- Introduction
Customers are increasingly becoming sophisticated in terms of their demand for businesses’ products and services. In addition, not only is the modern day customer concerned about the basic nature of a service or a product but also goes beyond to look for more convenience and added-value for their money. In that respect, businesses find themselves today in a need to address various factors in order to develop themselves as brands of choice and retail stores have not been left be hide. Therefore there has been a growing need for retail stores to address diverse factors even beyond the marketing mix elements. In that respect, the analysis of the factors that influence customers’ selection of retail stores becomes the subject of this study. To achieve this, the study begins by providing a statement of the problem that is to be analyzed and then proceeds to provide the purpose of the study. The study then provides a literature review where the existing theories and academic explanations of the situation are reviewed for their view on the issue. The analysis also identifies and defines the 14 factors that are to be analyzed for their influence and the research method to be used explained with a rationale for its choice. Further, the analysis provides an analysis of the collected data as well as a discussion of the study and analysis findings explaining the significance of the study. Finally, the analysis provides recommendations for the best practice in the retail industry in respect to the findings and provides the concluding remarks. (McGoldrick, 2002)
- Statement of the problem
Retail markets face a difficulty in identifying the most influential factors when it comes to customers’ attraction. This is due to the fact that there are several factors that play part in the selection ranging from those related to their products, services as well as those related to the store as a brand. Therefore the difficulty of identifying the most crucial factors is the problem that the study seeks to solve by identifying them by their influence. (Miller, 2011)
- Purpose of the study
The purpose of the study is to identify those factors that are most influential in determining customers’ selection of retail stores. This will help narrow down to the factors that the retailers should pay much attention to among the many factors that customers take into consideration hence enhancing the stores efficiency and effectiveness in attracting customers. (McGoldrick, 2002)
- Literature review
Retail stores were traditionally not subject to fierce competition as had been other businesses. However, with increasing changes in the business landscape with retail business has becoming a great choice for consumers shopping; the businesses have equally sought to enhance their competitiveness in order to capture a significant market share by cutting a niche for their operations. In this respect, the existing market knowledge for retail stores has greatly focused on the traditional marketing P’s with the four marketing mix of the product, pricing, promotion and place being the focus. Product positioning has been taken as the basis of customer attraction where retailers have sought to attract customers by positioning their products through features that reflect the value that customers seek for. In respect to pricing, the retail marketing has focused on providing goods at affordable prices as a way of attracting their customers. (McGoldrick, 2002) Therefore the cost factor and the profit margin has been the key focus of retail pricing. Further, promotion has been focused on due to its ability to inform and persuade customers to buy and adopt different brands. In that respect, retail marketers have been engaged in extensive promotion campaigns ranging from advertising, point of sale promotions to the packaging. On the other hand, retailers have adopted use of retail stores as means of distributing their products as well as online distribution which is currently becoming popular with technological advance. Therefore, with a current market focus on the four marketing mix elements, there is a need to test whether there are other factors that could be more influential in determining customer selection that they do. (Miller, 2011)
- Factors identification and definition
The study identifies 14 key factors to be analyzed for their influence on the customers’ selection of a retail store. The factors are all related to the stores, products and services and are identified as well as defined as below.
Location: Location refers to the place where the retail store is situated and its influence as to the customers’ selection depends on aspects like proximity, accessibility, convenience as well the location’s attractiveness to the customers.
Quality: Quality is defined by the value that a product or service delivers to the client and its suitability in serving the intended purpose. It is a great determiner of customers’ choice for goods and services as well as where they get them.
Price: It is the monetary value that is placed for a product or service hence a determinant of their affordability as well as attractiveness to customers relative to their value. Price should be a good representation of a good’s or service value in the eyes of the customer hence a great determiner of a stores selection.
Service: Service provision in a store in terms of the quality of service that customers buy as well as the added service after products’ sale defines how attractive the store is to the customers. Therefore, service must reflect value to customers for it to be attractive.
Product assortment: It determines the availability of a variety of quality products which determines the client’s convenience in terms of accessing varied products and services to choose from. In that respect, the stores’ ability to provide assorted products define its attractiveness to customers.
Promotion: It refers to the activities and strategies applied by a business in a bid to recruit customers through informing and persuasion. Such strategies include advertisement, public relations, sample promotions and point of sale promotions as well as packaging. It determines the information that customers have about the retail stores as well as their goods and services.
