Journal of Retailing最新文献

Virtual reality (VR) has grown in popularity and technological ability, offering wider potential for retailers to immerse consumers in branded experiences. On the industry side, experts argue that integration of olfactory cues is the next big development for VR as such cues have the potential to improve immersion – the feeling of being ‘plugged into’ the experience – and possibly elicit positive brand responses. Despite its promise, integration of olfactory cues also has its challenges, such as financial costs and conflicting evidence of their effects in traditional retail contexts. Unfortunately, research has yet to explore the integration of olfactory cues in VR and offer insight to retailers and scholars. To address this deficit, this research builds upon the concept of immersion and integrates flow theory to explore the interplay and additive nature of olfactory stimuli and VR. We employ four studies using a variety of both ambient (i.e., actual scents) and imagined (i.e., prompted through description) olfactory cues in field (i.e., Facebook A/B testing), online, and laboratory settings. Our findings show through both measured mediation and moderation that in retail-centric VR environments, the presence (vs. absence) of olfactory cues heightens immersion. In turn, immersion elicits flow, which improves brand responses. Our research contributes to the sensory marketing and VR literatures and offers recommendations to retailers seeking to build or expand their VR strategies.

This research examines how frontline retail employees respond to customers whom they think might write an online review about their experience. Across six experiments (one field and five online) we show that when employees identify potential online review authors, often by what the customer says or does, it catalyzes them to deliver better service. This ensues because they experience a rise in determination to do well, motivated by the prospect of being associated with a positive review, which they believe will impress the retailer. Thus, they go ‘above and beyond’. However, determination is tempered by two boundary conditions. When employees (i) do not consider that being associated with an online review is beneficial (i.e., not goal relevant) or (ii) feel poorly equipped to serve the customer (i.e., low in self-efficacy), then a better service delivery will not occur. We also show that retailers can enhance customer service through internal championing of the importance of online reviews, so long as this is framed as promotional rather than punitive.

Despite substantial research focusing on retail atmospheric elements and the creation of social atmospheres, a holistic theory of atmosphere addressing consumer heterogeneity remains elusive. This research examines how embodied interactions with retail socio-material elements and consumers’ expertise levels create affective atmospheres. Through a three-year-long ethnographic study of winery tours, we identify three core elements in the co-creation of affective atmospheres: material features, sensory modalities, and social interactions. We use text mining to build corresponding dictionaries and analyze customer review data from several retail sites, demonstrating the positive effect of retail atmospherics on customer sentiment. Focusing on consumer segmentation, we further show that different levels of consumer expertise (novices, enthusiasts, and experts) influence the subjective perception of atmospheric elements and the way staff members are expected to behave to jointly create affective atmospheres. Based on our multi-method findings, we offer theoretical and managerial implications that are generalizable to broader retailing contexts.

Due to rapid technological developments, the metaverse is quickly garnering attention from all areas of retailing. With a projected market of $800 billion by 2024, the metaverse is expected to radically reshape retailing in the digital world. However, very little is known about the metaverse from a customer, retailer, or brand perspective.

This article summarizes how the metaverse has been conceptualized thus far in the literature and the popular press. The authors offer a new conceptualization of the metaverse that contains four distinct dimensions: online collaboration, high consumer immersion, unique digital assets, and digital personas.

Considering that the technologies currently used to provide high consumer immersion (e.g., augmented reality, virtual reality) and unique digital assets (e.g., blockchain technology) are not fully developed or commercialized, the authors also propose the concept of a transitory metaverse to understand the current stage of metaverse development better.

The authors conclude by providing 27 directions for future research based on a full factorial of how the metaverse dimensions amplify three customer touchpoints in the digital experience (digital economic exchange, complex social relationships, direct environment interaction) for the three main stakeholders of any retailing exchange (consumers, retailers, brands) along the entire customer journey (pre-purchase, purchase, post-purchase).

Customer waits are commonplace in retail settings. To develop efficient wait management strategies, retailers need insights into how customers respond to waiting during service encounters. An intuitive insight supported by extensive research is that a longer wait duration decreases customer satisfaction. However, the same wait duration might have different effects on customers depending on whether it is shorter or longer than what customers expected. To address this question, we draw upon the research on time value and predict asymmetry in the customer satisfaction response to waiting shorter versus longer than expected: Though the clock is often said to be ticking, waiting longer than expected leads to a minor decrease in satisfaction, whereas waiting shorter than expected substantially increases satisfaction. We provide evidence for this asymmetric effect across three studies and identify two boundary conditions: if the source of the expectation is external (e.g., wait time estimate provided by the retailer) or if the wait is much longer than expected. Overall, our research encourages retailers to put the customer response to waiting into perspective: Customers will tolerate waiting longer than expected, up to a certain point.

Understanding the complexity of institutional factors in host countries and adapting strategies accordingly is crucial for international retailers, given the high failure rate of global operations. This paper investigates the impact of formal institutions (i.e., legal environments) and informal institutions (i.e., cultural values) on the performance of international retailers. We analyzed the data on 144 international retailers and 565 subsidiaries owned by these retailers, using three measures of retailer performance: sales per square meter, return on equity, and Tobin's Q. Our findings show that retailer performance is influenced by the interactions of the host country's rule of law and three cultural dimensions. Specifically, strong rule of law enhances the performance of international retailers in host countries, especially with high power distance or high uncertainty avoidance. In highly collectivistic countries, retailers can also build strong relationships to govern transactions. Results provide key insights that explain international retailers’ performance in different countries and deliver guidelines for retailer strategies.