hypermarkets. Building on a unique data set covering all proximity-store openings in 60+ geographic markets in France by Carrefour, one of the world's largest big-box grocery retailers, the authors adopt an Empirics-First approach to investigate whether, and in what settings, opening proximity stores cannibalizes, or rather acts synergistically with, the retail chain's existing on- and off-line operations. In most markets, small box stores affect the parent store's market position. However, there is considerable heterogeneity in terms of both the channel that is affected (off- or online) and the direction of that impact (positive or negative). The authors identify several contingency factors that help explain this heterogeneity. Interestingly, some location factors that are commonly believed to nurture proximity store appeal turn out to be detrimental to the chain's overall on- and/or offline performance. Even though the authors reveal several novel insights and identify various contingency factors, numerous questions remain unanswered. To that extent, the authors conclude with a research agenda that may help shed insight in how to maintain and strengthen brick-and-mortar store relevance to convenience-seeking customers.

In global markets, branded material and symbolic artifacts are curated in patterned ways to replicate and scale retail experience. We apply a structures of common difference framework to show how global brands can be strategically localized through in-store curations within specific physical locations. This localized globalization deploys familiar global brands in ways that feel authentically local and idiosyncratically intimately connected with many and varied retail instantiations (glocal). We underscore that global-local reciprocity is critical and the SCD work for global and local brands. We affirm that global brands give local retailers a steady stream of compelling merchandise connecting the local to global markets, and conversely, local content stabilizes global brands’ connections to communities and physical stores. This recursive relationship feeds into an overarching global common form that celebrates local diversity and supports the interlocking identities of brands and customers.

An increasingly competitive retail landscape, new technological innovations, and evolving consumer needs present challenges and opportunities for physical stores. To maintain a competitive advantage, brick-and-mortar retailers must leverage the store environment to curate a captivating experience that cannot be emulated online. Drawing on the competencies that differentiate physical stores from their digital counterparts, as well as evolving consumer expectations, the current research identifies three levers that managers should use to design pleasurable shopping experiences in stores of the future. First, managers can increase their focus on sensory elements (e.g., visuals, scents, sounds, haptics, taste) and use these elements to curate pleasurable, multisensory in-store experiences. Second, managers should consider gravitating from the current one-size-fits-all approach to atmospherics in favor of environments that are personalized and customizable to suit individual consumer tastes. Finally, managers can re-evaluate employee responsibilities, make space for customer-to-customer interactions, and host in-store events to offer optimal levels of interpersonal interaction. After highlighting marketplace examples that provide initial evidence of each lever, individual level factors that likely moderate the effects of each lever on the in-store experience are discussed. Finally, future research opportunities are identified.

Retail sales has consistently faced threats by technology throughout history, with the recent advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) posing the most recent challenge. It is often said that because of new technologies, retail salespeople will disappear. In this article, we challenge this assertion by arguing that humans and technology each possess unique strengths and weaknesses, and that each works to affect the customer experience in distinct ways. Specifically, AI elevates the baseline customer experience by improving service consistency, operational efficiency, and multitasking capabilities, thereby “raising the floor” of the customer experience while human salespeople, possessing unique strengths in building customer relationships, showcasing adaptive creativity, and adhering to ethical considerations, expand the upper limits of potential customer experiences thereby “raising the ceiling” of the customer experience. We propose a synergistic future where AI and human salespeople complement each other, with human potential ultimately prevailing in delivering a superior customer experience that can be approximated, but not fully replicated by AI. Building upon this premise, we present real-world examples of retailers that embody these synergies, and we advocate and assess these instances through the lens of the “seven Cs” representing core customer experience needs: (1) curation, (2) customization, (3) community, (4) cost, (5) customer retailtainment, (6) convenience, and (7) category expertise. Finally, we discuss managerial considerations and propose directions for future research.

Spurred on by the transition to omnichannel retailing and advances in technology, retail delivery process has seen many innovations in recent years. The delivery process, broadly defined, is the set of tasks needed to deliver the product from the retailer to the final consumer. Innovations pertain to modes of delivery, locations of delivery, and trade-offs between delivery speed and delivery charges. We attempt to build a typology of innovations and their use, and summarize their potential costs and benefits to retailers and consumers. It is easily seen that many of the innovations can be labor saving for retailers. But there has been little evidence on consumer reactions. For this purpose, we conduct a national survey to examine the likelihood of adoption of a number of innovations in delivery. We find that although overall interest in these innovations is not high at this early stage, there is a significantly large segment of customers who are more likely to adopt these innovations. These customers are predominantly millennials, have higher incomes, and they are tech-savvy, innovative, environmentally conscious, and value quality. The findings suggest that retailers need to be strategic about choosing targets for successfully propagating these innovations.

The retail landscape has undergone substantial disruption due to the rise of powerful online retailers and fast-evolving customer demand. This shift has prompted a need to redefine the role of physical stores as platforms for unique shopping experiences and customer interactions. In this paper, we introduce the concept of groundedness into the retailing literature. We develop a framework describing how retailers can provide value through groundedness. Specifically, the framework outlines three domains— (1) store design, (2) assortment, and (3) events—to facilitate the connection between customers and three pillars of groundedness—connections to (a) place, (b) people, and (c) past. Our guidelines and suggested interventions assist retailing practitioners and scholars in creating physical store environments that satisfy customers’ need for groundedness. We argue that evoking feelings of groundedness in physical stores benefits customers, salespeople, and retailers. We specifically highlight how retailing groundedness can enhance customers’ shopping experience, brand perception, as well as loyalty. Furthermore, we discuss how these effects on customers, combined with store associates’ greater job satisfaction, can benefit retailers.

This conceptual article explores why consumers visit physical stores—despite living in a digital-first world—and presents potential ways for retailers to further encourage offline shopping. Although online retailing tends to offer the greatest convenience, brick-and-mortar outlets can offer an immersive in-store experience that combines convenience and interest. The present exposition considers store features within a 2 × 2 typology of convenience and interest and illustrates how these features contribute, or fail to contribute, to immersive in-store experiences. Other factors, such as ambient stimuli that elicit sensory- and aesthetic pleasure, provide additional paths to immersion. The notions raised may serve as a basis for future research avenues in immersive retailing.

Due to digital innovations, retailing is undergoing radical changes. Scholars have proposed frameworks to address outcomes of implementing technology e.g., an increased customer experience, efficiency gains, consumer or employee acceptance. Existing frameworks concentrate primarily on the consumer perspective, focus on specific technologies (e.g., AI) and covering the customer journey. In contrast, this paper also focuses on the employee perspective, and how technology influences the employee journey. Since the convenience offered by online retailers puts offline retailers under pressure, this research focuses on in-store technology. Based on a comprehensive review of managerial and academic literature and expert interviews, we propose a framework covering customers and employees, and technology's function (increasing efficiency or experience), as also including more traditional and newer technologies, such as robots and AI. We identify and showcase technologies increasing efficiency for customers (quadrant 1, e.g., checkout options or autonomous stores) or for employees (quadrant 2, e.g., in-store robots), and enhancing the experience for customers (quadrant 3, e.g., retailer apps or communication) or for employees (quadrant 4, e.g., exoskeletons or smart wearables). Finally, for each of these quadrants, we identify future research opportunities.