Parking facilities: Parking facilities are great determiners of customers’ convenience while shopping in a certain retail store. Adequate parking facilities mean more convenience hence attracting customers while lack of the facilities could deters customers’ selection of the store. (McGoldrick, 2002)
Store’s size: The store’s size determines the convenience of the customers shopping as well as the ability to accommodate more goods and services hence providing a variety of choices for a customer making it a factor in their selection for a retail store.
Opening hours: Opening and operating hours for a retail store define convenience that different customers have in shopping there. In that respect, customers who have a preference for early shopping would prefer a store that opens early and those who shop late would prefer a store that closes late. Therefore a store that has a suitable timing for operating hours for its target markets tends to attract more customers.
Security: Security measures applied within a retail store defines how the customer perceives their safety when shopping in the store and plays a great role in determining their choice of where to shop. This refers to the physical security relating to the customers themselves and as well as the safety of the goods and products offered at the store.
Loyalty: It defines the customers’ commitment to a business or brand that makes them return customers as well as develop prevalence over competitors. The loyalty is built over time depending on the customers’ perception of how well the business serves their needs and the value they derive relative to what they get from competitors. (Miller, 2011)
Brand: A brand is the perception that customers have about a business or products and the value it represents. This is highly determined by how the business is positioned in respect to its target market and the brand image it seeks to create. A successful brand has customers wanting to identify with it hence more attraction than a brand that has not achieved appropriate brand equity in terms of customer’s loyalty to warrant such attraction.
Store design: A store design defines the arrangement of its facilities hence determining the clients’ convenience when shopping around which is greatly marked by a stores’ layout.
Atmosphere: The stores atmosphere defines the customers comfort while shopping around hence its ability to determine their selection of where they shop. A store that provides good atmosphere in terms of physical atmosphere and the customer service attracts more customers while a bad atmosphere drives away customers. (Kotler, 2003)
- Research method
The survey was done through collection of market data from a selected sample that represents the retail store customers.
Sampling
The survey’s data was collected from a sample that was picked at random in order to be representative and avoid a bias.
Data collection:
- In data collection, the survey applied primary data collection where a questionnaire was used due to its ease in terms of budget and time that it would take to get the data from the market. The questionnaire used had 35 questions covering the various aspects of the 14 factors being analyzed and the respondents’ answers were in form of linker scale with choices for answers in Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree and Strongly Agree. (Converese & Preser, 1986)
Procedure
- The questionnaire was given to 15 people selected from the University community who represents a target market for the retail stores within and in the area surrounding the university and had the respondents fill in and return the questionnaires through an online platform. (Parasuraman, 1986)
Limitations and delimitations
Although questionnaire is a good method of primary data collection, it has limitations like the budget limitations as it requires funds to prepare the questionnaires getting them to the respondents. (Ary et al, 2010)
In addition, the survey had limitations in its use of a small sample that could not be comprehensively representative of the entire population of the retail store customers. Therefore, the analysis could not conduct a test of significant on the findings.
Suggestions for future corrections
In respect to the possible future solutions to the limitations, the survey should entail an adequate sample which is representative of the population in order to enhance the reliability of the study as well as enable a test of significance. In respect to the budget and time limits, the survey can be done with use of secondary data collection method which is ceaper and less time consuming. (Parasuraman, 1986)
- Data analysis
The data analyzed is is in reference to the questionnaire shown in Appendix 1 and the respondents statistics and responses shown inn Appendix 2. The data is analyzed in application of a multiple factor analysis method which considers the several aspects of each of the 14 factors being studied. On the matrix, the different aspects as covered in the questionnaire’s questions are represented by the question numbers. The table also indicates the number of respondents and their respective answer in the scale of strongly agree to strongly disagree. The analysis also provides calculated average for the number of respondents considering all the aspects of the factor while a percentage of each scale respondents is provided in respect to the total respondents in order to identify each response’s proportion hence identify the factors extent of influence to the customers selection of a retail store. The average as well as the percentage indicates the popularity of each factor in customers’ decision hence an identifier of how significant each is. (Sheskin, 2000)
- Discussion of results: Significant of the study
Contribution to the existing knowledge
Existing knowledge about the key factors affecting the customers selection of retail stores focuses on the four marketing mix of product, price, place as well as promotion. This has therefore left out consideration of crucial factors including service, loyalty, location and brand that the survey has demonstrated as having significant influence of the selection. Therefore, the study has significantly contributed to the existing knowledge on the factors in respect to the retail business. (McGoldrick, 2002)
Implications
The study is of great important to the retail store businesses with its clear indication of the crucial factors that they should focus on hence enhancing their ability to attract more customers and create competitive brands. This is important in the current market that is increasingly becoming competitive. (Miller, 2011)
- Summaries and Recommendations
The analysis has demonstrated service, loyalty, product, brand, location, security, and design as being among the most influential factors in customers’ selection of a retail store. Therefore, retail stores should seek to enhance their attractiveness through the following
Service: Enhance service delivery in terms of quality of service as well as its reliability in being prompt when needed. This will ensure that customers can trust to get the service when they need it. In addition, the store can enhance its competitiveness by offering after sales service.
