Chapter 3, Retailing

Retail Customers Customer satisfaction: focuses on the total experience, which includes customer services

Market Segmentation: identifying customer groups with similar characteristics

Walmart

• brand aspirationals (low income, obsessed with brands)
• price sensitive affluents
• value-price shoppers

• Social Trends
• Economic Trends
• Population Trends

all impact consumer behavior. Why ?

Population Trends

• growth (Growth allows retailer growth without focus on increasing market share, store productivity, or margins.)
• age (Examine differences between Boomers, Gen Xers, and Gen Ys How do these differences impact their consumer behavior ?)
• ethnic makeup
• geography (mobility)

How are Generation Y consumers different from other consumers ?

What is the impact on retailers ?

Ethnic trends, and how they are shifting.

• How do those shifts impact the retail environment ?
• Why is the hispanic population in the US growing faster than the African American population ? What are the implications ?
• Look at how this becomes concentrated in specific geographic areas.

Geography, also look at location of customers, how do they travel to the store etc.

Social Trends

• census.gov
• Education
• state of marriage
• household makeup
• work

How do each impact the retail environment ?

Economic Trends

• income (Bentley versus Honda in the UK; Payroll tax and its disproportionate impact on Walmart customers)
• savings
• women in labor force (more income in household, need more convenient shopping hours)
• use of credit (advances like Square)

How do each impact the retail environment ?

Disposable income versus discretionary income.

Consumer Shopping and Purchasing Model

Stimulus > Problem Recognition > Information Gathering > Evaluate Alternatives > Purchase > Post Purchase Evaluation

How has the maturation of the internet, and mobile, impacted this model ?

Degree of Consumer Problem Solving:

Retailer Preference: Strong versus Weak

Strong Brand Preference: Habitual Problem Solving; Limited Problem Solving

Weak Brand Preference: Limited Problem Solving; Extended Problem Solving