This exploration of cross-border shopping by Mexican national shoppers at a regional discount outlet mall studies the: (1) economic impacts of their expenditures on the local and regional economies, and (2) activities they engage in while at the outlet malls and benefits received from shopping there. Spending by cross-border shoppers varied by accommodation type; hotels or motels/friends and family spent approximately $800 (U.S.) on clothing daily and condominiums/day visitors between $400 and $475 (U.S.). The multiplier for cross-border spending at the local level ranged from 1.27 to 1.45. Top cross-border shopper activities were shopping and buying, followed by eating, and visiting.
The topic of shopping as a leisure activity is the subject of exploration in travel research (Law and Au, 2000 and Tosun et al., 2007). It is evident that consumers willingly combine shopping with vacations, holidays, and trips during their work-related travel (Ghaddar and Brown, 2005 and Timothy and Butler, 1995). Tourists choose to travel outside of their usual environment for leisure activities (Govers et al., 2008). Specifically, tourists who travel to another country’s border for the explicit purpose of shopping are known as cross shoppers. Cross border shopping (i.e., shopping that is done outside a geographic location) has occurred for centuries and gained popularity ( Oh et al., 2004 and Robertson and Fennell, 2007). Henceforth, research confirms that cross border shopping and major leisure activities are an important part of travel ( Law and Au, 2000). Previous literature on cross border shopping has also pointed out characteristics of cross border shoppers and identified them as consumers who belong to higher income groups, have fewer children living at home, and have negative attitudes towards the products sold in their local area ( Herrman and Belk, 1968 and Rosenbaum and Spears, 2005). It is important to understand if and how cross-border contributes to the vitality of U.S. retail sector and communities.
Given the close proximity of Mexico and the U.S., cross border shopping has become a notable feature. Literature on cross border shopping has been interchangeably used as the phenomenon of ‘outshopping' (Guo and Wang, 2009). Outshopping occurs when consumers leave their local community to purchase goods or services (Sullivan and Savitt, 1997). When consumers leave a community to shop, retail sales leakage occurs in the communities where consumers live (Burns et al., 1999 and Sullivan and Savitt, 1997). In their recent study, Guo and Wang (2009) refer to outshopping as shopping outside one’s local community for various reasons such as to obtain better quality merchandise at relatively competitive price points and pleasant shopping environment. Although research stream on cross border shopping or outshopping has eventually matured, there remains a need to understand comprehensive relationships associated with cross-border “visitor” shopping behavior. This study attempts to focus on various relationships associated with travel and shopping. The advantages of this study are two-fold. First, information discovered in this exploratory study will generate additional constructs to examine an in-depth study of visitor cross-border shopping. Second, this exploratory probes geographically focused consumer spending and its contribution to economic development at the local and regional level.
This exploratory study specifically examines the topic within the context of cross-border shopping which occurs when consumers cross an international boundary into a geographically adjacent country for the purpose of shopping (Sullivan and Kang, 1997 and Timothy, 1995). Mexican national shoppers at a regional discount outlet mall were used to understand the proposed research objectives in this study. The Mexican shoppers were interviewed regarding information about: (1) economic impacts of their expenditures on the local and regional economies, and (2) activities they engaged in while at the outlet malls and benefits received from shopping there.