Loyalty: Enhancing customer loyalty can be done through creation of a favorable brand that customers would want to identify with. It can also be done through some programs that seek to keep the customers hooked to the store’s service and products such as bonus and discount programs. Loyalty can also be enhanced through ensuring that customers have a variety of selection to choose from hence being assured of getting what they need.
Brand: In a bid to enhance its brand, a retail store should seek to deliver value to its customers through appropriate service and products delivery. In that respect, the stores should seek to create a favorable brand image that customers would want to identify with.
Design: The design of a store plays a key role in determining how convenient it is to shop in it hence a need for retailers to design their stores in manner that allows ease of shopping.
Security: Enhance security for customers including physical and transactional securities in order to address customers concerns that could keep them away or result into choosing a competitor.
Location: Ensure its location is convenient in respect to the target market with an example of being near the target market and having good accessibility.
References
- Ary, D., Jacobs, C. & Sorensen, C. (2010). (8th Ed.). Introduction to research in education. California: Thomson Wadsworth.
- Converse, J. & Presser, S. (1986). Survey questions: Handcrafting the standardized questionnaire. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.
- Kotler, P. (2003). Marketing Management. Florida: Free press Publishers.
- McGoldrick, P. (2002). (2nd Ed.). Retail Marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
- Miller, D. (2011). Retail Marketing: A Branding and Innovative Approach. Alabama: Tide University.
- Parasuraman, A. (1986). Marketing Research. New York: Addison-Wesley.
- Sheskin, D. (2000). (2nd Ed.). Handbook of parametric and nonparametric statistical
procedures. Boca Raton: Chapman & Hall/CRC.
Appendix1. Survey Questions
- I will select a retail store if they provide information about their product
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I will select a retail store if its product is packing
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I will select a retail store if its product performance is provided
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I will select a retail store if its product has a great quality
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I will select a retail store if its product has competitive advantage than others.
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I will select a retail store if its product is one of the most considerations of any customers
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I will select a retail store if its quality matches with a high price
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I will select a retail store if its price is one of the most incentives to but any products
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I will get in to a retail store if it has a discount on its prices
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I get in to a retail store if it locates on a main street
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I get in to a retail store if it locates near my home
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I select a retail store if it locates in a mall
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I would be interested in visiting a retail store if it offers promotion
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I am attracted to the market segment promotion
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I purchase many items when promotion exists
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I would like to get notifications about a certain brand when promotion happens
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I am interested to visit the retail store if its size is large
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I get into a retail store if the parking size is huge
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I am not interested with a huge retail store
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I select a retail store if it has clean, attractive, and convenient public areas (fitting room)
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I visit a retail store if the layout of the store makes it easy for customers to move around the store
SD disagree neutral agree SA
.
- Size doesn’t matter when I visit a retail store.
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I visit a retail store if I am happy with the physical condition of parks provided by the store
SD disagree neutral agree SA
.
- I visit a retail store if I find a spot to park my car
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I select a retail store if it has plenty of convenient parking for customers.
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I select a retail store if I find safe transactions (credit card payment)
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I feel safe while visiting a retail store.
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I find the store secure in term of structure, monitoring cameras and security man.
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I prefer a retail store that promise to do something by a certain time it will do so.
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I select a retail store if it has operating hours convenient to all customers.
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I select a retail store if it opens 24 hours.
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I would to switch brands if an alternative brand was cheaper.
SD disagree neutral agree SA
- I would to switch brands if an alternative brand's product was of better quality or effectiveness
SD disagree neutral agree SA
.
- I would to switch brands if an alternative brand offered more promotions or added value
SD disagree neutral agree SA
.
- I would to switch brands if an alternative brand was sold in a more convenient location
SD disagree neutral agree SA
Appendix 2. Survey Data.
